At the beginning of the post-Communist era, Romanian orphanages were grim, badly lit, and horribly overcrowded. The children were dirty, badly neglected and undernourished.
Thankfully, many of this has changed due to pressure and funding from the international community. Romania has made significant changes to the way orphans are cared for and the monstrous, bleak, Dickensian institutions have disappeared replaced instead by a number of smaller specialist foundations and an effective fostering system.
However, a lot is still to be done. Although the orphanages are now better resourced, the orphanages are still very keen for people like you to come and help care for the children. There are still simply not enough adult carers to give the children the individual attention that they deserve and need, particularly where the children have physical and mental challenges. This is where you come in. Your help is needed to help the staff with basic tasks like feeding, bathing and caring for the children as well as simply just spending time with individuals keeping them active with after school activities and games.
What's Included
- Accommodation
- UK support (including predeparture information on your placement and accommodation)
- Airport pick-up
- Local induction
- Culture and language course (where applicable)
- Local overseas support
- Food (in project accommodation)
Accommodation
During your time with us in Romania, you will be staying with a local family, usually with another volunteer. All our volunteers in Romania are based in Brasov so you will find it easy to meet up with others to socialise with in the evenings or arrange to go travelling at weekends.
We like to place people with families, where possible as this is a great way to get to know more about the way of life and culture in Romania. However, if you would prefer not to stay with a local family, hostel accommodation is available at an extra cost.
The standard of the accommodation will basic and not be what you are used to at home so please don’t expect all mod cons, but it will be clean and tidy.
The houses are usually very well heated in the cold winter months, in fact in some cases too well heated! However, in the hot summers, airconditioning is rare.
Meal times in Romania are often a big occassion with lots of courses, so you will be well fed throughout your stay.
Weekend
Your weekends are usually free and, depending on how many volunteers are overseas with you, you are based in the same area which means that you can easily go travelling at weekends. Our location in Romania means that you are close to some of the it's most popular attractions.
The historic town of Brasov is fringed by the peaks of the Southern Carpathian Mountains and is resplendent with gothic, baroque and renaissance architecture, as well as a wealth of historical attractions.