Founder’s review
Founder’s review
Pestalozzi Foundation represents the main Romanian partner of the Stiftung Kinderdorf Pestalozzi, a Swiss organisation that develops programms for the socially disadvantaged children and youth from different regions of the world. In the beginning of our cooperation with the Fundatia Pestalozzi we were focused mainly on the direct aid for the children that desperately needed it at the beginning of the years 1990. As years have passed by, Fundatia Pestalozzi had developed continuously both from the point of view of the programms anf from institutional and organisational point of view. As our partners mastered the knowledge regarding the Romanina welfare system, due to both direct activities within the system and to prestigious European trainings which the team participated in, Fundatia Pestalozzi’s programms have proven to be appropriate both for present and future, being constantly one step before the Romanian and European strategies in the field.
A possible explanation of the Fudatia’s effectiveness might be the combination of the two kinds of the activities: the guiding and assistance for the disadvantaged children and youth and the training for the professionals that become accustomed with new strategies within the framework of the welfare system, here included the university level (college). Both directions are coordinated and sustained by the Administrative Department that, in spite of its reduced number of members, managed, during the last years, to train and develop the organisation in a fast pace. All of this wouldn’t value too much without the devotion so needed in a field that evokes a very diverse palette of reactions: from compassion to political activities at the European level.
Roland Brunner, Programme Director South Est Europe,
Alexandru Teodorescu, Local Coordinator for Romania
Cofounder’s review
The Swiss Ambassador
Impressions on the Pestalozzi Foundation – Romania
“In the last 15 years, the situation of the institutionalised children was a major issue, both for the international community and the Romanian Government. Since 1996, Fundatia Pestalozzi Romania had developped programs which aim was to improve the quality of life of the institutionalised children. By implementing, in Romania, the concept of social pedagogy, the Pestalozzi Foundation became a solid professional structure, being recognised both by the international sponsors and the Romanina institutions acive in the field. Beyond its professional development, this foundation consolidated, from institutiona point of view, and became one of the valuable partners of the Swiss Direction of Development and Cooperation. The prolific activity of the Romanian Foundation during the last years made its programms real benchmarks of the Romanian-Swiss cooperation.”