Help autistic orphans in Romania get an education

Buna Dimineata from Barlad!

When we sent you our last project report, I was thrilled to be telling you about the visit CEO Laura Larkin and I had with the children and team at our Delia's Learning Center in Barlad this spring. It's especially exciting to now be writing this update while we are back again! Each time we visit, there are new successes and progress to see as well as new challenges as our kids get older and now that we have sought out older children for our teen/pre-teen program. We've found that many of the foster parents do not know how to help their tweens and teens navigate this time in their lives. So this summer, we had an autism behavioral coaching team from the U.S. do some training with our team via Zoom. We all learned so much and we immediately put new concepts into action and shared them with foster parents! Imagine how gratifying it is to be here two months later and see firsthand the changes, especially in kids who are non-verbal.

Over the summer, we also launched a new website in English and the Romanian version is being completed: www.deliascenter.org.  Take a look!  

Sharing new photos but continual updates are on our Facebook page (the delia foundation) and on Instagram (the_delia_foundation).

Many thanks for continuing to support us in changing the lives of these very special kids!

With Gratitude,

Lauren Fishbach, U.S. Board President, Co-Founder, Delia's Learning Center

Links:

• DELIA'S LEARNING CENTER WEBSITE
• DELIA FOUNDATION FACEBOOK PAGE

What an amazing, productive and insightful visit we had to our Delia's Learning Center!  Delia Foundation CEO Laura Larkin and I spent two weeks in May with our kids and wonderful team in Barlad.  We are thrilled to share with you that we have launched a NEW TEEN/PRE-TEEN PROGRAM led by our newest team who is a Social Worker (called Social Assistant in Romania). 

Since opening our doors three years ago, our goal has been to provide the children with tools to help them be more independent once they become adults. BUT due to their disabilities and lack of formal education, many of these kids have been at risk of being returned to a state run facilty when they become of age. This is why our program has emphasized educational tutoring and teaching life skills.  To further assist our older kids, we are developing the Teen/Pre-Teen program. For now our Social Worker is part-time but we hope to raise additional funds to have her work full-time.

The program has small groups and one-on-one, specifically teaching life skills according to the needs of each child. We work with the children at our Center and in their homes to assist the foster mothers in addressing any specific in-home challenges. We also plan to provide instruction through real world experiences -- taking the kids to the grocery store, the movies, the bank, a restaurant, etc.  We want children to understand how to use money at a basic level, how to take care of themselves physically while navigating any of their own physical or medical difficulties, and always how to interact socially with others. We are helping them start to think vocationally. One of our teens, Mario Z, wants to start a business and he came up with a great idea. Click on the link below to watch our video of Mario who explains his concept. (at the bottom of this page: Mario Z Pitches His Business Plan) You can even help him attain his dream to have a fishing business this summer! 

We look forward to sharing more details about this new, much-needed program.  Attached are some photos - one of our pre-teens wants to be a hair dresser when she grows up so we got a professional haircutters wig donated for her to practice on!

As always, thank you for your kind suppport.  If you would like to learn more about helping to support our Teen Program, please email me at  lauren@deliafoundation.org.

Best,

Lauren Fishbach, Co-Founder, Delia's Learning Center, US Board President, The Delia Foundation

Laura Larkin, Co-Founder, Delia's Learning Center, CEO, The Delia Foundation

David Conway, Co-Founder, Delia's Learning Center, Trustee, UK Association of Delia's Friends

Links:

• Mario Z "Pitches" his business plan
• Delia Foundation Facebook page