This year, we are enjoying the 20th anniversary of the Impact program, through which the Motivation Romania Foundation became the family of 25 young people with disabilities, taken from state run institutions.
The start of the program was in 2001, when we became partners of the Impact Alliance, an international initiative of Mosaic and other non-governmental organizations in the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany and the United States. Together, we assessed the needs of children with disabilities living in state institutions, in conditions that did not allow them a favorable physical and mental development. Following the visits to the state center in Tâncăbești, we developed an intervention plan, built group homes and started deinstitutionalizing children with medium and severe disabilities.
20 years later, the children of that time are already adults. We give our youth the protection
and warmth of a family. They access therapies that help them discover and improve their social and independent living skills. Together, we work in the occupational workshop, the physiotherapy room, the sensory stimulation room or in speech therapy. They attend psychological counselling and personal development groups. We learn to work with wood, to use the sewing machine, to grow plants, to
help those around us. Together, we enjoy every success.
Even though, in the context of the pandemic, we could not meet face to face, we were glad to see our partners again at an anniversary meeting, online. On this occasion, we unraveled memories from the beginning of the #Impact program and shared the successes of our young people, themselves present at the meeting.
One of the messages sent by Ionuț to the initiators of the program was: “Thank you for taking me from there and for wanting to be my parents. To me, you are guardian angels.” Ionut is 24 years old and has been in Motivation care since he was 6 years old. He is passionate about sports, Chinese culture, documentaries about the evolution of the earth, the solar system, meteorites and is a real encyclopedia when it comes to dinosaurs.
