ElectricAid in drive for reforms in Romanian orphanages One of Romania's most notorious institutions, the grim "orphanage" at Negru Voda, has finally been closed, replaced by a new facility and a community-based programme for young adults with disabilities. The Negru Voda institution has been featured in previous EM reports on ElectricAid initiatives, and was also the subject of an awardwinning RTE documentary, Forgotten Children, Growing Older, produced by the Would You Believe team in 2003. ESB staff involvement with Negru Voda goes back to 1995, when the Trade Aid organisation, including many ESB staff among its ranks, began its efforts to provide basic sanitation and services for residents. At that time, there were only two working toilets for almost three hundred persons with moderate to severe disability, and the facility was a hellish scene of squalor and deprivation. It quickly became clear that Negru Voda was not simply an isolated instance, but a symptom of a much greater malaise in the entire system of care for the disabled in Romania. Tens of thousands of individuals all over the country were crammed into dilapidated buildings staffed by untrained and unmotivated personnel. A number of Trade Aid volunteers set up an organisation, Focus on Romania, and teamed with Cork-based social care specialists The Aurelia Trust to attack the problem, lobbying at every level in Romania and the European Union to secure reforms ahead of Romania's accession to the EU. Meanwhile, the Irish group devised a closure model for Negru Voda, incorporating international best practice, and proposed this as a pilot project that could be rolled out to reform all of Romania's institutions. Plans included community housing for those capable of semi-independent living, and specialised residential centres for those needing constant care. The project also included the establishment of a training curriculum for all levels of staff. At the end of May, Negru Voda finally closed its doors, and the new centre at Techirghiol was jointly opened by representatives of the Romanian government, John Mulligan of Focus on Romania and Brian Lenihan, Irish Minister for Children. The training programme for the community homes, devised by The Aurelia Trust and funded by ElectricAid, is now incorporated into the Romanian national curriculum, and is the very definition of "a gift that keeps on giving." As it is taught throughout Romania over the coming years it will have a huge effect in improving care standards nationally, as well as changing the mindset of thousands of institutional staff with regard to persons with disability. Meanwhile, Focus on Romania is now engaged in efforts to accelerate the rollout process. Plans are in place for a further ten community homes in the region, and sites are now being sought for this expansion. Other NGOs are also following the lead of the Irish group, and additional community homes are under development in other parts of the country, using the best practice standards set by the Irish project as their guide.
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