Here's the official
charity Trustees' report for the year 2006 to 2007
The trustees report is written for our auditors and
goes into the accounts. This gave the most up to date information
on our activities at that time.
THE RELIEF FUND FOR ROMANIA LTD
REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2007
The members of the trustees, who are the trustee directors of the
Relief Fund for Romania Limited present their report and the audited
financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2006 .
WHO ARE WE?
We are a British charity, based in the UK, that raises funds and
spends them in Romania.
We have 2 full time charity staff and about 30 charity shop staff.
At any one time, we are paying for the salaries of 30 - 40 charity
workers in Romania.
All our trustees are Romanian.
We were formed by prominent Romanian exiles resident in the UK
in 1989 after the collapse of the dictatorship and were instrumental
in publicising the appalling plight of orphans and others in need.
We played a major part in coordinating the enormous aid response
from all over the UK and transported huge quantities of emergency
supplies. We helped to network many independent aid efforts. In
recent years we have set up and run various long-term sustainable
projects.
WHAT WE DO
We support various charity projects helping the children, the sick,
the elderly and other groups in need in Romania. We do this by providing
financial and material aid, promoting awareness and funding the
training of suitable Romanian professionals throughout Romania.
We mainly fund those Romanian charities with whom we work closely
on long-term community based projects. Occasionally we fund charity
projects run by independent Romanian groups ie with whom we aren’t
so closely involved. In these instances we ensure tight financial
controls are in place and monitor the work with regular reports
and visits.
We maintain a role of close involvement, advocacy, support and
evaluation of all operations we fund. All organisations submit quarterly
financial and project reports and we visit the projects in Romania
annually.
REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES APRIL 2006 – MARCH 2007
During 2006/2007, we continued to develop our work with the most
disadvantaged in Romania.
We continued to focus on enabling the Romanian NGO sector to develop
effective programmes of social support that can be contracted by
the state. In a country where few services are established and in
a climate of institution closure, we see this as vitally important
for Romania’s future.
On a national level, we funded various projects directly. In particular
M.S.Curie Hospital Bucharest / aka
The Budimex. Our long
standing association with this hospital continues. We employ a psychologist
to run a play therapy and educational program with the children
on the Surgical Unit / First Floor. Besides providing toys, games,
stationary and books the psychologist provides counseling to the
parents and children before and after surgical interventions.
In addition we also provide ad hoc funding to other parts of the
hospital and help to the medical staff – notably for training
costs.
We continued our informal support of the Romanian
Nursing Association
We continued our support of FAST,
a very worthwhile charity based in Brasov, by funding their core
admin costs (ie salaries and office costs) of around £7000.
We continued the development of the Impreuna
initiative: This offshoot to our long standing Impart
programme, is the national Community
Arts Network in Romania which exists to bring together both
practitioners and beneficiaries who are involved in Community Arts
for people with special needs.
The network consists of over 700 members from Romania
and abroad, professionals working in various fields: educators,
psychologists, carers, doctors, nurses, and teachers specializing
in children with special needs.
Also in the field of special needs we continued our funding of
the Mental Health charity
Estuar’s “Cooking Time” project in Bucharest.
Estuar is the leading
mental health charity in Romania which focuses on provided sheltered
housing and day care for the mentally ill.
The Cooking Time Project" at Estuar's Day Centre provides a
hot meal twice a week for 45 of the centre's users with mental health
problems or disabilities. The beneficiaries are closely involved
in the preparation and cooking and so learn new skills and to work
together in a team as well as benefiting from a nutritious and sociable
occasion."
We help the adult psychiatric institution
CRRN Gasteni, Bacau – and by association other
units – in particular by funding the artist and musician Vali
Racila to work there as the Arts and community reintegration therapist.
Vali organises arts events and in particular operates the in house
broadcasting system where the several hundred residents can watch
productions produced with great enthusiasm in their own TV studio.
This results in a great community spirit and ensures that everyone
is valued as an individual with feelings and human rights.
The “Theatre from Gasteni” also perform in other similar
centres, particularly this year at (CRRPH Ungureni, 'Condorul' Bacau
and CRRN Vermesti.
We funded a team from Gasteni to participate in the annual Relay
Run for Disabled People. Now in its 9th year, this year
the run went through parts of Sweden - Norway - Faroe Islands -
Iceland – Denmark.
In addition to the above, many regional community projects were
funded through our main partner organisation Fundatia
de Sprijin Comunitar (Community Support Foundation),
Bacau: (FSC).
We formed FSC from our existing projects and senior staff in 1997
and are proud that they have now reached their tenth year. They
are now one of the leading charities in Romania.
