ANNUAL ACTIVITY REPORT - Fundatia...

ANNUAL ACTIVITY REPORT 2009

Romanian Children’s Relief /

Inocenti Foundation

Content

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Foreword

Annual Activity Report 2009

Introduction

Child Life Program, Bucharest

Child Life Program, Bistrita

“Me and My Family” Program

“Early Literacy” Program

Inocenti “Early Intervention Program”

Scholastic and Social Integration of Roma Children

Other Events

Trainings

Financial Bearings

Structure

Map of the Inocenti Foundation Services in Romania 2009

Inocenti Foundation map of services in Bistrita Nasaud County 2009

Romanian Children’s Relief/FundaŃia InocenŃi USAEileen McHenry, Director Executiv

11 Latisquama Road, Southborough, MA, 01772Tel: 508-303-6299, Fax:508-303-6299

Email: [email protected]: www.rcr.org

Marin Mic, Executiv DirectorMihai Eminescu Street, nr. 2, bl.16, Sc.D, Et. 4, Ap.70

Bistrita-Nasaud, Romania, 420076 Phone/Fax 0263-236368, Phone: 0363-102407

Working center: Toamnei Street, nr.1, Bistrita, Bistrita-Nasaud CountyPhone/Fax: 0363/102406

Email: [email protected]: www.inocenti.ro

Inocenţi Foundation Iuliana Tudor, Program Manager

The Playroom: IOMC Prof. Dr. Alfred Rusescu HospitalB-dul Lacul Tei 120, Sector 2, Bucharest, CP 72309

Phone: 0745.14.19.45Email: [email protected]

Valentina Maghirescu, M.EdDirector of Development

Office: Pictor Gh. Tattarescu 4,Bl. P1, Apt. 57, Sector 3, Bucharest

Phone: 0751.24.22.82Email: [email protected]

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December, 2009

Dear Friends,

This year was a difficult one for families and children in need all over the world. As the world’s economies came to a screeching halt, poverty rates increased in most every coun-try on the Globe. But despite these challenging times, with increasing needs and declining resources, Inocenti Founda-tion/RCR has had a successful year – more successful than any of us could have predicted.

Our success is thanks to our hundreds of dedicated staff, board members, collaborators, donors and volunteers, who have risen to the challenge and done more with less. They’ve given even more when asked. This report details the many ways in which our staff and volunteers have helped over 2000 Romanian children and families in the year 2009. It also tells the story of the donors and volunteers who joined us in this effort. What is harder to convey, is the impact that each of our efforts have had on an individual child and family – and how this coming together to assist families in need has helped to build solid sense of community.

How do you measure the value of this collective effort when one of our staff provides material supports so that a poor family can enroll their child in school? Is it even possible to gauge the response of the public to special trainings we fa

cilitated and publicize in order to pre-vent shaken baby syndrome? Who would have thought a year ago, that our first Bucharest Gala would feature an incredible performance donated by Romanian Pop Legend, Loredana Groza?

As a professional photographer, I’ve come to understand that messages, which are difficult to put into words, can sometimes be more easily conveyed by images. I hope as you read this report, it will become clear to you the many ways our staff and volunteers are making life better for the children and their families, and how the Romanian commu-nities they live in, are rallying around their neighbor families and children in need.

I hope this report will inspire you to join us in our endeav-ors as a volunteer, a donor, a board member or partner, as together, we continue to work to improve the lives of Roma-nia’s children and their families.

Sincerely,

Michael CarrollPresidentRomanian Children’s Relief andInocenti Foundation

Fundatia Inocenti is among the first to have volunteer teams from our county. They chose to help children with disabilities using unconventional means, succeeding in showing us the values of innocence. Even if we say we agree that all people are born equal, we have to admit that most of the time equality of chance remains only a dream. Children with disabilities need to be understood and supported and the goal of these actions is to make us remember how childhood measures joy in a smile and love in a hug to help us admit that we always need a drop of innocence in order to feel the real life. By offering a chance to the ones who need our attention and affection, we learn to-gether what it means to be human. Special Olympics „Olimpiada Inocentilor” is one of the events initiated by this orga-nization and it represents a special way to draw our attention to less fortunate chil-dren. Every year we are witnesses to real life lessons by watching the children participate in sports contests. The will of these children to match and even excel healthy persons in the “competition of life” are moments full of profound emotion. I appreciate the importance of this gesture which can have a special impact and I support the volunteers of Fundatia Inocenti because together we can give a chance and hope to disabled children.A modern European society is one who learns to find a place for every human being, places where they can give and receive happiness. I think Fundatia Inocenti, through their projects, make important steps and have special merit in this field.

Ovidiu Teodor Creţu Mayor of Bistrita

The Inocenti Foundation is a non-Governmental, non-profit, philanthropic organization without political or religious af-filiations, whose mission is to support needy children and their families in order to have a better life. The beneficiaries of our programs are institutionalized or the post institutional-ized children, handicapped children, and Roma children.

The mission of the Inocenti Foundation is to offer help to needy children and their families in order to have a better life. The Foundation values the principles taken from the International Convention Relative on Chil-dren’s Rights.

Dear Friends,Greetings members of the board, colleagues, collaborators and volunteers. On behalf of all of us at Inocenti Foundation / RCR, I want to express our gratitude for your dedication to serving all 2000 of the children and families helped by of Inocenti Foundation /RCR in 2009.

“Family is what makes humans progress from selfishness to altruism,” says Auguste Compte. That core value of doing good, sharing friendship and joy above personal interests and sustaining hope and trust is now a twenty year tradition at Inocenti/RCR. Those values help us move forward as our work goes on with big plans for the years to come.

Inocenti Foundation/RCR really is like a big family in the service of children and families in our communities. Family, as a fundamental form of human connection, has at her base a compilation of virtues which bring us together and help us find community-based solutions for our daily problems.

Now when I review the results for 2009 I find it difficult to believe that this was supposed to be a year of crises. Instead, it is an affirmation of the Inocenti/RCR family which has overcome the crisis through generosity, friendship, solidarity with those in need, with trust and hope.

No doubt the New Year will bring new challenges for us. But from 20 years of overcoming difficulties, I know that together, dear friends, we will face the problems in a creative and positive manner, in spite of this increasingly tormented world.

Please join all of us at Inocenti Foundation/RCR as we work within the ideals that inspire one of our great founders, Michael Carroll, and all those who helped him start Inocenti/RCR 20 years ago. We will sustain Inocenti Foundation/RCR with respon-sibility, honesty and friendship, as we continue to improve the quality of life for Romanian children and families, in order to create a better world for all of us.

With friendship and honesty,Marin MICExecutive directorInocenti Foundation

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INTRODUCTION

The Inocenti Foundation carries out programs:In Bistrita, Bucharest, Beclean, Nasaud and Nimigea

The beneficiaries of the programs are children from:• Foster care, Bistrita-Nasaud County• Bistrita-Nasaud Emergency County Hospital – Pediatric Department• Bucharest “Alfred Rusescu” Pediatric Hospital , Beclean Orphanage/Placement Center, Bistrita Orphanage/Placement Center

Brief History of the Most Important Programs and Projects Carried outin 1991-2009:

1991 – Child Life program was initiated in Bucharest – IOMC “Alfred Rusescu” Hospital1998 – Child Life program was extended in Bistrita – The County Hospital2000 – Me and My Family program was initiated in Bistrita in a co-operation with the General Division for Protecting Chil-dren’s Rights2002 – The Me and My Family program was extended in Beclean and Nasaud as well2002 – A new program was furthered, the Early Literature / Education one, in Bistrita and Bucharest2004 – Me and My Family program oriented its services towards children with special needs2005 – Child Sponsorship program was initiated2006 – Early Intervention for the Deficiency Child program began, financed by French Ministry of External Affairs2006 – The beginning of The Way We Live – The Labyrinth of the Corporate Social Responsibility project with reference to the furtherance of the corporate social responsibility concept, as main partners of the Bistrita-Nasaud Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture2007 – Organized the first edition of the Olympics of the Innocents- Bistrita, May 20072007 – Participated at the Strengthening the Organizational Ability program arranged by the Partners for Local Develop-ment Foundation2007 – The opening of Day Care Centers in Nimigea and Rebrisoara2007 – The completion of The Way We Live – The Labyrinth of the Corporate Social Responsibility project with reference to the furtherance of the corporate social responsibility concept, as main partners of the Bistrita-Nasaud Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture2007 – First edition of Saint Nicholas for Deficiency Children’ Gala – December2008 - Scholastic and Social Integration of Roma Children

Programs and Projects being carried out in 20091. Child Life Program - Bucharest2. Child Life Program - Bistrita3. Me and My Family Program4. Early Literacy / Education Program5. Early Intervention for Disabled Children Program6. Scholastic and Social Integration of Roma Children

Awards A National Model of Good Practice in the Social Services in Romania – we were selected for two projects (Literacy and Early Intervention) in the 90 Practical Ideas for Making Romania More Friendly for Children – 2007 catalog drawn up by the National Authority for the Child’s Protection, Oradea 2007Selection in the Catalog for Philanthropy- Massachusetts, USA, 2004A Model of Good Practice in the Field of the Child’s Protection in Romania – the Foster Care Network – the ANPCA and USAID Na-tional Conference - Romania, 2003A Model of Good Practice in the Participating Management – The National Conference - Romania, LIFT, 2002The award for special merits in the collaboration with the local administration and the involvement in the community’s problems, offered by the City Hall of Bistrita chief town on the occasion of the Volunteer’s Day – December 5th, 2007The Excellency Award, offered by the Bistrita Dept. Social Services, December 2007

Child Life Program, Bucharest

I. INFORMATION ABOUT THE BENEFICIARIES

The goals of this pro-gram are several: to educate parents to prevent child aban-donment, to reduce the trauma for children who are hospitalized for long periods so that they may develop in a normal way, and to en-sure that abandoned babies receive the ac-tivities they need to develop normally in the all important first two years of life.

