About the Relief Fund for Romania
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We are a British charity, based in the UK, that raises
funds and spends them in Romania.
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By UK standards we are relatively modestly sized. However in
Romania we are a significant funder and one of the leading UK
Romanian aid groups.
We are generally seen as "punching way above our weight"
- in terms of what we manage to achieve with the resources
available to us.
We have 3 full time charity staff and about 30 charity shop
staff.
Our annual budget is usually around £250,000.
All our trustees are Romanian.
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What we do
We either fund Romanian charities - with whom we work closely on
various long-term community based projects - see our
partners or we deliver services directly with our own projects.
Our charity also funds national campaigns and training
programmes particularly focusing on human rights in institutions
and community
care of the elderly.
See our projects
Read why Romania
still needs help
Back to
Top
How we work
Our work focuses on the principles of self-help
and aims to spread successful project models.
What has been
tried and tested is communicated to others.
We listen to our Romanian colleagues, identify
and study problems where we can make a difference and work with
them to create workable solutions with defined aims and timescales.
We work
in established partnerships with Romanian registered
charitable organizations.
Our main partner, Fundatia de Sprijin Comunitar, was formed
by staff who have worked with us from the outset.
Where relevant, we work with specialist organizations such as the
World Health Organisation, Action Space Mobile and Music as Therapy.
To read more about our Romanian partners
please click here Back to Top
Our current projects include:
Standards of Nursing
Care
…… introducing better standards in children's hospitals
Tuberculosis
……
reforming treatment in line with WHO recommendations
Street
Children
…… outreach work, refuge and rehabilitation
Mobile Health Care
……
to isolated rural communities
Home Care
of the Elderly
…… a care programme for the elderly
infirm or disabled
Impart
…… music, art, movement and play therapy for the institutionalised
Training programmes
………
training in home care, health promotion and arts therapy
Therapy
Through Art
…… speech therapy funding in a special needs centre
Mental
Health
…… supporting Estuar, the leading mental health
charity
The Romanian Nursing Association
…… the funding of resources, information and publications
To read more in detail about these please see Our
Projects Back to Top
Testimonials
"It is good to see the
RFFR responding to the TB crisis so effectively."
Dr Arata
Kochi, Head WHO Global TB Programme.
"None of this
(TB programme development) would have been possible without the sensitive and
flexible approach of the RFFR."
Professor Emil Corlan,
Head Romania National TB Programme.
"I am pleased to
inform you the Relief Fund for Romania is the first British Charity to have been
awarded our Seal of Approval."
Dr John Beishon
Chief
Executive
Accrediting Bureau of Fundraising Organisations Back
to Top
Our
Aims And Objectives
The relief of poverty, sickness
and distress through projects helping the children, sick and elderly of Romania's
institutions and most disadvantaged communities.
To sponsor national campaigns, for example, for the prevention of tuberculosis
and the raising of standards of medical care. To support the
emerging charity sector through capacity building and to encourage Romanian professionals
to channel their energies and talents into improving their society. To
continue helping those most in need by funding projects. Back
to Top
Our Reputation For Successful
Work
The Relief Fund has built up a hard-earned reputation
for producing effective work in what is widely acknowledged as a
very difficult arena in which to operate.
Our projects in Romania have helped many thousands
of children, sick and elderly, making a real difference to their
lives, whilst also supporting the struggling Romanian professionals
who are working for them.
The importance we place on the opinions of the Romanian
colleagues ensures that the work we do is relevant and doesn't
simply impose our own Western values, which would ignore the very
different social, economic and cultural conditions that resulted
from Ceausescu's extremely severe totalitarian regime and remain
to this day..
We were the first charity
in the UK to be awarded a Seal of Approval by the Accrediting Bureau
of Fundraising Organisations, an initiative which involved detailed examination
of a charity's work, accounts and administration systems, to show that we are
accountable to the public. Back to Top 
How We Are Funded We
are funded by public donations, grant-making trusts and our charity shops.
To date we have raised over £3 million for Romania. See our latest
accounts which show very low administration costs.
We focus on spending
donations quickly and effectively. Sadly, demand for help always
exceeds our ability to respond and we have to refuse many heartbreaking requests.
We guarantee that 100% of
any donation from a member of the public will go directly to Romania.
(This is because our administration costs are funded
separately).
Back
to Menu
Our History
The Relief Fund for Romania was founded by leading Romanian exiles
from Communism led by Ion Ratiu RIP (1917 –
2000), distinguished Romanian diplomat, entrepreneur, publisher,
writer and humanitarian. He devoted his life to the fight for democracy
in Romania.
Ion Ratiu also co-founded Amnesty International withh
Peter Beneson
As Ceausescus' appalling regime collapsed, he set
up the charity - the first of many to be formed.
We were a major focal point of the UK's generous aid
response.
We were
soon involved in publicising the terrible plight of the children and adults in
the orphanages and psychiatric hospitals. We then played a
significant part in coordinating the huge aid response to the Romanina orphans,
transporting huge quantities of emergency supplies and networking aid efforts
to Romania, particularly from the UK.
| We soon saw the dangers of enthusiastic
but unfocused aid and led many of the more serious aid groups on formative policies.
For example we discouraging the expensive transportation of
donated toys and other materials to Romanian orphanages. Although
given with the best of intentions these were often broken and of little use to
the orphans - who needed a serious long-term approach to their proper care and
future. |
We now fund various long-term community-based and
national projects and campaigns helping Romanian orphans, institutionalised
children and adults and others in need.
All of our trustees are Romanian.
Back to Top
About our website
Please note that our website was built and is maintained by volunteers.
This means it might not always be as up to date as it should be.
For example we might still show links to old projects, and not
show any thing at all about new projects.
If you see anything that looks odd please do contact
us to let us know and we will do our best to change it asap.
Thank you
If you would like to make a
quick secure donation to help
those in need in Romania please click
here
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