The integrated community center in Colonești, an essential support provider for the community
Through the "Romania for every child" project, UNICEF works together with local authorities and professionals to provide quality services to vulnerable children
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Ana-Maria has been bringing Ionuț to the Integrated Community Center in Colonesti for more than a year. Having turned two years old, Ionuț, who was born with both legs twisted inwards, has already gone through two orthopedic operations. But the surgical interventions now need to be supported by physical therapy, which he receives free of charge at the center in Colonești, Bacău county.
"Since we started doing this therapy, things are going well," says Ana-Maria, who now lives in Dealu Morii commune. When she was visited by the community team, she was living in Satu Nou, Colonesti, and the professionals recommended her, after the assessment made using the Aurora application, to come to the newly inaugurated center. The first time there were three sessions a week, and then, as Ionuț made progress, their number was set at two.
Vlad Gabriel Sora, the physiotherapist who helps Ionuț to walk better, works both in the Integrated Community Center in Colonești and in the one in Corbasca. The two community centers are part of the project "Romania for every child. Ensuring social inclusion - breaking the vicious circle of exclusion in the case of the most vulnerable children in Romania", together with Moinești, Bacău and Brașov. The project is implemented by UNICEF with funding provided by Norwegian Grants within the Local Development Program administered by the Romanian Social Development Fund.
In addition to the physical therapy sessions in Corbasca and Colonești, Vlad also works, at his office, with children from Bacău who are beneficiaries of the project. In Corbasca and Colonesti, he says, the ailments of children who need physical therapy are chronic, among them are spastic tetraparesis or cerebral palsy - pathologies that require a greater number of sessions. Other problems for which physical therapy is necessary were identified by the specialist directly in the schools, in the assessment visits he made.
"These are postural deficiencies that have not necessarily been clinically diagnosed. The child did not go to the doctor to tell him: You have kyphosis. You have scoliosis. You have muscle hypotonia. I see these during an assessment. Or I see a lack of balance or coordination. Or I see proprioceptive disorders – the ability to know where the body is in space, to catch a ball, to catch it with the right hand, to throw it with the left hand. We can also intervene in these problems through physical therapy, even if we are not talking about a clinical pathology", says the specialist.
"Children can develop certain postural deficiencies, which, over time, can create problems. And we try to intervene there too"
In September 2022, the community center from Colonesti became the first in Romania authorized by the Ministry of Health.
"Receiving the authorization from the Ministry of Health confirms the importance of this project, especially for our community and not only, as the Integrated Community Center from Colonești is serving six localities in the area. We hope that in the future the project model will be 'copied' by other communities in Romania, so that essential services for all, especially for vulnerable families, can be accessed in one place, as close as possible to those who need them", declares Iancu Valentin Mîrzac, the mayor of Colonești.
The "Romania for every child" project is an initiative of UNICEF in partnership with the Bacău County Council, the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection Bacău, the Bacău Public Health Directorate, Moinești mayoralty, Bacău mayoralty, Colonești mayoralty, Corbasca mayoralty and Brașov mayoralty, Bacău Social Assistance Directorate, Brașov Social Assistance Directorate and Moinești Social Assistance Directorate, and implemented between June 2021 and December 2023. The project is financed through a grant of 4.2 million euros provided by Norway through the Norwegian Grants under the Local Development Program administered by the Romanian Social Development Fund.
The Integrated Community Centers bring together basic services offered by the community team - the social worker, the community medical assistant and the school counselor - and specialized services, offered by professionals from different fields, depending on the needs of the communities: doctor, speech therapist, psychologist, physiotherapist.
