#12 Christiana Association & Foundation of Elderly Care

#12 Christiana Association & Foundation of Elderly Care

Christiana was established in Cluj in 2007.  They have 7 programs based off of the different needs.  For example, education, child abandonment, prevention, youth center and 2nd Chance.  We met with the coordinator and director of programs.  I think he was a minister but I am not sure.  We also had a chance to meet with 4 students that attend their 2nd Chance program.  These students have repeated grades and cannot continue in the main stream schools.  They were 19 years old-8th grade, 17 years old-5th grade, 19 years old-7th grade and 28 years old-8th grade.  One of the students was a girl from Pata Rat the Roma village.  She is the kindergarten teacher there.  The social worker at Christiana goes out to schools to find students that are at risk of dropping out.  The SW also deals with issues in the schools, financial, illness and family problems. While chatting with the students they told us that they like sports, helping their family, doing farm work and chores.  These students have family support which is difficult to come by.  The director said their biggest challenge is motivating children.  What was nice about this place was that we felt at home.  For the first time the director and the students asked us questions back.  It was the first time people wanted to know more about us.

Foundation of Elderly Care is a day program for improving the lives of the elderly.    They have 156 registered people.  They offer activities such as: social/recreation, art/dance/theater, book club, aerobics and education classes.  When we walked in everyone was very excited to say hello to us.  They were playing card games, chess, checkers etc.  The elders serve as volunteers themselves.  The foundation receives money from a Switzerland Foundation and donations.  They also offer medical home care for those that have chronic health conditions.  During the meeting a man came in, he has been there the longest.  He spoke a lot about the center what they do.  It was kind of difficult to understand him.  Everyone seemed really happy there.  As for the social worker they do assessments, establish intervention plan, monitor cases, counseling and support.