Total number of children helped in 2009 within the program: 345 children

Number of beneficiaries and types of intervention:- 248 school children that were unaccompanied in the departments of the hospital benefited from educational and entertaining activities

• 47 children in difficulty benefited from psychological evaluations, from therapy (neural-psycho-motor stimulation) and from an intervention schedule, depending on the case

• 40 pre-school children that were unaccompanied or in difficulty benefited from educational and entertaining activities and from a neural-psycho-motive stimulation

• 574 mothers/legal representative benefited from information, counseling, and parental development sessions

Number of children boys and girls

Number of children

Total number of children helped divided into age groups:

0-2 years - 47 children2-5 years - 40 children5-18 years - 258 children

Number of children (girls and boys): 151 girls 194 boys

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The goal of this project is to prevent child abandonment in the hospitals (especially Sector 2 of Bucharest, including the Institute of Mother and Child Care) by helping parents develop the skills needed to successfully raise their children at home.

Our target: 15 families at risk of abandoning their children (30 beneficiaries, considering the couple mother – child) who live in Sector 2 or surrounding areas; these families are very poor, with reduced possibilities of accessing the necessary resources to improve their lives; illiterate mothers or/and with many children, disorganized families, very young mothers (17-18 years old) and their children.

The Mobile Team includes a coordinator, a social worker and a psychologist. In order to reach our goal, we will run a variety of ac-tivities such as: selection of our beneficiaries; home visits; needs assessment and individual intervention plans for every family; supportive counseling and educational sessions for the

famileis; social support towards getting the le-gal documents (identification papers) for the child and the other members of immediate family; material support by offering the « first month of my life package » for the baby etc.

Our partners are The Social Assistance and Child Protection Department Sector 2, Bu-charest and The Institute of Mother and Child Care, Dr. Alfred Rusescu, Bucharest. Besides the direct beneficiaries (mother-child couple), we will work with the immediate family mem-bers, who will become indirect beneficiaries but who will get social support from our so-cial worker and counseling support from the psychologist.

This pilot program started on November 1st, 2009 and it is financed for one year by United Way Romania.

Breakdown of the Beneficiaries and of the Monthly Intervention:

2009

0-2-Year OldChildren –

the RecoveryDepart.

Preschoolers StudentsMothers/

legal repre-sentative

Evaluations, Reevaluations, Intervention activity plans

Child’s Jour-nal

(„Child Life Book”)

Total number of beneficia-

ries

January 15 7 17 80 3 3 119

February 22 5 15 85 5 4 127

March 30 3 21 57 4 2 110

April 27 0 19 36 2 2 82

May 27 3 22 35 2 1 87

June 19 6 20 64 4 3 109

July 24 3 15 48 5 4 90

August 21 3 20 30 1 3 74

September 29 4 19 30 2 2 82

October 23 2 18 46 5 3 89

November 22 4 51 47 3 2 124

December 22 4 21 16 2 1 63

II. Brief Description of the Activities Carried Out Within the Program

III. Other General Information:

Total number of children (boys, girls) that were in the program on 12/31/2009- 23 girls- 24 boys

The first program began in 1990 in the Bucharest “Alfred Rusescu” Mother and Child’s Pro-tection Institute. At present the Bucharest Inocenti Foundation has 4 permanent employ-ees – one assistant worker in the child’s development, one educator, psychologists and many volunteers who work with hospitalized children.

The target population are hospitalized children (0-18 years old), unaccompanied ones and the ones in difficulty in the Bucharest “Alfred Rusescu” I.O.M.C. Hospital. The activity is carried out in 3 play rooms for:• 0-2 year old children• Pre-school children• School children (teenagers)These rooms are completely endowed for educational and recreational activities. The children leave their beds every day, for a few hours, and go to the Play Room. Seeing that these children have no family to take care of them, we want to help them develop and grow up in a normal way. Sometimes they stay in hospital for a longer period of time (a few months - 1 year) and the lack of stimulation and affection is the cause of many psychological problems and delays in their development.

ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE PROGRAM:• neural-psychological-motor stimulation;• arranging an educational and recreational program for pre-school age children;• evaluation of the psychological and motor development and setting up an individual-ized plan for the intervention, when needed;• the development of the inter-personal communication abilities and the constructive ap-proach of the problems specific to the teen age;• parental development;• prevention of the abandon;• providing information related to the child’s development and care.

Partners of the program1. RCR, Romanian Children’s Relief 2. IOMC “Alfred Rusescu”, Bucharest3. DGASPC, Sector 2, Bucharest

Special Events Organized – Brief Description• On December 21st Santa Claus came to the hospital and gave gifts to 180 children. The Clinic Clowns team came as well and enter-tained the children. Also, some young children from School no. 31, Bucharest came and put up a little show, as well.• We have created 30 Children’s Journals („Child Life Book”)

Foreign VolunteersBeth Orshalimy, Beth Kirkham, Osnat Hirsch, Connie Lavelle, Rosa Birrell Diaz, Claire Richardson, Sherolyn Cuthell, Miryam Borkis, Mair-wen Rowhanos (Em), Carol Bruce, Janet Johnsen, Elisabeth Gitenstein

Romanian VolunteersMariana Lina, Gabriela Stoica, Simona Nicula, Alina Simion, Carmen Jidov, Adriana Mirea, Monica Maguci, Dana Parvu, Irina Popa, Corina Gheorghiu, Cristina Schmidt, Eliza Manea, Elena Ion, Liviu Sandulache, Andra Chitu

New program in Bucharest:

Integrated Services for Children and Families in Need from Bucharest and Surrounding Ar-eas – The Innocents’ Mobile Team

The presence of Inocenti Foundation in our institution has helped change both the attitude and the behavior of our patients. In ad-dition to the children, we have also seen the change among the mothers and the medical staff. We have a wonderful collaboration with Inocenti Foundation, because the staff from Inocenti provides highly professional and excellent quality services to their beneficia-ries. Their support groups for mothers are valuable for the children, for the relationship between children and their mothers, and for the relationship between the parents and the medical staff. The information shared with these mothers is geared to the age of their children; it provides them with knowledge and also helps them dealing with other organizations and professionals who can help them in the future.

Oana Clocotici, MSW, Institute of Mother and Child Care, Dr. Alfred RusescuBucharest

Inocenti Foundation….

I discovered “Inocenti Foundation” by chance. I was between jobs, and while I was looking for a new one, I decided to do something to help other people. Instead, I was the one who gained the most from this experience. I discovered a wonderful group of people and a whole new world! The babies we worked with, so pure and ea-ger to be loved, constantly rewarded us with smiles and giggles! The girls from the foundation welcomed me so beautifully! I was amazed to see how much they love the children, even after work-ing with them for so many years. Even when they are very tired, their faces change into smiles when they play and talk to the little ones. As for me, after 20 years of working in many places, mostly offices with papers and meetings, only here at the foundation did I begin to ask myself if until now I had ever really had the satisfac-tion of a job well done, of working to give to others, while in reality making my own soul richer! Thank you “Inocenti Foundation”, for giving me the chance to discover this feeling! Life has taken me away for now, but I am glad to know that somewhere, back home in Romania, there is a group of big-hearted women who do a lot of good where it is needed, day after day, year after year, always with the same passion. Thank you “Inocenti Foundation” for existing!

Irina Popa, Volunteer Inocenti Foundation,Bucharest

Child Life Program, Bistrita

I. Dates about the beneficiaries:

The goals of this pro-gram are several: to educate parents to prevent child aban-donment, to reduce the trauma for children who are hospitalized for long periods so that they may develop in a normal way, and to en-sure that abandoned babies receive the ac-tivities they need to develop normally in the all important first two years of life.

