Background:

Galati is a county that was struck hard by the decline of the shipbuilding and steel production industries in Romania. The loss of jobs combined with the very low public assistance benefits has had severe impacts for many families in Galati. Parents, who can, try to work abroad and often decide to temporarily leave their children to stay with their relatives or even neighbours. The uncertain situation in the foreign country and a higher attractiveness for employers, are the reasons for this behaviour. Others who lack the qualifications, stay in Galati and frequently face living below the poverty line. However not only younger people are affected, even more dramatic are the consequences for pensioners. Those who did not manage to generate enough savings in their professional life, have to deal with old-age poverty. All of those people can only turn to the Archdiocese of the Lower Danube for help. The church supports these families with meals, homework help, parenting support, medical treatment, care-taking services and personal guidance.

The Project:

There are 37 clerical social welfare centres in Galati that are concerned with helping children, old people and poor families, which are suffering of social injustice, hunger, educational deficits and health problems. Out of all approximately 110 social welfare workers we will pick 25 for exchange programmes and trainings. These 25 will receive trainings in the fields family counselling, psychological care, parenting support and care taking at the premises of our partners in Germany.  Afterwards the workers who participated in trainings will carry out workshops to transfer their knowledge to their Romanian colleagues. In doing so, they will receive didactical support and curricula from the German trainers. This approach guarantees that the knowledge is widely disseminated in Galati Coutny.

With this intervention we aim to improve the social welfare services and thereby improve the livelihoods of the needy and socially disadvantaged people and mitigate the consequences of migration for families which are seperated by national borders.

Project activities:

1. Analysis of the qualification needs of the social welfare workers of the Archdiocese of the Lower Danube
2. Knowledge transfer through exchange progrems with German institutions
3. Theoretical and practical training of the social welfare workers (family counselling, psychological care, parenting support and care taking) on site in Galati