PROJECTS
The Association „Orthodox Philanthropy Alba Iulia” – branch Reghin, functions with 5 accredited departments, both for children and for elders:
- familial services – 10 children
- residential services – 22 children
- social services – day care 37 children
- community services at home for elders – 80 beneficiaries
I. THE SOCIAL ESTABLISHMENT „HOUSE MARY I”
In
the spring of 1990, a family from Luxembourg visited our town; they
came to know quickly enough the population’s problems, the situation of
children from schools and of the abandoned children.
Back in Luxembourg, they met a charity foundation – „Les convois
humanitaires pour la Roumanie” – and in the fall of 1990 they returned
with a humanitarian transport, bringing also equipment and aids for the
hospital in Reghin, where they knew a little girl who used to say „MOM”
to every woman and „DADDY” to every man she met. The girl was one of
those abandoned children who were living then in the pediatrics section
of the hospital.
The Luxembourgers were impressed by the precarious situation of the
abandoned children and by their status, so they decided to build a home
similar to the familial one.
The house was named after that little girl, whose name was „Mary”.
Stories for children were always fascinating, but those with abandoned
children are touching and they seem to find an easier way to our hearts.
Today we can tell 10 stories, because there are 10 children in the
House Mary I. Everyone has his / her own little story, which makes a
deep impression because, if you listen to it, you realize that only in
a few years those children have passed through more events than many of
us, the grown up.
In spite of that, they have an amazing strength and they are joyful,
beautiful and playful kids, children like all children! With them,
there can be no weariness; with them, we learn something new every day;
with them, we discover the world anew.
Now, the 10 children have a new life and conditions to grow and be
educated in an environment as close as possible to the familial one,
beside a parental couple (father – mother), 4 educational instructors,
a social assistant and a psychologist.
Till 01.05.2005, when the house was taken over by our association, it
functioned as an annex of the pediatrics section of the municipal
hospital „Dr. Eugen Nicoară” from Reghin.
II THE SOCIAL ESTABLISHMENT „HOUSE MARY II”
Fragment of life…
The child is „bud of God”, and still we see him / her mistreated. |
How many of us haven’t seen children brutally beaten, obliged to beg, psychically terrorized and tortured, sexually abused, children who prefer to live on the streets than to endure the suffering at home? We cannot overlook the suffering of these children as long as we call ourselves Christians and we have the command to love our fellow man engraved in our hearts; as our Saviour says: „Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” (Luke 10, 27).
THE SOCIAL ESTABLISHMENT „HOUSE MARY II”- carries on activities of growing, educating and housing for:
— 22 children aged between 5 and 18, in a residential house
— 37 children from families in Reghin which find themselves in hazardous situations, in a day-care center
— 10 girls from the countryside, in a weekly boarding house
For
the 22 children in the residential house Mary II, this is their home
and their family. They are not different from other children, except
they are not beside their parents. Their parents are missing. From here
they go to kindergarten, from here they go to school; here they learn
how to behave in society and how to become human beings. We taught them
and those around them only one thing: that they are like all the other
children.
Following the words of Saint Apostle James: „If
a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of
you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled;
notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the
body; what doth it profit?” (James 2, 15-16).
The day care
center „House Mary II” from Reghin has 22 children from families in
Reghin which find themselves in hazardous situations.
The aim of this program is:
To prevent and diminish school abandonment by providing material and
educational support, both for children and their families.
III. THE COMMUNITY CENTER FOR ELDERS „SAINT ANDREW” FROM REGHIN
This
is a project accomplished together with the Mayoralty of Reghin, by
allocating non-refundable sums of money from the Government of Romania,
through the Ministry of European Integration, as part of the program
„Investment in social services”, September 2004.
At this moment the project has 2 sections:
- community social services of care at home for elders – 80 beneficiaries
- crisis center, with 8 persons
Community social services of care at home for elders
At
this moment, there are 80 old persons, poor and physically dependent,
immobilized in bed or at home, in impossibility to satisfy their
medical, hygienic, sanitary, social, administrative and relational
needs.
The aggravating factor is that they don’t have direct
familial support, cannot leave home and cannot keep house themselves.
