ABOUT RCR

Just four weeks after the Romanian Revolution in the early 1990s, Michael Carroll, a Boston based photojournalist traveled to Romania to document the post-communist society and the rapidly spreading AIDS epidemic. What he found were malnourished orphans in grave conditions living in overcrowded, under-served orphanages. His photos were published in The Boston Globe and the New York Times bringing awareness to the western world to Romania's lost children. Shortly after, Carroll founded Romanian Children's Relief, a non-profit organization which supports Romanian children and families in need to prevent child abandonment.

Along with its Romanian branch, Fundatia Inocenti, a team of dedicated staff, volunteers and medical professionals who work together to implement child life programs in hospitals and after school programs as well as professional development to medical staff.

Inocenti Child Life Programs

Pediatric hospitals in Romania often do not have an integrated child-focused or psycho-social approach to helping their young patients. Following the U.S. Child Life model, Fundatia Inocenti has brought to Romania several Inocenti Child Life programs which now operate in 5 Romanian hospitals. For 30 years, their expertise has been not only in supporting children and their parents, but in assisting in the development of a new generation of medical professionals within Romania hospitals. Inocenti is joined in this endeavor with the University of Bucharest Medical School and Babes-Boylai School of Phsycology in Cluj. In accordance with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child in a healthcare facility “has the right to play and learn, even if he/she is receiving care.” (Article 28, 29, 31 UN-CRC). It is our mission to help the most vulnerable children to not only heal, but also to acquire the resilience to feel safe to play, create, explore, and develop to their fullest potential, even while in the hospital.

Inocenti Children’s Therapeutic Books

Books Developed by Fundatia Inocenti-RCR team of Psychologists and Medical partners, this first series of 7 illustrated children’s books helps children by telling the stories of characters with the following common pediatric conditions: Cardiology, Orthopedics, Gastro-Enterology, Neurology, Pneumology and Psychiatry. For example, “The Story of Tummy The Whale” who has stomach pain, helps children understand pain, anxiety, nausea and the importance of receiving help and treatment. Within our Child Life programs, we also reach out to parents with these books, providing a special Journal for them, while providing essential staff counseling and support for them during their child’s time in the hospital.