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What have we
done so far?
Although STAR
International in its current form is relatively new,
having registered as a UK charity in 2012, the three founders have been committed to providing
assistance in Romania for many years. Susan Moore (Maccoy), Bridget
Wickert and Joanne Blaine (Stebbing)
have given a great deal of their time to volunteer work and have fundraised for numerous
causes, as have additional trustees Rachael Barr, Juliana
Lodge, and new trustees Jodie Watts and Erin Patton, who we
were excited to
welcome to our team in 2016! Our current work can be seen
on the Current Projects page.
Please see below for a sampling of our accomplishments over the past
20+ years that demonstrate our ongoing commitment to
the children and families of Romania:
2002
Bridget
volunteered in a failure-to-thrive clinic in Eastern
Romania. She
also purchased food, clothing, educational toys, nappies,
medications and cleaning supplies for the clinic.
2003
Bridget
once again volunteered in the failure-to thrive-clinic and
also in a large orphanage for babies and toddlers in
Brasov County, Romania. She purchased clothing,
educational toys and other items that were required by the
orphanage with money she had raised. Jodie volunteered in
the same orphanage during this time; this is when Jodie
and Bridget met, and also stayed with the same Romanian
host family for three months.
2004
Bridget,
Susan, and Joanne met while volunteering for three months
through an organisation in Brasov, working with children
living under the care of Brasov Child Protection.
Donations of clothing, food,
medication, educational toys, and other items were also
provided.
In late 2004 Joanne volunteered in a local
hospital.
2005
Susan
raised money for an organisation that provides nappies for
abandoned children at a hospital in Brasov.
Joanne donated Christmas presents to a group home
run by Child Protection. She
also donated food and clothing to an underprivileged
community and assisted with a sports programme run at a
large orphanage.
2006
Bridget,
Joanne and Susan volunteered at a childrens hospital in
Brasov. Susan and
Bridget volunteered in group homes run by child protection
and a privately run group home.
They also set up a socialisation programme for
children with special needs who lived in a small, child
protection-run group home.
For three years they provided Christmas presents
for these children and purchased other necessary items
from donated funds.
2007
Bridget
and Susan continued their full-time volunteer work in the
group homes, hospital and with their socialisation
programme. Joanne set up a school for Rroma children in a
local community.
2008
Susan
and Bridget added another orphanage to those at which they were
already volunteering. This home housed approximately 30 severely disabled
children. Joanne continued to support a local community with
donations and many hours of teaching time.
2009
Susan
provided financial support for a young Rroma family and
bought a large, outdoor slide for a child protection-run
home. Joanne helped arrange an activity programme and
donations for a large orphanage. Juliana volunteered for a
year from 2009-2010 in the children's hospital, an
education centre, and several children's homes.
2010
Bridget
and Susan raised money for food and medication for an
orphanage that houses approximately 100 children and young
adults with special needs.
Joanne helped an association form a health and
hygiene programme for teenagers in a Rroma community.
Rachael made her first trip to Romania, volunteering in
two children's hospitals.
2011
Bridget
sent individualised birthday presents for 23 children in
two child protection group homes. Bridget
and Susan visited a large orphanage to discuss the
creation of STAR International. They discussed the needs of the orphanage and the
possibility of future collaboration.
They also supplied nearly 100 packets of vegetable
seeds for the psychologist to use in the childrens
occupational therapy sessions. Susan raised money to purchase glasses for two of
the children at the orphanage whose sight is severely
compromised. Juliana also returned to Romania to volunteer
with the children.
2012
Bridget
once again sent birthday presents to the two group homes.
Susan raised money to buy hearing aids for a child
at the large, special needs orphanage.
She also purchased a lawn mower and strimmer for
the orphanage so they could control a pest problem created by
ticks in the long grass which was preventing the children
from playing outdoors. Susan
also used the money that she raised to buy much needed
shampoo and washing powder for the same orphanage.
STAR International became registered as a charity. Rachael
founded the Romanian Vaccination Project, which aims to raise money to provide Prevenar 13 vaccinations for some of the poorest and most underprivileged children in and around Brasov, Romania. This vaccine protects against some of the biggest killers of young children, pneumonia and meningitis.