Total number of children served in the program in 2009: 629 children

Number of beneficiaries and types of interventions:• 25 abandoned children (0-1 year old)

• 200 pre-school children that were hospitalized in the Pediatrics Department took part in the program and benefited from edu-cational and entertaining activities; from this number, 15 children were unaccompanied or in difficulty benefited from a neural-psycho-motive stimulation and from an intervention plan, accordingly

• 315 school children benefited from educational and entertaining activities

• 284 mothers/caregivers benefited from information, advice, and parental development sessions

• 204 mothers from Pediatric section and from Maternity benefited by 43 sessions of the “Shaken Baby” training, who are taught the negative effects of shaking a baby even for few seconds and how to avoid this situation.

Number of children


0-1 years - 114 children(25 abandoned, 89 with belongers)1-6 years - 200 children6-18 years - 315 children

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Partners and Collaborators for the Program:

- Emergency County Hospital Bistrita-Nasaud- Romanian Children’s Relief- Department of Social Services Bistrita-Nasaud- Public Health Authority

Breakdown of the Beneficiaries and of the Monthly Intervention:

MonthAbandoned

babiesBabies with

mothersPreschool Children

School age children

Mothers/ Next of kin

Assess-ments, reas-sessments,

PSI

Shaken baby-

number of mothers

Total num-ber of ben-

eficiaries

January 8 6 29 21 34 6 29 127

February 8 16 41 45 55 3 35 200

March 8 10 2 6 12 3 13 51

April 10 7 11 22 17 6 19 86

May 11 5 12 36 17 3 7 88

June 11 5 16 26 21 6 8 87

July 16 6 19 33 25 6 23 122

August 16 - - - - - - 16

September 16 10 22 19 31 12 27 125

October 11 8 16 46 24 12 19 124

November 12 12 14 37 26 - 24 125

December 12 4 18 24 22 - 4 80

II. Brief Description of Program:

Total number of children (boys, girls) that were in the program on 12/31/2009- 14 girls- 12 boys

The Inocenti ‘Child Life’ Program was an expansion of the Bucharest Child Life pro-gram. The Child Life Bistrita program began in 1998 with the help of the local Rotary Club. There are two specialists overseeing the activities, a social worker and medi-cal assistant worker. They are assisted by several volunteers from the community in activities that take place in two age-appropriate playrooms and within the wards of the Pediatrics Department of the Bistrita County Hospital.

Program ActivitiesVarious activities are designed to stimulate the child’s cognitive development and train parents include: • Early literature and education. • Services that support the transition of the child from the residential institution to-wards family life (professional foster care, its biological family, the adoptive family).• Evaluations of the hospitalized children’s neural-psychological and motor develop-ment.• Personalized intervention plans.• Socialization and educational-recreational activities• Training programs to inform mothers about feeding, child development, early lit-eracy, and child abuse prevention. • Activities to involve the community in the services provided on a voluntary basis.• Shaken Baby trainings for mother from Pediatric and Maternity sections,• Thursdays are Hygiene Day: mouth and body hygiene, providing information about various diseases such as hepatitis, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and many others.

Both my husband and I wanted a girl very much. So, under the “Child Life” program de-veloped by Inocenti Foundation of the Emergency County Hospital Bistrita our desire was more than fulfilled when we received, not just one, but two girls to take care of. Our girls have normal development for their age and this is thanks to the specialists of this program who were dedicated to work with them. Their advice has been beneficial and helped us in fostering these girls (correct infant feeding, literature and early education etc.). Our gratitude is emphasized by the fact that, even now, we keep in touch with this program and we visit the Day Center each time we are around the hospital.

Thank you for your support!Fam. Sabo Francisc and Semida

There are many heartless parents that are abandoning their children in the hospital. In-ocenti Foundation is offering perfectly the “parent function”. These girls, helped by the hospital employees, are putting their soul into everything they do. They are attached to these children like real mothers. Every day there is an age-appropriate program for all these children. For the babies, they are working on psychomotor development, talk-ing and playing with them, they provide clothes, toys, diapers and even medicines and vitamins.

With the preschoolers and school-age children, they are doing real lessons by teaching them poems, games, and life skills.

Inocenti Foundation is a highly useful program for all these helpless children. We thank them and wish them success in their activities. Chef Nurse Pediatric Section, Emilia Moldovan

Special Events Organized – Brief Description:• Easter Festivity: We gave presents to hospitalized children and made activities specific to this festivity, such as rabbit making out of various materials, painting, stained pieces of glass.• 1st of June – Children’s Day Celebration: party and gifts for the children• Christmas Festivity: We prepared a short artistic performance together with the hospitalized children in order to welcome Santa Claus, who offered presents to the children.• Meet the clown – several times a year, a clown is coming to play with the children.• We have created 5 Life books.

Inocenti Foundation is helpful in training our young mothers in terms of how they must behave with their babies. This training consists of having weekly informa-tion sessions on Shaken Baby Syndrome. It has proved to be an extremely useful program for these young mothers. Thank you for your support and I hope to have long term collaboration.

Chef Nurse Maternity, Felicia Tanko

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“Me and My Family” Program


GOALS OF THE PROGRAM• to assist in increasing the quality of the children and teenagers’ lives who are in difficulty and the creation of a living standard as close as possible to the family environment • To support the improve-ment of disabled children and teenagers’ health con-dition and recovery of de-velopmental delays;• To strengthen the paren-tal abilities of the biological and foster care families in the Bistrita-Nasaud County in order to reduce at-risk situations.

Total Number of Children Served in the Program in 2009: 48 children, out of which:

• 11 children with special needs within the foster care system benefited from the ser-vices of the outreach workers (OW) and of the daytime services (educators)

• 2 children from the Beclean biological family - benefited from the services of the outreach workers - OW

• 35 children from the Bistrita residential service (CSSC Bistrita) benefited from the services of the outreach workers and volunteers.

Number of children in the program


Children with special needs within the foster care system Children from the Beclean biological familyChildren from the Bistrita residential service (Placement Center)

Number of children served in age categories:

Number of evaluations (initial, re-evaluations), specific intervention programs/specialist (initial and re-evaluations:

Classification of the Children on Problems:- Mental disabilities: 30 children- Genetic disorders: 2 children- Hydrocephalus: 1 child- Neural-psycho-motor delays: 10 children- Sensory disorders: 4 children- Without any disabilities: 1 child

Total number of children (boys, girls) that were within the program on 12/31/200945 children (28 boys and 17 girls)

* Re-assessments: each time that the goals of the PIS were accomplished, new ones were established.

* 48 cases were served by educators, volunteers and social workers.

Intervention of each specialist and volunteer/case:

Breakdown of the Beneficiaries and of the Monthly Interventions:

Age 0-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22No. of chil-dren

3 1 2 1 3 - - 1 3 - 5 2 2 1 3 3 1 - 2 4 5 6

Number of children (girls and boys): 17 girls 31 boys

Specialists /

Assessments 5 Outreach

workers (OW)1 Educator

Initial Assessments + Specific Inter-

vention programs (PIS)

5 0

Re-assessments / children and PIS

27 3

SpecialistOutreach Workers

(OW)Educators Volunteers

No. of cases 48 3 9

No. of work sessions

2678 289 54

MonthNo. of active

casesEntered

Left the program

No of chil-dren in the

month

January 44 1 1 18

February 44 15

March 42 2 19

April 43 2 1 21

May 44 1 14

June 45 1 17

July 46 1 13

August 46 0

September 44 2 13

October 44 22

November 45 2 1 19

December 45 15

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II. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT WITHIN THE PROGRAM

ACTIVITIES:• Assessing the institutionalized children’s psycho-motor development and setting up an Indi-vidualized intervention plan;• Performing educational, social, recreational activities, parties, festivities;• Therapy through playing and recovery therapy for developmentally delayed children;• Activities to enhance the awareness and acceptance of handicapped children in the com-munity.

CASE IDENTIFICATION• Children included in the program: disabled children from the residential center, family-type homes, foster care and their biological family, institutionalized and post institutionalized chil-dren, including special needs children in the Bistrita-Nasaud County.• Methodology of inclusion into the program: all the beneficia-ries are included in the program upon the recommendation of the Dept. of Social Services social workers and marked in their data base.

III.OTHER GENERAL INFORMATION

The partners and the collaborators of the program:- Lift the Children- Romanian Children’s Relief- Department of social services Bistrita-Nasaud- “Lacrima” Association

Special events arranged:- 1st of June 2009 – a party and contests in the open air on the occasion of the Child’s Day- 17th of December 2009 – a Christmas festivity for the foster care children- October 2009 – Zoo trip to Targu-Mures with some of the children from the Placement Center Bistrita

STAFF INVOLVED1 Psychologist1 Kinetic therapist- when necessary 5 Outreach Workers 1 Educator1 VolunteerOccasional activities performed: the children of CSSC Bistrita benefited from the volunteer services (The Tasis and Nobles groups, the American School in Paris, a group of students from Spain, Boston College) – play therapy.

