“One child, one hope” (=Ro: “Un copil, o speranta”) Foundation was created in June 1998, through the common initiative of the establishing member, Mrs. Elena Miruna Tudorache (the foundation’s president) and a group of French people with a generous heart who were preoccupied by the Romanian abandoned children. The activities started with the Reception and Family Placement Centre – SURYA HOUSE – in December 24th 1998. Beginning with 1999, the foundation started the assistance activity for the poor families in Sibiu, with the Social Assistance and Abandon Prevention Program.

• Surya House(shelter and family placement center) was operated until December 2001; its purpose was to offer optimal living and educational conditions for children with problems, during their staying. The main scope of the program was to be and to give a solution for crisis situations (family separation, child abandon, conjugal violence etc). The solutions were to either reintegrate the child in his own family or in a foster family, in these cases it could be in a family with a maternal assistant (professional mother) or a natural family. The main objectives of the whole structure were: the reintegration in the natural family (by materially supporting the family for a 6 months period of time), the family placement; either into a professional maternal assistant family, or in a natural foster family.

• Maternal assistance network. As an answer to the children’s need of family integration, the foundation analyzed the possibilities, prepared and developed, even from 1999, a maternal assistant network, prepared to receive children of different ages and with different social-psychological characteristics. Up to the undertaking of this network by the General Direction of Child Protection in Sibiu in August 2001, the foundation prepared and sustained 32 maternal assistants (the so called professional mothers).

• The Social Assistance and Abandonment Prevention Program started in June 1999, with the purpose of giving material support and specialized counseling, for family with problems. The objectives are: preventing small age children abandonment (the support is given in order to maintain the child in his family) and the reintegration of the institutionalized child in his natural family, by continuing our support when the child (or children) is reintegrated, so we can assure some of the proper conditions to remain there.

• The sustaining project for the poor Roma community in Vurpar village - started in the beginning of 2000, its impulse was a wide study of the community: the dynamic of the population, the social and economical problems as well as educational and health problems.

• Surya House – is an articulated structure for children: receiving and placement center, day care, emergency shelter, a place for mothers and children with special needs.

  • The receiving and placement center worked as a temporary home (for about 4 months) which offered the child an appropriate environment for his situation and gave us the time to find the appropriate solution for his case. Once the child’s family situation was clear and the physical and psychological balance of the child was obtained, we would go on to the next step.

  • The day care center worked as a free kindergarten.

  • The maternal center was sheltering mothers and their infants for a period of about 6 months during which we were able to find a solution for their situation (a job, a place to stay, the continuation of the material and psycho-relational help).

• Social Assistance and Support Program for preventing Child Abandonment was and is structured with two components:

  • Material support for 3 to 6 months.

  • Counseling for families in difficulty through our team of Social Workers and Psychologists.

• Maternal assistance network adopting, next to other protection forms, foster parenting and the placement into a family with a “professional mother”, UCOS Foundation found itself in the situation of comparing their evolution, the theoretical basis coming into reality by the practical experience that we got through the direct contact with a wide variety of situations. Thus we came to the conclusion that foster parenting is better than the placement into a family with a “professional mother”:

  • The “professional mother” has more of a formal character that generates certain “inconveniences” such as: the dynamic with the beneficiaries meaning less implication from the rest of the “professional mothers’” family members.

  • Simple placement or foster parenting in a normal family who really wants to take care of a child offers more stability. The foster family is completely involved and the results are more concrete.

• Social Assistance and Support Program for the Poor Roma Community in Vurpar (Village in Sibiu County) – started at the beginning of the year 2000 with a large field study motivated by an acute social problem: one third of the beneficiaries of”Surya House” were coming from this community. For an efficient intervention, the foundation became partner with the Franche Comte Carpates Association of France and the Mayor’s office in Vurpar. From this team work we were able to renovate and to furnish with medical equipment the Community Health Centre. We could also help the poorest families with clothing, shoes and to give a free access to medical services and medication according the priority to children. The main scope of the program is the social and economical recovery of the village. We want to achieve that through socio-professional reintegration, both by encouraging the agricultural and handicraft activities, and facilitating the access to education and to proper health care services.