2013
Susan
provided birthday presents for the 23 children in the
same two group homes. Discussions continued between STAR
International and the large orphanage about current
training needs. Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)
training was identified and agreed upon as the first
official project to be undertaken by STAR International. In October, Bridget and
Jodie facilitated the first phase of our PECS project. Seven staff were formally trained in the technique and an overview was given to a further twenty-five
caregivers. Following that, twenty-five children were introduced to PECS and all completed
Phase 1 or beyond. Juliana and Rachael also returned to
volunteer in Romania.2014
We
expanded our focus to assist children with
special needs living with their families in underserved
communities. In July, Susan and Rachael
returned to Romania and began laying the groundwork for
this new project. Bridget, an occupational therapist, and Juliana, a speech therapist, returned to Romania in October and November. They
provided providing
therapy services and caregiver training to several
families with limited access to resources. They also
provided caregiver and volunteer training at another
special needs orphanage, as well as checked in with staff at the large orphanage
regarding progress with the PECS project. Another
exciting announcement was the addition of the
Romanian Vaccination Project, begun by Rachael, to
our list of active projects. We also welcomed Rachael and
Juliana to our team of trustees, and are overseeing a
local representative who provides weekly support
to the families in our community project.2015
In
2015 we continued our focus on our orphanage and community
projects. We received positive updates throughout the year
from our local representative telling us the families in
our community project were progressing well and enjoying
her weekly visits. Our colleague Jenny, an occupational
therapist, returned in March to provide oversight to our
village project. Juliana and another colleague returned in
April to provide oversight to our orphanage, community and
vaccination projects, of special note providing
introductory Makaton training to orphanage staff. Bridget
and Rachael returned in October to oversee the orphanage
and community projects. A decision was also made to place
the vaccination project on hold at present due to
unforeseen circumstances; we will continue to assess
appropriateness of resuming. Positive updates from our
local representative on the community project continued to
come in through the end of the year. 2016
Our
colleague Jenny returned in March to and connected with a
day center in Eastern Romania in March. In July Rachael,
Juliana, occupational therapist Erin, behavior analyst
Jodie and dentist Tim joined together for numerous
activities in our community and orphanage projects.
Juliana and Jodie returned again in October to provide
additional input to these projects. One of our STAR
founders Joanna stepped
down as trustee to commit more time with her family, while
Jodie and Erin were welcomed as new STAR trustees. We
continue to receive weekly updates on our community
projects throughout the year.
2017
Juliana
visited Romania in March, where she gave a presentation at
a speech therapy symposium entirely in Romanian. Susan,
Bridget and Jodie traveled to Romania in May to check on
our community and orphanage projects. Donations were
purchased, connections were fostered, therapeutic input
was provided, children were loved. Erin moved to Romania
in July to begin a full year in Romania providing valuable
assistance to our projects on the ground!
2018
The first half of the year gave us Erin continuing to assist in Romania with
our various projects, including giving therapeutic input to another organization's day program for children with special needs. Juliana and Jodie joined Erin in May to further check on all projects and provide additional input. A minibus we helped raise funds for in 2016 continues to bring children from an orphanage to a local day center on a regular basis, with the children progressing developmentally as a result!
2019
Erin visited in the fall, checking up and providing therapeutic input to both the community and orphanage projects. This includes helping to fit children for wheelchairs and other positioning equipment, as well as training staff and family members to best help the children from a therapeutic standpoint. Our local assistant also continued to work with families in the community with our guidance and support.
2020
None of our STAR trustees were able to visit Romania in person due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, but we did change our approach to help in other ways: Donating PPE and hand sanitizer to keep our families safe, contributing to a local food bank to secure and deliver food to many of our families impacted by the pandemic, and continuing to virtually support our assistant as she continues to provide transportation and therapeutic assistance to the children we serve.
2021 - 2022
Two more years with our trustee visits limited due to COVID-19 restrictions, but we have continued to find ways to assist virtually. Juliana has been taking a lead in providing training to local day center staff on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) techniques for young people in their care. She has also provided ongoing virtual support for a young person with autism, training her and her caregivers on AAC techniques, with positive results! We also continue to provide virtual support to our assistant with her work therapeutically in the community, as well as financial support for a food bank assisting families impacted by the pandemic. A weekly group we started pre-pandemic for young people with special needs and their families began meeting again in person in 2022. Ramona and other dedicated volunteers provide hands-on support for the group, while STAR funds the rent, transportation, snacks, craft supplies, running costs, and other therapeutic resources as needed.
See
Current Projects!
View previous STAR International
newsletters.
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STAR International 
