Abandoned at birth, or removed from their families because of a mental or physical disability, these children were hidden away in facilities that barely met their most basic needs.

Our work in Romania

We began working in Romania in 1998 and it was here that we developed our pioneering method for closing institutions and setting up the necessary range of alternative care services.

Although very reluctant to accept a completely new form of childcare at first, the government and local authorities are now fully committed to reforming the social system and closing the country’s institutions, so that all children can grow up in family-based care.

We have published our methods, and as a result of our hands-on work, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation support our model as Best Practice in the field. We have used our model to close 13 institutions in Romania, including two institutions we directly closed in 2007 – transforming the lives of over 200 children. However, using our methods, training and materials, local authorities across Romania closed 23 institutions themselves.

We are currently in the process of closing three institutions – Sacel, Ocna Sugatag, Barbu Delavrancea – which are situated in three different counties and are home to 385 children in total. Also, two of these closures, Ocna Sugatag and Barbu Delavrancea, are part of our new partnership with Absolute Return for Kids (ARK). Find out more about the the HHC-ARK Partnership for Romania.

We are delighted to announce that on 4 March 2010 we successfully closed the Comanesti institution – find out more.