The Bianca Project

Hello, my name is Katie Osborne.Last year, I was lucky enough to volunteer for the charity, SHARE, and take part in The Bianca Project.

This involved working in a centre for children with complex needs and learning disabilities in Romania, for a month, as an Occupational Therapist. These centres replaced the orphanages of the past when Romania joined the EU. Although improvements have been made, these centres are still seriously under staffed and under resourced. Children with complex needs and learning disabilities are still institutionalised, the staff are untrained in caring for the children and get paid very little to do so.

The charity sends a number of recently qualified Occupational Therapists and Speech and Language therapists out each year to work with the children over a period of 2 months. During this time the children are able to interact with the therapists daily, learning to play and progress and develop in ways they would not otherwise have the opportunity of doing.

Watching these children progress from not understanding what to do with a toy, to laughing, playing and socially interacting with one another, and carers wanting to learn how to interact with them, was a privilege I can not begin to describe.However, we would not have been able to begin to make this progress with the children without taking resources needed ourselves, and receiving donations to help us do so.

With donations made we were able to buy simple puzzles, craft items or sensory toys to use with the children, as well as a sensory swing, trampolines and mats for children to lie out on. However, these resources have to be replaced every year.

For this amazing work to continue, donations are needed to help send therapists to this centre, and to buy therapy resources for the children.

If you feel able to make a donation, however small, it will go towards making a huge difference to the quality of life of these children.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any donations you are able to make.