Fundatia Inocenti – Romanian Children’s Relief is a non-profit organization that helps children reach their full potential. We support children, young people and their families through structured programs run by specialists in the field to prevent and alleviate at risk situations.
We have been operating in Romania for more than 30 years, helping children from disadvantaged backgrounds to go beyond their limits. We work in hospitals, schools, family homes, at the beneficiaries’ homes or in the community, providing professional and personalized support to both children and their families. Since 2018, a new component has been added to our mission, namely prevention and education on mental health.
We are committed to professional development and consider our most valuable asset to be our team of more than 40 employees, together with more than 100 volunteers, all of them helping annually more than 2000 children at risk in Bistrita-Nasaud, Bucharest, Ilfov and Cluj-Napoca. Our teams and volunteers provide psychological support, recovery activities, formal and non-formal education, training and financial help when needed.
We believe that all children have the right to a healthy and happy childhood. That is why we work towards a day when no child’s future will be limited by their background or disability and that their parents, community and authorities will work together to support this ideal.
In 1990, a photo-documentary for the Boston Globe newspaper by photographer Michael Carroll and Dr. Bill Griffo of New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center revealed the plight of Romanian orphans and the pediatric AIDS epidemic in Romania. This footage attracted significant attention and support in the United States, inspiring Carroll and Griffo to establish Romanian Children’s Relief that same year. This is a US-based, non-profit, charitable organization whose goal is to help Romanian children in need. Eight years later, in 1998, Fundația Inocenți was officially registered in Romania, based in Bistrita, Bistrita-Nasaud county.
Programs that have ended:
2012 – 2017 – Playroom in the Pediatric Ward of the “George Trifon” City Hospital, Năsăud, Bistrita-Nasaud county
2012 – 2017 – Playroom in the Pediatric Ward, Beclean City Hospital, Bistrita-Nasaud county
2014 – 2020 – Educational Support Program Slătinița, Bistrita-Nasaud county
2016 – 2020 – “Child Life” Program at the Clinical Hospital of Recovery Cluj-Napoca