Brief History

The Romanian Foundation for Children, Community and Family was legally registered in 1997 as a sole founder foundation. The founder, the British charity Christian Children's Fund of Great Britain (CCF GB), had been active in Romania since 1991, when it started to finance orphanages and other childcare institution projects in partnership with a Romanian NGO based in Oradea. In 1992, CCF GB started another partnership with an NGO from Cluj, aiming at preventing underprivileged family children from being abandoned into childcare institutions. Some of these projects are still being run by FRCCF, but at a greater scale. Now, CCF GB is called EveryChild and it is FRCCF's main partner.

This brief history is needed to stress the expertise FRCCF has got in running projects: from the emergency material support at the beginning (childcare institution sanitation and cleaning projects, staff training, furniture endowment and bedding, construction works, financial support to low-income families with many children, etc.) to the specialised social care, psychological, educational, legal and medical intervention today, focusing on preventing child abandonment.

Continuously growing, in 2003 FRCCF successfully merged with European Children's Trust Romania, which meant a wider geographical coverage (with new projects in the county of Maramureş) and a more diversified expertise, covering foster care and care for children with special needs as well.

In 2004, FRCCF was granted public utility status by Government Decision 1479 / 2004, published in the Official Monitor No 847 / 16 September 2004.

FRCCF has been a member of the Child Protection NGO Federation since 1999 and the founding member of CONSENS, the Social Care NGO's Council.

Although legally registered as a foundation, FRCCF is organized as an association. It is run by a Board of Trustees, made of non-executive volunteers who decide on FRCCF's policies and principles, approve budgets and action plans, activity and financial reports, as well as FRCCF's future plans.

The toughest task for the FRCCF senior management and the Board of Trustees is yet to come: to successfully finish the FRCCF localisation until 2008, in other words help FRCCF reach full financial independence from EveryChild UK.