Bucharest, June 4, 2018 – 90 children aged between 2 and 14 years old, suffering from neuromotor deficiencies, have benefited in the last three years from over 12,000 sessions of hydrotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, kinetotherapy and individualized counseling sessions at the St. Nectarie Recovery Center, set up by Mihai Neşu in Oradea. The children have also been treated by a state-of-the-art type of therapy, called the Therasuit therapy, with sessions totaling over 6,300 hours so far. Of the 90 children, 60 are from Bihor County, and the others come from other parts of the country, seeking the various types of support they need. From December 2015, the center has been supported by the Vodafone Romania Foundation, through its partnership with the Mihai Neşu Foundation, with Vodafone’s total funding amounting to over RON 380,000.
Under the partnership, the special program „Hydrotherapy for children with neuromotor disabilities” was resumed in 2018, addressing a total of 45 children from Bihor County, who are enjoying monthly swimming therapy sessions. The funding the Vodafone Romania Foundation has granted so far to this program amounts to over RON 67,000.
Hydrotherapy is, besides physical therapy and occupational therapy, one of the most effective ways to improve neuromotor skills. The 45 children included in the program are helped to acquire skills that can improve their lives, with more than 240 60% subsidized hydrotherapy sessions being provided to them each monthly.
In 2017, the Recovery Center set up by Mihai Neşu in Oradea provided almost 1,300 hydrotherapy sessions to children with neuromotor deficiencies. As a result of the therapy sessions, many children in difficult situations have been able to improve their motor skills. For example, a girl, who was diagnosed with spastic paraparesis, has managed to learn several swimming styles and five children with autism and a boy diagnosed with spina bifida have learned to swim. The rest of the children have learned to overcome their fear of water and to improve their moving abilities by hydrotherapy.
Thanks also to the partnership launched in 2015 with the Vodafone Romania Foundation, the Saint Nectarie Recovery Center has purchased the following therapy equipment: a special pool lift for the disabled, Therasuit therapy equipment and a Tobii device (an eye tracking communication device.) Also, the first kinetotherapists in Romania, specialized in Therasuit therapy, have been licensed.
The Vodafone Romania Foundation is a Romanian nongovernmental charitable organization, established in 1998, which operates separately and independently from the Vodafone Romania SA’s business. During its 20 years of activity, Vodafone Romania Foundation has funded 1,104 programs run by 706 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of healthcare, education and social services. These projects had a total of 2.7 million beneficiaries – children, young and old people and physically, socially or economically disadvantaged people. So far, Vodafone Romania has invested over 28 million euros in projects run by nonprofit partner organizations. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available at www.Fundația-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.Fundația-vodafone.ro/ and www.facebook.com/Fundațiavodafone..
Mihai Neşu Foundation supports Romanian children with neuromotor disabilities by engaging in charitable projects and actions. The St. Nectarie Recovery Center for Children with Neuromotor Disabilities, set up by footballer Mihai Neşu in Oradea, aims to change the lives of children with disabilities in the long term by improving their neuromotor skills. At the center, children enjoy daily hydrotherapy, kinetotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy, on a long-term basis. Currently, a total of 60 children from Bihor County come to therapy daily and another 30 children from other counties come regularly for 3-week Therasuit therapy sessions.