Special Needs Day Center at Nimigea In 2009, Inocenti Foundation continued to support a special educator who runs a daily program for the foster children with special needs in Nimigea village. The activities were adapted according to each child’s need: play therapy and motor stimulation, commu-nication, etc. The schedule was 4 sessions per week, 3 hours per day. During summer the schedule was reduced to one session. The program took place in the location of Nimigea Kindergarten, due to the better conditions offered there adapted to the children’s needs served in the program. This helps the children become socially integrated with the other children.

Collaboration with the “Lacrima” Special School:During 2009, the children and the teenagers with severe disabilities from the Placement Center benefited from the “Lacrima” Special School services. We financially supported some of the teachers of the “Lacrima” Special School to keep working during holidays (except for 4 weeks in August, when they were on vacation) so that the achievements of these children and teenagers would not be lost over break times.

Natalie Bridges, volunteer I’ve worked with Inocenti Foundation for over 3 years now and it has been a wonderful experience. I came full of enthusiasm, but not a lot of experience working with children with special needs. The Inocenti Foundation team was so kind and patient with me as they showed me the ropes, introduced me to people, and took the time to train me so that I felt more comfortable and knowledge-able working with the children. Together we have seen tremen-dous change in the children, workers, and even the atmosphere at the placement center over the past few years… more smiles, laughter, hugs, and genuine concern for the well-being of the chil-dren. I am so pleased to be a part of these positive changes and am full of anticipation of much more to come.

Laszlo Ana-Maria, foster parent I have been a foster parent for 5 years now. Simi is 10 years old and he has a medium retardation in the psycho-motor development. When I took him home from the orphanage, he couldn’t walk and he couldn’t eat very well. But now, the situation has changed. Over the years he has made much progress of which I am really proud. Simi has improved his reading and writing skills as well as his physical skills.

In addition to all this progress, Simi continues to be excited when the outreach worker comes. They always have fun together: they sing, learn poems, draw, and play different games. Together with my own child, Miruna, they were in-formed by the outreach worker about the importance of hy-giene in our family’s health.

Often, the outreach worker organizes entertainment meet-ings in the park, shops, confectionery, market, and events like Special Olympics, Christmas party, and so on. They also meet more children from the foster system, and they have fun to-gether. The children are happy, so we are happy.

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“Early Literacy” Program


THE GOAL OF THE PROGRAMReading remains one of the most important and educa-tional activities in a child’s life. The sooner the child starts reading, the more effective it will be. It is essential and du-rable in regards to language, communication and social behavior. The reading and writing skills accumulated through literacy activities help to improve the achievements of new knowledge and the development of other new skills and abilities. The success or failure of a child’s develop-ment is directly correlated to this early literacy.

Total number of children served by the program in 2009:Total number of children served: 54 children• Children from the foster care system: 18 children (from Bistrita, Nasaud and Beclean) low verbalization level and disorders in the relational-emotional area;• Children from biological families with special needs: 2 children (Bistrita) with develop-mental delays;• Children from the Orphanage: 16 children (Bistrita and Beclean) with neural-psycho-motor delays and disorders in the relational- emotional area;• Babies from the Bistrita County Hospital: 18 babies.

All these 54 children benefited from the services offered by 38 Literacy volunteers.

Distribution of the children and of the volunteers:

18 children from the foster care system 18 volunteers

2 children from biological families 2 volunteers

16 children from CSSC Bistrita and Beclean 8 volunteers

18 babies from the Bistrita County Hospital 3 volunteers

Age No. of children

0-1 18 children

1-2 -

2-3 2 children

3-4 5 children

4-5 10 children

5-6 5 children

6-7 7 children

7-8 7 children

Number of children served in age categories

Number of children (girls, boys):Total number of girls: 23 girlsTotal number of boys: 31 boysWho assigned the case to the program/number:The Bistrita County Hospital: 18 babiesS.W.C.P.G.D: 32 children.

Note: the table doesn’t include the 18 abandoned children from the hospital because the number is changing in each month. Because of

this we couldn’t evaluate and reevaluate them consistently.

Total number of children (boys and girls) that were in the program on 12/31/2009:Total no. of children 50: 32 children from the foster care and Orphanage (Bistrita, Beclean) 13 girls and 19 boys. In addition, there were 18 abandoned babies from the hospital served by the volunteers, 9 girls and 9 boys.

Number of evaluations, SIP/specialist (initial, re-evaluations):The children coming from the foster/biological families were given an initial evaluation when they originally began the program. In most cases, they began the program in the previ-ous year. They received re-evaluations after every 3 months of participating in the program during this year.

Re-evaluation – children 26 children

Volunteer evaluation of child’s level of development. 26 volunteers

Parent evaluation about the children’s level of development and the volunteers’ activity

14 parents

Evaluation after 3 months - children 26 children

Questionnaires after 3 months for the parents relative to the chil-dren’s progress and about the volunteers’ activity

14 parents

MonthNo. of

active casesNo. of children

outNo. of children in

No. of children month

No. of volunteers

No. of parents

January 37 1 24 22 10

February 36 36 29 11

March 36 34 30 12

April 36 33 29 12

May 36 25 29 11

June 36 25 28 10

July 36 11 11 4

August 36 11 11 4

September 33 3 3 21 20 14

October 36 26 29 14

November 36 32 31 14

December 36 32 30 14

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II. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE EARLY LITERACY ACTIVITIES

III. OTHER GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAM

In the Early Literacy program the volunteer activities included weekly educational and recreational sessions such as: reading, social interaction, emotional support, play therapy and other early literacy activities, having the following specific objectives:

• Promoting early literacy activities, starting with the first months of life;• Encouraging literacy(reading) as a way of interaction between parent and child;• Improving verbal communication and stimulating the interest for writing - reading ac-tivities;• Developing reading and writing skills and a secure type of attachment of institutional-ized, post-institutionalized, and community children;• Encouraging the foster parents, biological parents, and other people that take care of children to read to them as a daily routine;• Involving the community in the improvement of the children’s education level from the earliest ages.

The Literacy volunteers list:Bistrita: Stejarean Adriana, Satmar Alexandra, Vlad Patricia, Nicoara Raluca, Galatan Ana, Cira Paula, Cam-pan Andrada, Cotut Mihaela, Curean Maria Teodora, Mihaese Ancuta, Habalau Oana Bianca, Pop Magda Rebeca, Secheli Daniela, Secheli Anamaria, Sabau Roxana, Burduhos Maria, Urate Alina, Runcan Ancuta.

Beclean: Afrim Bianca, Ripan Anca, Vlasim Diana, Haiduc Iulia, Cojanu Ana, Rusu Carmen, Ciurar Doina, Bica Cecilia, Tatar Lavinia

Nasaud: Pop Oana Alexandra, Chitta Roxana, Cotu Ancuta, Artene Ioana

Special Events Organized – Brief Description• April 3. 2009- “Reading Day” at the Beclean Liviu Rebreanu local Library for the community children, ages 5-6 year old from local kindergarten. This event was held for the first time in this area and was a great opportunity for the community to be informed about the existence of our Literacy Program and to see exactly what types of activities the volunteers are doing with the children. This event was arranged by program volunteers and included reading sessions and practical activities related to the books. Each child received a story book as a gift upon leaving. The parents were also involved in this event, as they received information on the fun and importance of reading from the earliest ages.

Partners in the Program:- Bistrita-Nasaud Dept. of Social Services- Bistrita-Nasaud County Hospital- Bistrita-Nasaud County School Division- Romanian Children’s Relief

Collaborators in the Program:- Teora bookstore in Beclean-“Liviu Rebreanu” National High School in Bistrita- “A. Muresanu” National High School in Bistrita- “Grigore Moisil” High School in Bistrita- “George Cosbuc” High School in Nasaud- “Petru Rares” High School in Beclean

• April 9.2009 – “Reading Day” at the Galatii-Bistritei local kindergarten.

• July 30.2009 –”Reading Day” for Roma children in Bistrita. Knowing that many of the Roma women lack basic skills in reading and usually become mothers at an early age, our goal through this Reading Day was to continue to encourage them to develop basic literacy skills through the reading of children’s book and other literacy activities.In this way the Roma children will enter school mentally more equipped for the written word and will have a positive association with books and reading.

• June 2009 – a party for the Literacy volunteers to reward them for the activities carried out with the children within the program.

My name is Bianca Afrim; I’m 18 years old and a 12th grade student of “Petru Rares” High School, Beclean. The Education and Early Literacy program that I work with as a volunteer has given me the opportunity to increase my knowledge and abilities and develop new skills in working with the children. I have also acquired several child psychology related skills and have realized how important early education is in the harmonious development of the child.

