F.R.O.D.O. Foundation for the Relief Of Disabled Orphans

F.R.O.D.O. Foundation for the Relief of Disabled Orphans

Mission Statement

"To transform the quality of life, provide hope, and empower orphans in developing countries who suffer from disabilities or life-threatening illnesses."

Working with partners, we identify orphans and abandoned children with disabilities whose lives would be transformed if they receive treatment for their disability. Often in developing countries, children suffer from disabilities which are very treatable in the West. Our goal is to bring these treatments to as many children as possible, to give hope where currently there is none.

Under our F.R.O.D.O. Medical banner we have several programmes designed to help children individually as well as reach larger numbers through working within the health system of the developing country. We are currently working in Romania and Albania and expanding into Moldova, Ukraine and poorer areas of Russia.

The F.R.O.D.O. flagship programme is called 'Treatment and Training':

• The objective of this program is a) to treat abandoned children with complex medical conditions, and b) train Romanian medical professionals, who can spread their knowledge within the country and elsewhere.

• Surgeons from the West (currently the UK and US) volunteer to come to Romania (and other countries as we expand) to treat children over a one to two week period.

• The priority are children in need of treatment, living in institutuions. Then children of impoverished families are included.

• Western surgeons and other medical staff (nurses, physiotherapists, technicians) are paired up with Romanian surgeons and medical staff, so that knowledge and ethos transfer occurs.

• 70 to 90 children are seen, diagnosed and treated. The most complex cases are operated on, typically 10 to 20 surgeries. Again, surgeries occur in teams with Western/local medical professionals.

• Most ‘T&T’ missions to date have focused on orthopaedic problems. Our goal is to target four to six T&T missions per year, winding down over a five year period (when local medical staff carry on the missions). Future missions will focus on various conditions, includig cardio-vascular illness, which may require a teamof up to 20 due to the complexity of paedriatic cardiac surgery and the importance of post operative intensive care.

In 2008 we introduced our most ambitious programme to date – Institutional Transformation Though we abhor institutions and feel that all children should be moved to family type homes or foster families, we also feel there is a strong moral obligation not to forget about those left behind. Please click on the link for information about our work in this very important area. We also need financial support if we are to achieve the best outcome for thousands of children living without hope in institutions.

Another new programme is our Abandonment Prevention. Working with NGO partners, we are developing teams of Family Support workers inside maternity hospitals. The key objectives of this programme are:

- to reduce the rate of abandonment of babies in these institutions, particularly of babies with disabilities; and

- support and educate mothers and mothers-to-be to have positive choices in caring for their children and themselves when they go home.

F.R.O.D.O. also managed a Hydrocephalus Support Centre in Romania and is continually expanding its programmes as the charity grows.

Contact summary:

Foundation for the Relief of Disabled Orphans
Charles House
Charity Centre - 4th Floor - Spur C
375 Kensington High Street
London W14 8QH
UK
Tel:                020 7602 7946        
Fax: 020 7471 5586