Father Ciprian Ioniță, Patriarchal Counsellor, and President of the Filantropia Federation of the Romanian Patriarchate, explained to Trinitas TV the activity of the Social-Philanthropic Sector of the Romanian Patriarchate in the past year.
In the Solemn Year of the pastoral care of the elderly, the Social-Philanthropic Sector of the Romanian Patriarchate organized numerous activities, campaigns, projects and programs for disadvantaged and elderly people and socially vulnerable families.
Food collections and humanitarian shipments were initiated and care products, toys and firewood were provided. Training courses and conferences were also organised and home-based assistance was provided.
“We have had a great and challenging year, especially in the context of the Solemn Year of the Pastoral Care of the Elderly,” the patriarchal counsellor said.
“We’ve had multiple activities, among whom establishing a protocol between the Romanian Patriarchate and the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity: it has facilitated a much closer collaboration between the two institutions. We have also inaugurated networks of home services for the elderly and smaller residential centres – of a maximum of 10 beneficiaries – in various dioceses of the Romanian Patriarchate.”
“And we organized conferences in the context of the Solemn Year 2023, both at the Patriarchate and in the dioceses, organized by the local social-philanthropic sectors,” added the president of the Filantropia Federation.
“If we talk about all the beneficiaries of the diocesan philanthropic sectors and of the NGOs operating with the blessing of the dioceses, we estimate more than 70,000 beneficiaries – elderly people, young people, children, vulnerable people in general.”
Professional training
Another component of the activity of the Filantropia Federation of the Romanian Patriarchate is that of training for professionals working in the field of social assistance.
“One training that has been in demand quite a lot lately is the Addictions Counsellor Training, authorised by the National Qualifications Authority. This year alone, 182 beneficiaries were trained: priests, social workers and school teachers,” explained Father Ciprian Ioniță.
“Last year being dedicated to the elderly, we organised three sessions of the Home Carers Training, which helps a lot our member organisations to set up networks of home carers.”
Another important training is the one preventing human trafficking, which is targeted at students from the theological seminaries within the Metropolitanate of Muntenia and Dobrogea. These trainings will continue throughout the 2024 school year.
Support for socially vulnerable people and disaster victims
“We support vulnerable people. During the Easter or Christmas holidays, the activities multiply,” explained Father Ciprian Ioniță.
“We prepared gifts for children and the elderly, and the Federation, through the fundraising project ‘Help an old man to smile!’, offered, in September-November 2023, medicines to vulnerable elderly people. In December 2023 and the first three months of 2024 we offer firewood or fuel for heating homes.”
The Romanian Patriarchate, through the platform ajutacubucurie.ro, also organized a collection to help the Orthodox communities in Syria and Turkey, severely affected by a major earthquake.
Another emergency situation in which the Federation was involved was the accident in Crevedia, Romania.
“In addition to the financial support that the Romanian Patriarchate gave to each victim, there was also a blood donation campaign, which was organized especially for the victims who were in that devastating blaze,” said the president of the Filantropia Federation.
Plans for the future
In 2024, proclaimed as the Solemn Year of the Pastoral Care of the Sick, Filantropia Federation plans to offer new medical equipment for the “St Nektarios” Center for Palliative Care of Bucharest Archdiocese.
“We shall have activities in every diocese. We’re trying to get counsellors together to do joint activities in collaboration and in close connection. We have managed to get through a challenging year with the help of the Good Lord, of our colleagues, collaborators and with the help of all counsellors and social workers in the Romanian Patriarchate,” concluded the president of the Filantropia Federation.
A report on the social-philanthropic work of the Romanian Patriarchate in 2023 will be presented in the first part of the year 2024 at all the Eparchial Assemblies of the Romanian Patriarchate.
The Filantropia Federation, established in 2007, is the only federative NGO in the Romanian Patriarchate and it supplies social and professional training services.
The member organisations are active in all the eight development regions of Romania, assisting various categories of beneficiaries.
Photo credit: Facebook / Federația Filantropia
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