While I was working to share my knowledge, the children touched my heart with their innocence and kindness making me feel my work was worthwhile. What can be greater than to see improvement in the life of a child as well as your own!This is why I feel that volunteering offers you the possibility to make a difference, to change things for better. No matter how small the steps are, persevering will help you achieve your goals.

Bianca Afrim – volunteer of the year 2009

Hi! My name is Anca Ripan, I am 18 years old and for the last year and a half I’ve been a part of the wonderful volunteer team of the Inno-cents Foundation.

I remember the day I met these children for the first time, children who have a less happy destiny than mine or many others. Having a picture in my mind of what it means to be an abandoned child, I was expecting to see a lot of unhappiness. However, I discovered that beyond the shyness of the first minutes there is an oasis of joy, smiles and lots of love – this was a lesson for me. From them, I have learned that small things can make a difference, that a hug means more that 1000 words, that dreams can fly high even if their wings are made of paper. It is so wonderful to see and receive the enthusiasm of the children.

Along with these children and the other volunteers, I have grown and accumulated experience, become more responsible, more patient, learning to listen and respect the opinion of others and becoming more open to their needs. The results that I have received out of my volunteer work have made me trust myself more and have given me a satisfaction that I cannot put into words. It is very satisfying to be a volunteer and I would recommend that all young people try it. It gives you perspectives that you are not expecting, helping you to find your vocation, friends and ways to success.

Ripan Anca – volunteer at Placement Center, Beclean

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Inocenti “Early Intervention Program”


The program goal is to re-duce the risk of maternal abandonment in cases where the child has dis-abilities and to increase the level of neural-psy-cho-motor recovery.

Total number of children served by the program in 2009:44 children were served within the program in 2009, out of which: - 34 children guided by the complex evaluation department, the family doctors and specialists- 5 children from the Bistrita-Nasaud County Hospital – the Pediatrics Department- 5 children were oriented, guided and helped by Inocenti Foundation specialists towards institutions relevant to their prob-lems

Number of children in the program

Number of children (girls, boys):

Number of evaluations, SIP / specialist:

Classification of the children ac-cording to their problems:• ESI + hemi paresis, tetra paresis, Paraparesis + psycho-motor retardation: 15 children• Spastic dysplasia: 2 children• Spastic hemi paresis + post-traumatic sequel: 2 children• Cerebral paralysis: 1 child• Medium retardation in the psycho-motor develop-ment: 11 children• Down Syndrome: 2 children• Equin leg – bilaterally: 3 children• Developmental disorder (psychologically + speech): 3 children• Achondroplasia: 1 child• Senzorial disorders: 2 children

Total number of children (boys, girls) that were in the program on 12/31/2009:Boys - 21 Girls - 15

Each specialist’s intervention/case:

Breakdown of the beneficiaries and of the monthly interventions:

Number of children served on age categories:



Children guided by the complex evaluation department, the family doctors and specialistsChildren from the Bistrita-Năsăud County Hospital Children were oriented, guided helped by FI specialists towards instititions relevant to their problems

Boys 18Girls 26

34

5

5

Age 0-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18No. of chil-dren

5 3 9 5 9 5 1 2 1 1 1 1

Specialist /Evaluations

Physical Therapist Psychologist

Medical-social worker/ assistant worker in child development

Initial evaluations + SIP

1 3 5

Reevaluations ( children and sip)

27 18 4

Specialist Evaluations

PsychologistPhysical

Therapist

Medical-social worker and

assistant worker in child develop-

ment

Orientationstowards other

services ormedicine help

No. of cases 19 28 5 5

No. of inter-vention

238 267 346

Month Active cases In OutNo. of children under treat-

ment the last day of the month

January 44 1 1 18

February 44 15

March 42 2 19

April 43 2 1 21

May 44 1 14

June 45 1 17

July 46 1 13

August 46 0

September 44 2 13

October 44 22

November 45 2 1 19

December 45 15

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II. Brief description of the activities carried out within the program


This program is especially meant for 0-3 year old children in the Bistrita chief town that have developmental retardation and neural-psycho-motive deficiencies.

Activities:• Information and counseling at home or at the headquarters of the service about the rights and the facilities granted to dis-abled children and to their families;• Support in locating the necessary services according to the child’s individual needs;• Support in facilitating external medical services and to the Complex Evaluation Department within the Department of Social Services:• Home intervention.

Services offered:• Kinetics therapy• Psychological counseling and therapy

All the children in the program are included in early literature activities carried out with volunteers from the community.

Origin of the Children within the Program:Children are referred by the Complex Evaluation Department of the Bistrita-Nasaud Dept. of Social Services and Pediatricians.

I want to congratulate Inocenti Foun-dation for everything they are doing for disabled children and their fami-lies. They showed us these children can do wonderful things and that they are capable of giving and being loved.

Inocenti Foundation is the main non-governmental partner of Department of Social Services and on behalf of me and my colleagues; I want to thank them for the long period of good col-laboration. I wish you success in all your proj-ects! Deputy Director, Department of Social Services Bistrita-NasaudOlimpia Ababi

I am very happy with the services that Inocenti Foundation is offer-ing to my child. It is a wonderful thing for the children with prob-lems to be helped by someone who is not asking something in return. I think the activities offered to the children are important and appropriate to the needs of the children.

If it is possible, I would like my child to continue to benefit from these wonderful services.

Thank you very much!

Stir Aurica

I am happy and honored to be able to bring happiness and hope through my activities with children with disabilities from Bistriat-Na-saud County. All this is happening because of my collaboration with Fundatia Inocenti.Nature does not create all of us per-fect, but we, as human beings, have the obligation to correct the imper-fections which are in our power to correct. I want to congratulate all the peo-ple from Fundatia Inocenti, who of-fer their time and resources to build a „strong foundation” to help these children have a normal life.

Narcisa DudaCity Hall

Partners and collaborators of the program:

• Department of Social Services Bistrita-Nasaud• Romanian Children’s Relief• Bistrita-Nasaud County Emergency Hospital• City Hall of Bistrita • The family doctors

Scholastic and Social Integration of Roma Children

I. Dates about the beneficiaries:

The goal of this pro-gram is to help inte-grate children in school and community by fa-cilitating their access to education.

Total number of children served by the program in 2009: 12 children:

*The difference between the number of children that we work with and the number of social inquires is because one of them had a car ac-cident and is still recovering from it and the other three moved with their families out of the city.

Number of children served on age categories:

Number of children (girls and boys):

Girls 7Boys 5

Age 0-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6No. of chil-

dren4 6 2

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Breakdown of the Beneficiaries and of the Monthly Interventions:

MonthNo. of chil-dren in the

program

No. of social inquiries

No. of Lit-eracy activi-

ties/individual counseling

Identification, sign up for the program, and

participation

June 9 9 Identification

July 7 7 10 Identification

August 16 6 Sign up

September 12 Sign up /Participation

October 12 Participation

November 12 12 Participation

December 12 12 Participation

II. Brief Description of Program:


Program goals:• Organize educational activities for at least 10 Roma children between ages of 3-6 years old, living in Bistrita, with social dif-ficulties, who are not going to any kindergarten or day care center.• Provide training and develop parental capacity for at least 10 Roma families living Bistrita. • Organize information and counseling activities for 10 Roma families. • Increase the inclusion of all young people in activities organized for Roma children.

Activities• Provide training sessions to help parents understand the value of education• Educational activities for children• Identification of direct partners to help families and involve them in the pro-gram• Identification of beneficiaries and sign them up in the program

Staff involved• 1 psychologist• 1 social worker • Occasionally: 2 volunteersThe program period: June – December 2009

The partners and the collaborators of the program:• SPAS Bistrita (Social Services/Public Assistance, Bistrita City Hall) • Bistrita-Nasaud County School Division• Romanian Children’s Relief

Special events arranged:Reading day for Roma families:

During the last six months of the year, twelve Roma children participated in differ-ent educational activities, along with their families, who were informed and coun-seled about the themes that were chosen.

The program called “Reading Day” had three parts:The first meeting was about the importance of education in the life of the child.The second meeting was to develop proper hygiene.And the last meeting was full of surprises including presents from Santa.

In the first meeting, the Roma children were included in didactic activities. They drew pictures in response to a story told by the volunteers in order to develop their imagination and memory for details. At the same time, the parents were counseled about the importance of education and the value of school attendance which results in better social skills and future job possibilities. The theme of the second meeting was hygiene. The children drew pictures with different personal hygiene objects (hairbrush, soap etc) and played the “happy toothbrush and soap” game. The parents were informed about the importance of hygiene in family health. During this time, the mothers also participated in the “Shaken Baby Syndrome” training session where the negative effects of shaken babies were emphasized.

The last meeting was held just before Christmas and delighted children and parents were treated to a party that included gifts from Santa.

Kindergarten is an institution that has a significant role in the education of preschool children and a teacher’s enthusiasm transmits to both children and parents alike. The Kindergarten where I work has children registered between the ages of 3 - 7 years old that come from all different backgrounds. We have both Romanian and Roma children and they are all treated equally…as children.

