FRCCF Celebrates 10 Years of Working with Children!

1,000 balloons will fly over the city of Cluj carrying messages of the children from this town and of those supported by FRCCF. The Foundation celebrates its 10th anniversary and would like to remind everyone how important children are for any community.

On the 20 th of November, the Universal Children's Day, FRCCF invites all the children from Cluj to the Unirii Square to draw or write on its anniversary balloons a message to their parents, grandparents, neighbours or to the whole world! FRCCF will launch the balloons with the children's messages on the same day starting 4 p.m.

On the 22 nd of November, the Foundation will also announce the winners of Take Pictures of Childhood! competition. Fifty-six children sent photographs and signed up for this competition, carried out from the 20 th of October to the 10 th of November . All they had to do was to take a picture of something that, in their opinion, illustrates childhood. This competition was organised in partnership with the Cluj County School Inspectorate and Mihai Bota, a professional photographer, was one of the jury members. The best pictures of childhood will be displayed during an exhibition at the National Museum of Art from Cluj on the same Universal Children's Day and also for FRCCF's 10 th anniversary.

During the whole week, the Students' House from Cluj-Napoca will be covered up in a giant canvas painted by the children who attend the FRCCF community centres.

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10 Years of FRCCF

In the last ten years, we have helped needy children and offered support to their families and communities . So far, we have made a difference to the lives of 6,947 children. We have stood by them and made sure that their rights are observed, that they receive proper life advice and that they never feel lonely.

Over these ten years, we worked with children, families and communities from the counties of Cluj, Bihor, Satu Mare, Maramures, Bistrita, Salaj. Our work had a positive impact on the lives of over 20,000 people from all these families and communities. In the last 10 years, we stayed close to the children from poverty-stricken towns thanks to our community centres, helping them to cope with their family's burdens and school problems. We supported rural communities to create the perfect environment for their children to grow and study in. We stood by the children from childcare institutions and special schools and contributed to their independent life training. We helped communities struggling with migration issues keep their children and youth away from migration dangers and child trafficking.

We were the first non-governmental organization from Transylvania which was granted public utility status. We set up 7 community centres, 2 group homes, we worked in 27 childcare institutions and 4 rural community development programmes, and the peak of our work was running 44 projects at the same time. We managed 4 EU-funded Phare big projects and we were partners in other 3 projects financed by the same body. We teamed up with UNICEF in 4 important projects. We succeeded in always reaching the proposed goals and showed efficiency, responsibility, transparency, stability and, most of all, respect of the supported children, families and communities. Still, we didn't forget to celebrate important moments in every community with special events – such as JOOnior Park on the International Children's Day. We organised Christmas charity performances of the singers Narcisa Suciu and Paula Seling or of the pantomime artist Dan Puric and we started a new tradition in Cluj-Napoca : The Christmas Fair – Children's Christmas – similar to those from big European cities.

In these 10 years, we invested over 22 million lei in the future of FRCCF-supported children. This investment and the project outcomes were made possible by British donors, EveryChild, the European Union, other non-governmental organizations and institutions, the communities where we work, Romanian companies and donors and by our own efforts. We started off with 14 employees and we now have a staff of 92 people who are a part of a much bigger team that includes volunteers, partners, associates and donors, as well as all those who believe in us and support our cause.

We would like to thank everyone and to you for every smile you brought to a child's face in these 10 years in which you supported FRCCF!