ABOUT US

Home Start was introduced as a component of a project funded by SEE 2009-2014 grants – “I, an Oltenia-Based Peasant, Need an Education!” (Romania NGO Fund). During the period 2014-2016 a Fundatia Adina Stiftelsen (FAS) team tested and implemented a local scheme called “New Start” under the supervision of experts from Stiftelsen Kirkens Bymisjon Bergen. The role of the Norwegian experts has been essential for the success of the project. Without their on-going guidance, expertise and skills, the implementation of this new concept in Romania would not have been possible.

In November 2014 the FAS manager Luminita Dinca met the Home-Start Worldwide chairperson and exchanged views on Home Start development in Craiova. Following her suggestions, the project team contacted Home-Start Poland and received advice related to working tools with the volunteers. With the support of the Norwegian Home-Start coordinators Gunn Skinlo and Marianne Minde, the project team formulated a work methodology and training programme.

The “New Start” local scheme was awarded ‘The best National Volunteers Project of the Year’ in the Social Field in Romania at the National Volunteering Gala in 2015 and was presented to Romanian NGOs at a workshop at the National Conference of Volunteers in the Social Field in 2017. The gap between rural areas and urban areas is sometimes unimaginable; however our FAS team and especially the volunteers have done a great job. FAS volunteer’s profiles are quite varied: mothers of former or actual beneficiaries; former beneficiaries, students, secondary school teachers, university teachers and collaborators who became volunteers.

By the end of 2017, FAS had 21 trained volunteers and supported 23 families and 67 children. The feedback from the testing period indicated great success and motivated us to continue our Home-Start journey. Here are a few testimonies from volunteers, families and trainers: “First of all I would like to tell you how this project transformed me. After the first visit, I was terrified. Now I think, after the programme ends, that we should visi

t them again a least once a month.” – volunteer “They give us so much. The program is for them, but we get richer.” – volunteer

“I never thought that I would be so affected and changed by the project. The family integrated me. They helped me. I am also a beneficiary. I saw what it means to give your time.” – volunteer

“She came to our house and I see her as a friend. The discussions that I had with her and that she played with my children – all those things helped me, encouraged me and gave me strength to go on.” – mother

“We are grateful and we do not have enough words to thank you for somebody thought of our children” – mother

“At the end of the training course in April, I wished that you to feel what I felt in 20 years of volunteering. Today I know you felt it- you gave away a piece of your soul but you received so much more. Thank you!” – trainer

In the autumn of 2017, Luminita Dinca contacted Home-Start Worldwide and explained the development and present state of the local scheme and requested membership the HSW network. In November 2017, FAS was approved as an associate member of HSW and national contact point for Home-Start Worldwide in Romania.

They became a  fully accredited HSW member in November 2018.

The first scheme was known as Home-Start Craiova, due to the location of the FAS office. Following their move to Dolj in 2021,  the scheme is now known as Home-Start Dolj. So far, 23 trained volunteers have visited and supported 29 families with 85 children.