In the 2009-2010 school year, the social worker reported that we have 8 Roma children from poor families registered in our kindergarten. These chil-dren are in the Inocenti Foundation program. They were registered without problems, came to the kindergarten almost every day, and have integrated very well into the class community.

We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Inocenti Foundation and I hope they continue to have the same enthusiasm in everything they are doing, both now and in the future.

Educator Molnar Lenuta

I am very pleased because this program exists; me and my daughter felt that we have a support. I was hopeful when I went with the social worker to the kindergarten to make the registration. Not only the moral support count but the material support count, too and it was welcome for my family because we do not have a really good financial situation.

I hope that in the future this program will still continue to function for helping others families that are in the same situation like me and my daughter.I am very pleased that a program like this exists because my and daughter I finally feel that we have the support we need. For example, I felt hopeful when I went with the social worker to register at the kindergarten. I had not only moral support, but physical and financial support as well and it was such a wel-come relief to my family because we are not in a good situation financially.

I hope this program continues to help other families who are in similar situa-tions as my family.

Petrovici Mariana Iosefina

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Other Events

Events from Bistrita:“Pass it on” CampaignThe campaign “Pass it on” took place in Bistrita-Nasaud County and it is a program designed to identify individuals who own, and might be willing to donate, unused equipment for disabled persons, like: wheel chairs, crutches, walking supports, therapeutic balls, therapeutic bicycles and many other types of equipment. We then make this equipment available to other persons who are in need.

In this way Inocenti Foundation became an intermediary between an unused surplus resource and a large population of individuals who need, but cannot afford, therapeutic equipment.

2% campaignThe 2% campaign was a real success this year as well, the main partner of the campaign remained Leoni Company from Bis-trita. Remarkably, although the number of people who sent us the files regarding 2% directly for our organization was less than last year, generally speaking, the money received was more. This means that more people transferred the money directly, without any help from us. This means also that more and more people know our organization and believe in what we are doing. This is a real joy and honor for us.

Grant applications A major priority for our organization was to attract funds from sponsors and donors. For this, we addressed financial applications toward companies and banks to solicit support for some of our activities and events, and our programs as well. The most important applications were addressed to companies like Teraplast, Comelf or Leoni who sponsored some of the expenses for organizing the third edition of Innocents Olympics. We also addressed application to Transylvania Bank, Romanian Commercial Bank and companies like Petrom and Rompetrol. But unfortunately, only BCR responded positively. During this year, BCR made two donations of 14,000 lei in total, and they also visited our programs and some employ-ees donated some products.

Another request, which did not receive a positive answer was for “Law 34” regarding reimburse-ment from Government for some of the expenses for the children, which was addressed to the Work and Social Protection Minister through the Work and Social Protection Department.

The grant initiated by Rotary Bistrita Nosa Club and Rotary Club from Esslingen was first rejected by Rotary International Foundation because of the current economic crisis. The project was again reviewed by the two clubs and will be approved in 2010. This project represents the acquisition of recuperation equipment for children with disabilities Inocenti Foundation works with.

Satellite in BucharestThe entire process of reorganizing and updating the Inocenti Foundation rules and procedures in order to be in compliance with the law was finalized at the beginning of 2009. This process was completed by finishing the legal procedures to make the “Child Life” program a satellite in Bucharest.

Special Olympics - Olympics of the InnocentsWe dedicated May to the organization of the third edition of Olympics of Innocents. This year the event took place on May 21st, starting at 14:00. More than 220 disabled children from Bistrita-Nasaud County participated. All the children were declared winners at the end of each sport and artistic activity and they received gold medals, diplomas, green t-shirts and hats (green was the event color this year).

The main sponsors helping organize this event were Hoggi and Natural Health Center and other local companies: Comelf, Leoni, and Teraplast. Hoggi is one of the most important producers of medical equipment form Europe and they donated 10 wheelchairs and other special equipment to children from our county selected with the help of DSS.We also had the pleasure to wok with ClipArt and Focus Media as our media partners.

The other partners involved directly in organizing the event were: DSS, Special School- No. 1 and No. 2, Special School Lacrima (Bistrita si Nasaud), Special School Beclean and SAM Bistrita.Contributing to the success of this event were more than 90 volunteers who made a very important contribution.

We are in Europe too!In a partnership with “Directia Judeteana pentru Tineret Bistrita-Nasaud” (Coun-ty Department for Youth), Directia Judeteana pentru Sport (County Department for Sport), Asociatia Judetean “Sportul pentru Toti” (Association “Sport for all”), Inocenti Foundation organized the project “We are in Europe too!”.

This project was organized with the purpose to celebrate the day of Europe and it was integrated into a larger, city-wide program of sport activities in Bistrita.

Children’s Day – June 1stCelebrating Children’s day has become a wonderful tradition for us. We get together, chil-dren, foster parents, organization staff, and collaborators to celebrate this important event.

This year we organized a party for the children hospitalized in the county Hospital from Bistrita and another one in collaboration with the Department of Social Service and Foster Parents Union, and for the children in foster care and their foster parents.Both events took place on June 1st, one at the County Hospital and one at a special place in the city near the lake. We organized outdoor activities: games, drawings and dancing.

In attendance at this event were more than 270 children in foster care and more than 40 children in the hospital. A very important support was offered again by Comelf Company from Bistrita, who prepared gifts for 353 children served in our programs.

Zoo tripThe Zoo trip for the children with disabilities from the Placement Center took place in October with the help of an anonymous donor and the Department of Social Services Bistrita. The 8 children who participated in the trip were very enthusiastic from the beginning. We could see the happiness on their faces. They had a great time at the zoo. The success of this activity makes us determined to find ways to do it often.

St. Nicholas GalaBistrita, December 10, 2009 – Inocenti Foundation, in partnership with Rotary Club Bistrita Nosa organized the third edition of the “Saint Nicolas Gala for Disabled Children”.

The main objective of the event was to raise money to support two specialized programs of RCR / Inocenti Foundation. These programs offer services to disabled children from Bistrita-Nasaud County. We also used this opportunity to increase awareness in our community about the problems for disabled persons and to inform the participants about the function and purpose of Inocenti Founda-tion in hopes that this will motivate some of the participants to become partners for existing and future projects.

During the event we also had presentations on the anti poliomyelitis world campaign supported by Rotary International and some of the members present there raised money for the campaign.

The event was honored by the participation of 120 persons and supported indirectly by 22 other individuals could not participate, but donated the ticket fee in advance, in this way showing their support for what we do for disabled children.The auction and the raffle were very successful due in part to the highly desirable donated items.

Among the items donated for the auction there were: paintings from Miron Duca, Melania Cuc, Lupse Marcel, Marian Trutulescu, Stefan Popa Popas, t-shirt and rugby ball with signatures from Romania National Team, t-shirt and ball with signatures from local football team FC Gloria Bistrita, many silver jewelry items, a ticket for a Spa hotel in Cluj, for two nights and two persons, a bottle of wine, and a basket with food.

For the raffle we offered: candles and religious paintings from Lacrima, books, CD’s with Matilda Pascal Cojocarita and Stefan Cigu, flowers, cosmetics from AVON; a small tree, sport products from PUMA, a bottle of French champagne, and jewelry from Oriflame.At the end of the event we raised approximately 35,000 lei ($12,000) and costs were approximately 13,000 lei ($4,300).

Celebrating Christmas with foster care children, from County Emergency Hospital and Place-ment Center BistritaThis year we celebrated again the birth of Jesus by organizing festivities and special activities for Christmas. Santa was present at the celebration and gave more than 400 gifts to the children, 309 prepared with the help of the Comelf Company. We organized two festivities, one for children and foster families at the Casa de Cultura and one for the children in the hospital. During these celebrations the children sang carols and recited poems.

27

Events from Bucharest:

A Successful First Charity Event for Inocenti Foundation in BucharestOn May 15th, Inocenti Foundation in Bucharest hosted its first annual fundraising party at Kentauros Media Studios in Ste-fanestii de Jos, just outside of Bucharest. The party, which we hope will become the first of many, brought together many of the foundation’s friends in Bucharest, who came to support our fundraising efforts, aimed at continuing and expanding our Bucharest programs.

The event was emceed by Romanian TV talk show hosts Alexandru Conovaru and Irene Pirvu of the well-known morning show “Matinal 710”.

The Cortez Band got everyone up on the dance floor, with a live performance of new and old international hits. Speaking of dancing, the Wilmark Academia de Baile Latino sent its dancers to perform a lively salsa, after which they taught the partygo-ers some fancy dance steps. The high point of the evening was a guest appearance by the famous Romanian singer Loredana Groza – “Lori”, who electrified the crowd with a fantastic performance. All the artists donated their performances, as part of their support for the Foundation and the children.

