Workshop 1.6 - Deutscher Verein für öffentliche und private Fürsorge

The National Council of Elderly Persons includes 8 organizations of elderly persons, representatives at the national level. Their
presidents are members of the Permanent Commission. At local level, there are organized county councils of elderly persons, whose
members are involved in the activities of the public administration focused on the real needs of the old persons living in each community.
The representatives from central and local level work together, during the meetings of plenary sessions.
The main skills of the Council are:
• to support the governmental institutions to implement the recommendations of The World Assembly on Ageing;
• to elaborate proposals of programs concerning the quality of life of elderly persons;
• to monitor the application of the legislation and to inform the authorities about the identified disorders;
• to elaborate, in partnership with competent institutions, studies and sociological analyses;
• to strengthen the associative movement of elderly persons and their active participation in social life;
• to elaborate points of view on the drafts of legislative regulations regarding elderly persons;
• to represent elderly persons from Romania in international organizations.
Representatives of the Council have active participation in parliamentary commissions and in the board of administration of the majority
health and pension agencies. They are also involved, together with governmental bodies and NGO`s, in organizing seminars or working
groups to debate upon the most important problems of their generation, especially health care, social services and all the aspects related
to ageing and retirement.
At the same time, all the organizations, which are members of the National Council of Elderly Persons, develop and implement punctual
programs for poor and dependent old persons, such as delivering food, medication, small financial aids, support for funeral services and
counseling.
In Romania, the most active and effective providers of social services are the non-governmental organizations, financially sustained by
international similar organizations and working in partnership with local authorities, from where they receive subsidies. In consequence,
many NGO`s are responsible for the most innovating programs in this field, therefore they offer the best examples of good practice.
Motivation Romania Foundation (MRF) grew out of a project initiated in 1993 by the International Federation of the Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies and the Motivation Charitable Trust, a British NGO, to establish a wheelchair production workshop in Romania.
To the present day, over 1,230 wheelchairs — for children, youth, and adults — have been produced and donated to beneficiaries from
Romania and Moldova. MRF was legally registered as a non-governmental organization in 1995 with the mission to initiate selfsustaining
projects that will enhance the quality of life of wheelchair users.
Their main achievements include:
• establishment of the Motivation Community Center for Youth and People with Special Needs;
• establishment of a second wheelchair assembly unit in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova;
• inauguration of an Active Rehabilitation Center;
• seminars and active rehabilitation camps in Romania, Moldova, Albania, Bulgaria, and Estonia;
• first Driving School for People with Motor Disabilities in Romania;
• extensive studies about the social and medical conditions of people who have suffered a spinal cord injury;
• launching of a contemporary dance program for wheelchair users;
• professional development trainings for low-income wheelchair users;
• training of a network of specialists in the evaluation, prescription, and adaptation of wheelchairs for children with cerebral palsy (CP);
• residential services for children and young people with disabilities coming from institutions;
• establishment of an Information, Communication, and Documentation Center on Children’s Rights for children from the local
community and children with disabilities from the area.
One of their current projects is focused on instruction and integration for people who have recently suffered a spinal cord injury.The
main goal of this project is the development and implementation of a system of early, multidisciplinary intervention for the social
reintegration of people who have suffered an injury of the spinal cord. By offering support for the readjustment of wheelchair users to
their new condition, as well as covering the serious deficit in the existing specialized intervention services, the project will facilitate the
social and professional reintegration at an early stage, right upon release from the hospital. The project’s goal will be achieved by means
of the following components:
• center for urodynamic diagnosis and functional evaluation;
• accessible Home Environment Simulation;
• center for information and socio-professional counseling;
• architectural adaptation module;
• adapted transportation for motor impaired people.
The National Union of the Organizations of the Persons Affected by HIV/AIDS UNOPA is an non-governmental, non-profit
federation, consisting of 19 associations and foundations of the persons infected and affected by HIV/AIDS- most of them are
associations of parents whose children are infected with HIV/AIDS (from Bucharest, Sibiu, Constanta, Caras-Severin, Bacau, Suceava,
Iasi, Botosani, Galati, Dolj, Targu Mures, Prahova).
The federation/netwok was founded in June 2000 and its mission is to organize and to support concrete actions in concordance with the
principles and the rights laid down in Human’s Rights Universal Declaration and in Child’s Rights International Convention.
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