From August 6 to November 30, Holcim Romania have a new edition of the Build a House, Give a Home campaign.

Starting in May 2018, project beneficiary Hope and Homes for Children Romania, together with the Baia Mare Municipality and the Nicolae Bălcescu Lower Secondary School, are implementing the project “Integrated measures in education for 840 children and 260 young people and adults: Education for the Future!”

On July 12, Hope and Homes for Children, the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection (DGASPC) in Bucharest Sector 4 and Holcim Romania organised an event to launch the construction work on the Cavalerii small group home in Sector 4. By the end of the year, this will be the new home of 12 children coming from the Robin Hood placement centre, which is currently being closed down.

On 3 and 4 July, the Hope and Homes for Children Foundation, in partnership with the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection (DGASPC) Bistrița-Năsăud and the Bistrița-Năsăud County Council, inaugurated three small group homes – two in Năsăud and one in Bistrița, which have been developed in the closing down process of the Năsăud placement centre.

On Saturday, June 30, 15 swimmers participated in the Bucharest Swimathon to support the cause of the Hope and Homes for Children Foundation and raised the necessary funds to help a mother and her four children remain together.

After the success of the first edition, in the fall of last year, the project A Bookcase in Every House, a partnership between Deliver Love – The Letter Studio and Hope and Homes for Children, continued this year.

Hope and Homes for Children and the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection Botoșani (DGASPC) have initiated the closing down of the Dumbrava Minunată placement centre in Pomârla, Botoșani County; the project aims to build and open two small group homes for the 24 children and young people out of the 48 currently living in this centre.

On June 7, His Excellency Paul Brummell, the UK Ambassador to Romania, hosted an event dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Hope and Homes for Children in Romania. Hope and Homes for Children is a global organisation founded in the UK in 1994 by Mark and Caroline Cook.

On May 17, the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, signed the official decree to decorate Hope and Homes for Children Founders Mark and Caroline Cook and regional director for Central and South Europe Ștefan Dărăbuș. The three have become Knights of the Faithful Service order, as a token of “appreciation for the remarkable and constant activity to the benefit of the Romanian child protection system reform and for their hard work to ensure the financing of dedicated programmes”.

On May 13, over 500 Team Hope runners participated in the 7th edition of the Volkswagen Bucharest Half Marathon and raised over 250,000 lei that will be directed to the Hope and Homes for Children prevention programme against child-family separation.

Andra, Smiley, Alexandru Tomescu, Irina Iordăchescu, Zoli TOTH Project, Marius Manole, Andrei Licareț, The Mono Jacks and the Violoncellissimo Ensemble performed on the Romanian Athenaeum Stage.

Hope and Homes for Children initiated the Special Winter Games in 2000, in order to socially integrate children and young people with special needs through winter leisure activities and sports competitions.

The entire Hope and Homes for Children team mourns the demise of Princess Marina Sturdza, who was our Patron for so many years, a person who inspired each of us to live our lives in such a way that we can do good for others.

Princess Marina Sturdza died on October 22 at her residence in New York, after an exemplary life whose second part was almost entirely dedicated to charity. These days we think of the thousands of children whose lives became better thanks to the involvement of Princess Marina Sturdza.

50 children and young people aged between 12 and 21 years, beneficiaries of the programmes of Hope and Homes for Children Romania participated in the 12th edition of the Art and Solidarity Camp, held between 21 and 28 August in Deseşti (Maramureș County). Children and young participants benefited from guidance from 50 artists - painters and teachers in the UK, Ukraine, and Romania - who become mentors for a week. The camp was organized by the Orthodox Parish in Deseşti in partnership with Hope and Homes for Children Romania, and was supported by BRD Groupe Société Générale and the company’s employees through the programme "Super People for Super Chance".

On Sunday, the 10th of April, the Romanian Athenaeum hosted the fourth edition of Hope Concert, a cultural and charitable event organized by Hope and Homes for Children Foundation. This edition was attended by over 800 guests who have chosen to show their support for the most vulnerable children in Romania. Guests of honor of the event were Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos and his wife, Valerie, Princess Marina Sturdza, honorary president of the Hope and Homes for Children, Aura Răducu, Minister of European Funds, Violeta Alexandru, Minister for Public Consultation and Cici Dialogue, HMA Paul Brummel, the British Ambassador in Romania, HE Werner Hans Lauk, German Ambassador, HE Diego Brasioli, Italian Ambassador, Valeriu Nicolae, State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection and Gabriela Coman, president of the National Authority for Child Protection and Adoption.

In the small group homes in Baia Mare (Maramures County) and at the “22 Decembrie” Day Centre we do activities through which the children and young adults can acquire independent living skills before they leave the child protection system. It is important, especially for young adults, to acquire these skills, because most of them have not been involved in such activities when they were younger and they could use neither the method of imitating adults – as there was no family model available to them – nor the “trial and error” one (because they received too many things that were already done for them or they were forced to accept predetermined conditions, or, in some cases, they were not motivated enough to search for a solution themselves).

On January 15th and 16th, 46 children from several small group homes in Maramures County enjoyed the snow and the cold weather and had their first encounter with the winter sports as part of the 6th edition of the TuSport Snow Day, organised by TuSport, under the umbrella of the International Ski Federation. The children learnt to ski and they went sledding down the Icoana ski slope in Cavnic (Maramures County) and enjoyed very much to skate on the skating rink in the Old Centre of Baia Mare. 

During 22-23 November, we organised in Bacau a seminar-workshop for the North-East Region on “Preventing the separation of children from their families, as part of the reform process and the structural funding opportunities”, through Human Capital Operational Programmes (HCOP) and the Regional one (ORP), for the 2014-2020 Structural Funding period.

On Monday, December 19th, the educational partnership between Hope and Homes for Children Romania and the National Museum of Art of Romania was launched during an event at the museum. The children from our programmes in Bucharest and Baia Mare created ornaments for the traditional Christmas tree placed on the ground floor of the National Gallery.

At the beginning of the Christmas Fast, Hope and Homes for Children launched the “Sharing is Caring” campaign through which they want to give the fasting time a purpose and to challenge people to fast for one day and then donate the value of the meals they were supposed to eat that day to the children who life with less than 5 lei/day. The authors of the creative concept of the campaign and the site were Cohn & Jansen JWT, with help from Atelieru, and illustrations by Vali Petridean.