Michael Carroll, our Boston-based founder, came from the USA especially for the occasion. Michael and his work in Romania star in a new documentary, “Hand Held”, to be released in Hollywood at the end of the year. The guests were shown a 16-min-ute trailer of the film, which tells the fascinating story of the fall of the Ceausescu regime, the beginning of Michael’s involve-ment in the plight of Romania’s children, and his hands-on approach to the program’s ongoing projects.

A silent auction enabled us to raise additional funds. We thank all those who donated valuable items, including Ilie Nastase, Adrian Pavel, Bogdan Lobont, Horatiu Malaele, Mirela Traistaru, Michael Carroll, and others.

Besides the main sponsors mentioned on the poster below, additional thanks go to donors Albatross Travel, Anthony Frost Bookshop, Caru’ cu bere, Casa Vernescu, Elgo Care – YONKA, Institutul pentru Ocrotirea Mamei si Copilului - Dr. Alfred Rusescu, Miko Palace, Miri Rauchwerger, Sabon, and World Class Jolie Ville.

The money raised will enable us to continue our Child Life program for abandoned and hospitalized children, and will help us begin a fellowship program that will bring an additional part-time caregiver to our playroom. The funds will also help us initiate our new Mobile Team project, hopefully this Fall.

This event proves that one can enjoy a wonderful party while contributing to the wellbeing of the children of Romania. We look forward to seeing all those who attended this year at next year’s event, where we will do everything possible to meet and possibly surpass this year’s success.

See you in 2010!

The Toma and Victor Nicolaescu FellowshipSponsored by the Romanian Medical Association of AmericaInocenti Foundation is the recipient of the Toma and Victor Nicolaescu Fellowship, a program of the Romanian Medical As-sociation of America. The fellowship creates service opportunities and provides support for future health professionals who seek to help the under-served in Bucharest and its surrounding communities.

The Bucharest Toma and Victor Nicolaescu Fellows Program has four overall goals: 1. Provide direct services that address health-related needs of Inocenti Foundation clients through “Child Life” Program from the Institute of Mother and Child (IOMC), Dr. Alfred Rusescu, Bucharest;

2. Influence the development of aspiring health care professionals in Romania by fostering their commitment to, and skills in, public service; 3. Alter the culture of professional schools so they more effectively address needs of surrounding disadvantaged communities; 4. Support program alumni to continue their commitment to community service and become influential role models for other professionals.

In November 2009, two medical students from Bucharest were selected to be our first fellows. Andra Chitu and Simona Nicula are the two candidates that received the fellowship and they will run their activity under the Inocenti Foundation’s programs in Bucharest.

The Fellowship project includes:• a minimum of 120 hours of direct service (180 hours total) through Inocenti Foundation, a community based organization at IOMC Dr. Alfred Rusescu Hospital; a supervisor, or Site Mentor, at Inocenti Foundation; monthly progress reports on the Fellow’s project; a written report at the conclusion of the project, including recommendations for ways in which the most valuable aspects of the Fellow’s project and experiences can be replicated or sustained.

Infant Mental Health Seminar in BucharestInocenti Foundation Bucharest and the Institute for Mother and Child Care, Dr. Alfred Rusescu (IOMC) held a seminar in September on the topic of Infant Mental Health. In Romania, this field is still relatively new, with few studies or practical experience.

Our special guest was Carol Siegel, Ph.D., LP, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Minneapolis. She received her doctorate from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California and trained at the Infant Parent Program at the University of California, San Francisco, the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center, and McLean Hospital in Boston.

We are happy to inform you that 40 psychologists, social workers and medical students from Bucharest and its surroundings attended the seminar. We hope that this and future seminars of this kind will help raise awareness of the important issue of infant mental health. Our thanks to Carol for travelling to Roma-nia and sharing her knowledge with us. We also thank Beth Orshalimy for arranging Carol’s visit. We hope to welcome Carol back in the future for additional seminars.

Shaken Baby Syndrome - Safe Baby ProjectOn September 17th and 21st, Inocenti Foundation, Bucharest and the Institute for Mother and Child Care, Dr. Alfred Rusescu (IOMC) held two training sessions entitled, “Shaken Baby Syndrome - Safe Baby Project”.

Many thanks to our guests - Katie Smith from Lift the Children and Sheila Boxley from the Child Abuse Prevention Center of Sacramento, California. Together with Dr. Tatiana Ciomartan, one of IOMC’s leading pediatricians, we educated a little over 60 specialists (psychologists, social workers, nurses, and resident doctors) about this syndrome.

Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a form of abusive head trauma that occurs when a parent or caregiver shakes a child, usually to stop the child from crying. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, SBS “results from extreme rotational cranial acceleration induced by violent shaking or hacking/impact, which would be easily recognizable by witnesses as dangerous.” Shaken Baby Syndrome robs a child of a healthy, normal life and causes devastation among all family members - the child victim, parents and siblings.

We offered this training because we believe that informed professionals can educate parents and other caregivers regarding the damages that can occur as a result of shaking a baby. Our efforts are aimed at preventing this abuse beforehand, rather than treating the child afterwards (here, treatment can come too late). We hope to continue this project through concrete actions and other involvement in what we call the Safe Baby Project.

We again thank the participants and all others who made the training sessions possible. The successful events were also broadcast on the news, thanks to PRO TV and B1TV.

Inocenti Foundation Partners with Milupa in “A Chance for all Babies” CampaignIn October, Milupa, an international company specializing in nutritional products for babies, launched its Corporate Social Respon-sibility campaign, “A Chance for all Babies”, and chose Inocenti Foundation to be its partner.

The goal of the campaign is to supply economically-deprived Romanian mothers with products that offer their babies good nutrition and a balanced diet. A portion of all Milupa products sold in November and December 2009, will be donated, with the support of Inocenti Foundation, to 250 mothers with children who are at least one year old. The donation will consist of Milupa products geared to each child (depending on age and nutritional needs), and will provide them with a balanced diet for a period of six months. 29

At Milupa, we believe that every child has the right to the best start in life. At the same time, we cannot ignore the facts and the nutritional realities concerning the Romanian babies. We cannot deny that we are living in a difficult economical envi-ronment and time. This is why we decided to offer our support to mothers in need, with the help of the Inocenti Foundation. This year we aim to reach 250 mothers and their babies but for us it is only the beginning. We will continue this program and we are committed to help as many mothers we can to ensure a balanced nutrition for their babies.

stated Eric van der Hoeven, General Manager Milupa Romania.

The donation will consist in Milupa products suitable for each baby (depending on their age and nutritional needs) that will contribute to ensuring them a balanced nutrition for 6 months.

The Milupa “A chance for all babies” CSR campaign has also received the endorse-ment of Liana Stanciu, famous mother and TV and radio anchor woman, who embraced the cause.

The actual campaign in providing the nutritional supplement will start in January 2010 and it will be implemented in both locations where Inocenti Foundation runs programs: Bucharest and Bistrita-Nasaud County.

Christmas Party for the Children in IOMC Dr. A. Rusescu HospitalEconomic crisis or not, Santa Claus will find a way to help Inocenti Foundation offer joy to hospitalized children on Christmas Eve. On December 21st, Santa Claus came to offer gifts to 180 children. The party was a success! We were helped by a wonderful team from Clinic Clown – they brought lots of smiles on children’s faces. In addition, children from School no. 31 from Bucharest put on show for those who were in the hospital.

Santa’s “elves” this year, helped us make sure that every child received a gift for Christmas. Thank you to all our sponsors: Alka, Antony Gross Exim, Coca-Cola, Dagmar, I.O.M.C, Leg Chem Consulting, Matefin, Meli Melo, Milupa, Nestle, American International School of Bucharest, British School of Bucharest, volunteers and other individual donors. The pictures will tell you more about how good the children felt on Christmas Eve.

TRAININGS:

1.Trainings attended by Bistrita employees:

2. Trainings attended by Bucharest employees:

Employees Training theme Organizer Period City

Physical Thera-pist

Electrical functional stimulation for recu-

peration

UMF Iasi, UT Iasi and Districtual

Hospital Salisbury England

April 13-16 Iasi

Psychologist

International Con-gress of Psychology. Modern psychologi-cal research: Trends

and Prospects

ASCIPS May 22-24 Sibiu

Psychologist

Evidence-Based Assessments and

Intervention in Au-tism and Comorbid

Disorders

Babes-Bolyai Uni-versity Cluj

and Albert Ellis Institute USA

November 12-14

Cluj

Employee Training theme Organizer Date Location

Psychologist, Edu-cator, Director of

development

“Infant Mental Health Seminar”

Carol Siegel, Ph.D., LP, Min-nesota University, USA and

Fundatiei InocentiSeptember 2nd Bucharest

Psychologist, Edu-cator, Director of

development

“Shaken Baby Syndrome “Safe Baby Project”

Lift the Children, Fundatia Inocenti and IOMC Dr. A.

