The Life intervention friendship and education foundation

Who we are

We are a small, UK based charity working to support beneficiaries with learning disability and/or physical or mental health difficulties in Slatina, Romania. 

The overriding aims of The LIFE Foundation as set out by our Constitution are:

1. The prevention or relief of poverty (or financial hardship) anywhere in the world by providing or assisting in the provision of items, education, training and healthcare projects.

2. To relieve in need, in particularly mental and physical requirements, of people who are living in residential care

i. By the provisions of volunteers and carers, and by the provision of advice and training for those responsible for their care.

ii. By the provision of equipment and facilities otherwise unattainable.

We have two long standing projects working within Governmental institutions; one within ‘Family Type Homes’ with children and one in Adult Institutions, with a focus on skills development to support deinstitutionalisation. We have recently developed a third project within the community, aiming to provide additional support to identified families to keep them out of institutions.

Beneficiaries will be children with learning disability and/or mental health difficulties and their families living in the Slatina region in Romania. As we have been working in the region for decades and are well known to the local community and to the local Child Protection service, families in need are often brought to our attention and we are asked to help. Over the years we have offered occasional support when we could, but the increase in requests over recent years has led us to develop a formal project to support the local community and try to keep children out of institutions and to keep families together. We are also aware that the need exists for this project as our established projects work within the governmental institutions, and although the EU drive moving away from institutionalisation to foster care, unfortunately those children and adults with any additional needs are frequently not considered. Therefore we see children and adults are still entering the institutionalised environment often due to family break down at home, lack of support, family feeling they will receive a better quality of life in the state care. This is where we know we can intercept and having had plenty of requests already mounting up we know the need is great.