FUNDATIA JOYO Sprijin Socio-Educativ pentru Copii, Tineri si Familii in Dificultate, Bucureşti

The JOYO Foundation - Social -Educational Support for Children, Youth and Families in Difficulty was created in 2002 by Rita and Jorg Ebbecke, in the remembrance of their dear son, JOYO, dead in tragic circumstances. Their wish was to offer a chance for a better future to children coming from families confronting with severe social problems, thus completing the role of active supporters, their very poor parents and grandparents cannot entirely assume. Starting with the observation that it is much easier and effective to prevent, than to repair, the foundation's starting projects focused on the prevention of family abandon and school drop-out. This implied offering the necessary support in order to ensure the minimal living conditions for the poor children and sustaining their parents in their efforts to obtain decent jobs. Our experience then showed that assuring minimal living conditions to the families and counseling them, decrease the risk of family abandon and school drop-out, but it's not sufficient for a good social integration of the children in difficulty. Consequently, in 2003, besides the program of support and assistance for the whole family (targeting the children with an increased risk of family abandon and school drop-out, with unemployed, chronically-ill or disabled parents), the foundation implemented in the Social Day Center "Florian House", a daily schedule of educative guiding and support for the underprivileged children and youth. Through the activities unfolding in the Day Center, we aimed at fixing and completing children's school subjects' knowledge, and also at developing their pro-social behavior. The children were motivated and guided so to understand the school's necessity and utility, to obtain good learning results and to regularly attend school. Their parents have been informed, guided and motivated in order to cope with the difficult tasks linked to the children's raising and education.