Rusescu

September 17th and 21st

Bucharest

Psychologist, Direc-tor of development

“International Conference – Building bridges,

interventions through playtherapy and drama therapyfor sexually abused children

and adults”

Play Therapy and Drama Therapy Association,

RomaniaOctober 2-3 Brasov

Director of devel-opment

“Fundraising methods fromyour community” training

Association for Commu-nity Relations

November 18th – 20th

Bucharest

31

V. Breakdown of the Staff in 2009VisitorsIn Bucharest:

VisitorsIn Bistrita:

Month Groups/individual visitors

January

February

MarchNoble & Greenough School, Massachusetts, USA (one week - 11 persons)

Eileen McHenry, Executive Director Romanian Children’s ReliefMeghan O’Connell, Event Planner, Romanian Children’s Relief

April American School of Paris (one week - 10 people)

MayMichael Carroll, President, Romanian Children’s Relief & Inocenti Foundation

Meghan O’Connell, Event Planner, Romanian Children’s Relief

JuneSt. Mark School, Southborough, Massachusetts, USA (one week – 10 people) Eva Mihalis,

USA Hadar Orshalimy, USA

July Wendy Gediman, TASIS, UK (plus 2 students)

August

September Carol Siegel, PhD, Minnesota, USA (one week + 1 training)

Katie Smith, Lift the Children, California, USA Sheila Boxley, Child Abuse Prevention Center of Sacramento, California, USA

October American School of Paris (one week - 10 people)

November

December Nathalie Kirkham, USA

Month Group/person visitors and volunteers

January Natalie Bridges, USA

FebruaryTasis Group, England (one week - 18 persons)

Natalie Bridges, USA

MarchNobles Group, USA (one week- 10 persons)


April Natalie Bridges, USA

MayMike Carroll, president RCR/ Inocenti Foundation, one week


JuneFranconian International School group, Germany (one week - 15 persons)


JulyBoston College - Graduate School of Social Work, USA (one week-11 persons)

Wendy Gideman, Tasis England plus 2 students (one week)Natalie Bridges, USA

August Natalie Bridges, USA

September Natalie Bridges, USA

Katie Smith, Sheila Boxley, Lift the Children, USA

October Natalie Bridges, USA

November Natalie Bridges, USA

December Natalie Bridges, USA

Note: All the foreign volunteer groups participated in the programs we run at the Placement Center and at the Hospital. They interacted with the children, played with them and brought materials we need in our activities. Boston Col-lege group, besides the usual activities with the children, visited other organiza-tions and institutions involved in the child welfare area.

Franconian International School spent all their time at the Placement Center and were involved mostly in activities like redecorating the children’s room, improving the play areas, and building furniture pieces needed.

The other individual volunteers can be found at Literacy program chapter.

No. Position Work time Place

1.Assistant worker in the childdevelopment/Program

coordinatorFull time Bucharest

2. Social Worker Part time Bucharest

3. Psychologist Full time Bucharest

4. Psychologist Full time Bucharest

5. Educator Part time Bucharest

6. Development Director Full time Bucharest

7. Executive Director Full time Bistrita

8. Program Manager Full time Bistrita

9. Office manager Full time Bistrita

10. Accountant Part time Bistrita

11. Psychologist/Program coordinator Full time Bistrita

12. Physical Therapist/Program Coordinator Full time Bistrita

13.Assistant worker in child development/Program

coordinatorFull time Bistrita

14. Medical-social Worker Full time Bistrita

15. Social worker Part time Bistrita

16. Psychologist/ Program Coordinator Part time Bistrita

17. Outreach worker Part time Bistrita




21. Educator Part time Bistrita

33

Donor Project

Asociatia pentru Relatii Comunitare – Fondul “Resurse pentru viabilitate”

How to raise money for organizations - Bistrita

Asociatia pentru Relatii Comunitare – Fondul “Resurse pentru viabilitate”

How to raise money for organizations - Bucharest

Ministerul Finantelor Publice - Oficiul de Plati si Contractare PHARE

Early intervention for children with dis-abilities

Primaria municipiului Bistriţa (Bistrita City Hall)Support a group of Roma children to integrate in school and community

Primaria municipiului Bistriţa (Bistrita City Hall)Early intervention service for children

and young people form Bistrita

Fundatia SOROS RomaniaSupport a group of Roma children to integrate in school and community

Fundatia Alexandrion Group “Read and Smile” program

Fundatia Alexandrion GroupDay care center for early intervention

activities

Rotary Nosa Bistrita Buy special equipment for recuperation

Banca Comerciala Romana - Bistrita Early intervention service

Soros Foundation, Romania Mobile team

Wings of Support, Holland Mobile team

Association for Community Relations Viability Resource Fund

Grant Application 2009

I was reminded recently, in an article by the President of Rotary International John Kenny, of the words of Geroge Bernard Shaw: “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will.” Bringing this to fulfilment is the aim of Fundatia Inocenti and Rotary International

I am very pleased that the Rotary Club of Bistrita-Nosa continues to be involved with Fundatia Inocenti, an organization much respected for its aims and ideals; an organization managed in a professional and caring manner.

A closer relationship developed this year with the joint Gala event in December 2009, during which we were able to raise money for both Inocenti and Rotary International’s flagship project, PolioPlus. In the current depressed economic climate it is cheering to see the unbounded support provided by local people and organizations – sup-port which has lead to an increase on last year profits.

With Inocenti we are able to make changes for a few children but changes that will shape their future for decades not just for a few weeks and this is why I feel privileged to take part. However as a Rotarian it is also my duty; I and my fellow Rotarains are caring members of society who are in the fortunate position of being able to help. Because of organizations such as Inocenti, Rotarians can achieve their goal of reaping more than they sow and which allows us to demonstrate Rotary International’s motto: Service Above Self.

On a personal level, considering that my wife, Sue, and I are not from Romania and have lived in Bistrita for only 2½ years, it is gratifying and stimulating to meet such people as the staff of Inocenti and to receive their welcome. Their work has no boundaries.

Through this report I would like to thank my fellow Rotarians who continue to support In-ocenti and I am sure that the association between our organizations will continue to flourish in future years.

Peter MarshPresident R.C Bistrita-Nosa 2009/2010

I am very pleased and honored to be a member of a team of volunteers for Fundatia Inocenti. It is the high point of every week to spend a few hours interacting with and providing stimulation for these precious babies on a one to one basis. I have three grown children and two grandchildren, and a long history as a psychiatric nurse, yet I find I am learning so much from the extraordinary staff about the needs and care of these tiny Romanians. Their affection, dedication and professionalism shown day in and day out to the babies, and young children in their program is nothing less than extraordi-nary. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this program.

Sincerely, Elisabeth Gitenstein(U.S. Ambassador’s wife)

35

Financial Bearings

In 2009, Fundatia Inocenti had a total budget of 699,437.89 lei, which was 8.7% larger than last year (2008). In addition to this amount of money, we had 126,257 lei in reserve from 2008 which was in our bank account in Romania on January 1, 2009.

This budget comes from several financiers and donors both from Romania and abroad.As you can see in the above chart, the main financier remains Romanian Children’s Relief (RCR) from the USA with a contribution of 375,944.97 lei to the 2009 budget, 54% of the total budget.

Other external financiers were: French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Solidarite Lalique French organization, which partially financed, through the Pro-Child program, our early intervention program for disabled children. We also had a small donation from KHS Olanda, which together represented 2% (15,788 lei) from foundation incomes.

Income from countries

Financing sources

2009 Income USA 2009 Income Europe 2009 Income Romania

Income USA

Income USA

Income Europe

Income Europe

Income Romania

Income Romania

2009 Income USA 375,944.97 lei

2009 Income Europe 15,788.00 lei

2009 Income Romania 307,704.92 lei

Total Income 2009 699,437.89 lei

RCR 319,945 lei

Lift the children 56,000 lei

Donations income 73,451 lei

2% Campaign 47,403 lei

FONPC 10,650 lei

Money boxes 2,746 lei

Charity Event Bucharest 46,580 lei

Charity Gala Bistrita 38,065 lei

Special Olympics 25,711 lei

Bank interest 13,403 lei

BCR donations 14,000 lei

K.H.S. Olanda 5,138 lei

In-kind donations 17,995 lei

City Hall programs 17,995 lei

United Way 10,356 lei

TOTAL 699,438 lei

RCR

Lift the children

Donations income

2% campaign

FONPC

Money boxes

Charity Event Bucharest

Charity Gala Bistrita

Special Olympics

Bank interest

BCR donations

K.H.S. Olanda

In-kind donations

City Hall programs

United Way

44% 54%

2%

46%

450.000,00

700.000,00

600.000,00

500.000,00

400.000,00

300.000,00

200.000,00

100.000,00

0,00

400.000,00

350.000,00

300.000,00

250.000,00

200.000,00

150.000,00

100.000

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