Children suffering from asthma are helped by the FRCCF and OZONE Foundation for a second year in a row

The OZONE Foundation and the Romanian Foundation for Children, Community anf Family provide a treatment in the Turda salt mine to children with severe respiratory diseases from Cluj-Napoca each year. The programme has been implemented since 2000.

The beneficiaries of this treatment are 35 children who attend the FRCCF community centres and come from families with very low incomes. The children are selected by a medical doctor and the social workers of the FRCCF. Starting today (Monday, 1st September) they will follow a 10-day treatment at the Turda salt mine. The children will be taken to the salt mine where they will stay for 4 hours and then will be brought back to Cluj.

„For the children suffering from severe respiratory diseases the anualt salt mine treatment guarantees they will be able to go to school, it means that the disesase won't keep them inside, away from the usual activities children usually do” as Camelia Mates, the FRCCF PR&Fundraising Director told us .

The most recent study carried out by FRCCF which monitored the health status of its beneficiaries, show that almost 16% of them suffer from respiratory diseases (asthma, different types of bronchitis, recurrent colds and tuberculosis). Most of the time these are combined with other conditions related to the cardiovascular or digestive systems, or rheumatic or psychic disorders. This is caused by inapproprriate living conditions and lack of proper food. Not only children are affected by these diseases, their parents or other family members as well ( Health Status of the FRCCF Beneficiaries , Romanian Foundation for Children, Community and Family, August 2006).

“This is the second year in a row when the Ozone Foundation joins FRCCF in an attempt to offer children suffering from asthma a treatment which improve their health and give them the chance to enjoy a normal life. It is crucial to give these vulnerable children a chance to cure . ”, as Georgiana Grecu, The OZONE Foundation Executive Director told us.

„This is the ninth year I take my children to the salt mine. In our family I have asthma and two of my children as well. If it hadn't been for FRCCF to take us to the salt mine I don't thing my eldest daughter would have finished highschool. She would have stayed more at home than at school. ” (M.G., mother who benefited from the salt mine treatment, together with two of her children).

So far, on the average, 38 children followed this treatment each year and most of them started it in the year 2000.

During the 10-day period of treatment, the children are supervised all the time by the social worker in charge of the project. They do all kinds of games (volleyball, football, badmington, rope skipping), that keep them busy for four hours and enhance the benefits of the cure due to a deeper breathing.

About OZONE

The OZONE Foundation launched itself in December 2005 and its main activity is to education the population with regards to selfmedication. The OZONE Foundation ran a project, within the For a rational selfmedication campaign , addressing highschool students called Information means health. Learn how to stay informed . The main advocate of the social campaigns run by the OZONE Foundation is the Ozone Laboratories company. www.ozone.ro