We now only fund about 30% of their costs, the rest coming from
local authority grants and their own fundraising. However our money
covers their crucial “core costs” – salaries,
office costs etc – which sadly most funders still do not seem
to think are an essential part of running a viable organisation.
So we need to keep supporting them.
This year our work together directly helped just
under 12,000 people through the following programmes;
- Home
Care of the Elderly sick and infirm in Romania
-
Mobile Health Care to Disadvantaged Rural Areas in Romania
- Street
Children’s Rescue, Refuge and Rehabilitation
- IMPART:
Arts Therapy for the Disabled for children and adults in institutions and
the
community
- Mobile
Pharmacy to isolated rural areas
- Plus ad hoc Emergency grants and social support for the
very poor
Highlights of FSC’s activities
during 2007
On February 2007 FSC organized the 6th Community Awards Gala and
the Volunteers Gala.
Both events had a great impact in the Bacau community attracting
over 250 volunteers, parents, authorities, many local and multinational
companies.
In June FSC celebrated 10 years of existence, a decade of hard
work, results and continuity. FSC are one of only a small number
of NGOs in Romania that were able to start large programmes that
are still viable. In the past 10 years FSC have;
o Served over 25,000 people,
o Have provided jobs for 200 people, of which 10 have been working
with us since the registration in 1997
o Been granted the hard earned “Public Utility Title”
by the Government
o Won many national awards
o Networked and lobbied hard for the development of the NGO sector
and of the legislation that governs the services
o Helped other charities in Romania to become
more effective with training and support
FSC took part in the “Social Care Stock Market” a project
by the American Chamber of Commerce
and the Association for Community
Relations with the “Summer school in rural
areas” project. Our project was one of the few to be “bought”
right away and entirely.
FSC were instrumental in organising the NGO
fair:
This comprised 30 participating NGOs, authorities and mass-media.
FSC was the initiator and together with 4 other NGOs the organizer
of the event. The aim of the event was to increase the visibility
of the NGO sector in the context of a general bad attitude and partnership
with the public administration.
The event was good and raised the visibility of the NGO sector
in the community. Also it was a great opportunity for strengthening
the partnership among the participants.
In November, at the 5th annual “People for People Gala”,
organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bucharest, FSC
won the award for the best programme and public volunteering campaign
in Romania for 2007.
FSC was also awarded for best project
for teenagers with the “summer school in rural
areas” by FONPC (Federation of NGOs working in Child Protection)
in December 2007.
And boy are we proud of them ;-)
The number of beneficiaries helped
by our main partner FSC in 2007
Programme |
Number of beneficiaries |
|
Integrated services in rural areas / Mobile Health |
9000 |
|
Impart – combined arts |
1850 |
|
Day centre for the elderly SPERANTA
- Dr. STEFAN CIOBANU |
256 |
|
Palliative care |
75 |
|
Home care of the elderly |
492 |
|
Pistruiatul –street children |
118 |
|
Volunteers Project |
206 |
|
Total individuals |
11,997 |
DETAILS
Mobile Health Care Programme: Podu Turcului area
Total beneficiaries in 2007 (estimated) 9000 as follows:
Medical services People for Home visits 1000
Mobile pharmacy 4000
Family planning 400
Help with hospital care 150
Social services families 80
Educational services children 400
Recipients of newspaper 8000
Health Services (mobile health services, mobile pharmacy,
family planning)
OVER 2500 home visits in 62 villages
1000 direct beneficiaries of home visits
8400 prescription delivered by the mobile pharmacy in 6 communities
121.000 km on the road
36 family planning sessions
over 400 beneficiaries of family planning services
Social Services
Around 80 families assessed and helped
700 home visits
Educational Services
302 children taking part in the summer school project
229 children direct beneficiaries of the educational centres
Community Development Services
28000 newspapers distributed free to the population
Approximately 10 meetings with local leaders.
IMPART: COMBINED ART TECHNIQUES
Total number of beneficiaries: 1840
In institutions 1594
Trainees 256
Number of hours training 224
Direct work 4880
Total kilometers in the country 13065
Number of institutions helped by the project 16
CASA PISTRUIATUL: reintegration of the homeless / street
children & support of the families
Total number beneficiaries 2007 118 as follows
Residential care 32
Day care 21
Families 19
Young street boys 46
VOLUNTEERS PROGRAMME
Average volunteering hours 65
Total active volunteers 206
Total hours in 2007 were 117,000
Total hours of training achieved for the volunteers: 540
Total number of beneficiaries helped by the volunteers were
215 as follows
“Casa Pistruiatul” / the Home 20
Homebound elderly 30
Various centres of the Child Protection Department 125
Bacau Hospital 30
Care of Elderly Podu Turcului 10
Total 215
To
See last year's report Click here
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