The asylum as a form of social protection for elders is usually
rejected by them, their decision being to live in their own houses. The
minimal needs of daily life, the need to communicate, to maintain a
habitual status, to have health security – all these determined to
choose that kind of activities that can provide a package of minimal
integrated services to fulfill these needs.
The services provided at home for elders socially and medically dependent include:
a. The basic care services:
- Primary services: preparing / warming the food and providing nutritious supplements – milk and milky products, honey, fruits
- Personal care services: bodily hygiene, dressing / undressing, intimate hygiene through changing the pampers (if necessary), mobilization, walking inside / outside, communication
- Housekeeping: bed hygiene, dish washing, clothes and underwear washing (with the automatic washing machine in a room assigned and arranged by the Association in the community center for elders „Saint Andrew” from Reghin);
- Social assistance services (social and familial integration – where it is the case, information and legal consultancy services, support for appointment in a form of social protection, facilitating relations with the community, representing the aged person’s interests in various social situations, coordinating and supervising the activity of the volunteers);
- Religious services (confession, holy communion, extreme unction, blessing of the house)
- The social services provided to the elders through this project have both a preventive and an interventionist character, contributing to maintain the safety of the aged persons’ life, to obtain and keep an optimal standard of living allowing him / her to take part in the social life, to adapt to changes, to preserve de feeling of self-esteem, to do away with anxiety and loneliness.
Also, this project aims to imply the local community in sustaining the aged persons, in order to facilitate their participation in the community life.
b. The crisis center
Through
this service, elders are provided with social, medical and religious
assistance, according to the legislation in force and the proceedings
to apply it.
The activities of the service consist in:
- To identify the cases, both by their solicitation and through collaboration with the institutions accredited to work with aged persons, viz. the Social Service of the Mayoralty, family physicians and priests from parishes.
- To organize a database, after a preliminary evaluation that will provide us information about elders in need.
- Consultancy regarding the documents required to draw up the dossier for registration and the selection procedure of the possible beneficiaries.
Services provided by the specialized staff consist of:
- Basic services: food, hygiene, clothes, shelter
- Hygienic and sanitary services: shower, hair cut, shave – if necessary, hygienization of personal underwear.
- Housekeeping: cleaning the rooms and inside the center – as required
- Information and consultancy services: social (problems regarding the civil status, facilitating relations with the family and relatives), legal (to promote and defend de civil rights of this category of persons), judicial (to establish the legal status of property – where necessary, legal sustenance, testamentary contracts, etc.).
- Recreational activities according to the needs and capacity of each beneficiary.
- Medical assistance provided by the nurse according to the needs: injection, evaluation and measurement of the physiological parameters, medicines, treatments.
- Religious assistance provided weekly by the priest who coordinates the center.
The beneficiaries can receive services for a period no longer than 6 months, till the crisis is surpassed and an optimal alternative social protection is identified.
CATEGORY OF BENEFICIARY PERSONS
Aged persons with a very law income (under the minimal salary on economy) having no home for the following reasons:
- evacuation for debts, or being a bad payer;
- divorce;
- selling – buying the house;
- abused by children or relatives;
- without a regular income to guarantee the payment of administrative expenses;
- without a personal abode;
IV. PERMANENT ACTION, A GIFT FOR CHRIST
The
campaigns to gather funds for children, aged persons and poor families
are organized by the Association „Orthodox Philanthropy Alba Iulia” –
branch Reghin, in partnership with the organization Caritas and the
Charity Foundation Diakonia, with the occasion of Eastern and
Christmas.
The aim of these campaigns is to diminish the impact
of poverty upon children and elders by providing food packages with the
occasion of Christian feasts.
The campaigns are a means of approach between Christian NGOs; also,
they are very important for developing the skills of the association’s
members and volunteers to mobilize and use the financial resources of
the community.
„HELP doesn’t mean ALMS, but understanding and love, a lot of love; it
means to support the person in need to stand up and walk on his / her
own feet, according to his / her strength, not just to give him / her
something and letting him / her down, in his / her miserable state, far
from the human condition.”