Our Work
Our Charity and Our Location
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Noreen’s Kids is a UK charity, registered in 2007 (charity no. 1123407), helping to support the work of the Romanian charity Fundatia Cuvioasa Paraschiva (Foundation of St Paraschiva) or FCP.
The FCP was founded in 2000 by Noreen O'Gorman and is based in Slobozia, the county town of Ialomita district about 70 miles east of Bucharest. |
How we got startedThe work in Sloboziawas originally opened by Children in Distress who took over a section of a home run by the Romanian child protection services - they decorated and refurbished it.
Noreen and her team took over the unit in August 2000 and improved the unit further with new furnishings, building works and redecoration. They took on the care of about 14 children who had AIDS. Typically the children had been abandoned and had other problems, for instance severe learning difficulties, or other congenital difficulties. At first the outlook of the children was thought to be poor and the work was aimed at providing good palliative care. However the treatment of AIDS has improved out of all recognition and all those who need it get expert treatment for AIDS, monitored from Bucharest by specialists in paediatric infectious diseases. Since those early days there have been many changes , Today the care of the residential children who grew up in Noreen's Unit has been taken over by Romanian children's social services , the older ones have now moved into a specialised unit for young disabled adults. We visit them regularly and have been delighted with the progress that they are continuing to make .
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Our Community Services
At the moment the team is providing help to over 230 families in a fairly wide area around Slobozia, including Ialomita, Braile and Calarasi counties
Mostly these are poor families with sick children. The team visits regularly to provide support, depending on need. One of the most important things they do is to provide advocacy for families who are sometimes not getting the help which the state should be providing. There are a number of families with children who have life shortening illness and Noreen’s dedicated team has provided care to families having to cope with the heartbreak of a child dying from illnesses such as AIDS or muscular dystrophy. Although palliative care is now recognised as a competency in Romania it has yet to achieve the status of a full specialty and community palliative care such as is provided by Noreen is still a rarity. The team provides nursing care, some help with basic foodstuffs and fuel, especially in the winter, when many families struggle to afford the wood used to fuel stoves for cooking and heating their homes against the bitterly cold Romanian winter. In some case we also help to improve houses where families are living in very overcrowded and dilapidated accomodation . We facilitate access to good medical care helping with transport if necessary . It is often very difficult to get to big hospitals with a severely disabled child . We see some regularly but all our Families know where they can come when they need support advice or help. |
