A Key Step of the Project Supported by Vodafone Romania Foundation
Equipping the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Constanta Starts with Placing the Order for Air Treatment Installations
· The Ronald McDonald Children Foundation joins the donors supporting the Constanta project by providing a 50,000 EUR grant
Bucharest, October 4, 2018 – The renovation and modernization of the newborn intensive care unit of the Emergency Clinical Hospital in Constanta has entered the fitting-out stage, following placement of the order for the main ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, which is a core facility required for the operation in the new unit. The equipment will be manufactured according to the latest technical standards applicable to newborn intensive care units and will be installed at Constanta hospital by the end of this year. The new unit will become the second in the country fitted with this type of equipment, after the New-born Intensive Care Unit of the Marie Curie Hospital in Bucharest, built under a project financed by the Vodafone Romania Foundation in partnership with the Children’s Heart Association.
The same stage of the project has also included the placement of the order for the building of the steel structures on which the medical equipments will be mounted, as well as for the extension of the outdoor structure that will support the ventilation and air-conditioning units. As far as the renovation works are concerned, the waterproofing of the terrace in the central part of the hospital, adjacent to the newborn intensive care unit, as well as the sanitation and arrangement of the evacuation area have been completed. The evacuation area is designed to enable access to the facilities for the washing and pre-sterilization of the medical instruments and will be an integral part of the new intensive care unit.
As the work progresses, the project in Constanta attracts new supporters, who are joining in the efforts dedicated to building and completing the new section. The Ronald McDonald Children Foundation has donated 50,000 EUR for the renovation and refurbishment works.
„We have reached now a key stage of the project, where we look back at the steps we have made along this complex process, which will end with the fitting of the equipment that is vital for the operation of any newborn intensive care unit. We are happy to see the project coming closer and closer to the point of inauguration of the modern section, equipped by the latest medical standards, where the young patients will be treated according to the most up-to-date newborn intensive care procedures. We are glad to see other organizations joining in and supporting our endeavor”, said Angela Galeta, Director of the Vodafone Romania Foundation.
„The mission of the Ronald McDonald Children Foundation is to identify, develop and support projects and programs that have a positive and direct impact on children’s lives and health. For the last 20 years, we have been trying to provide conditions for children to grow up healthy and be surrounded by their families. The Ronald McDonald House Charities accommodates families for hundreds of days, while their children are treated at our partner-hospitals. We know how important it is for children to be with their loved ones while they go through difficult times. For this reason, and because we like people and companies that stick to their declared values and do what they have commited to, we are happy to support the initiative of the Vodafone Romania Foundation and to contribute to its effort to refurbish the newborn intensive care unit in Constanta”, said Amalia Năstase, President of the Ronald McDonald Children’s Foundation.
The works of the next project phase will include the replacement of the joinery, the installation of the HVAC and smoke exhaust piping in the main lobby, to allow the mounting of the steel structure that will support the medical fluid distribution system, the ceiling of the section and the electrical and data system cables.
The Constanţa project is being implemented with the support of the Vodafone Romania Foundation, which handles the coordination of the construction and the fitting-out works, in addition to providing a funding worth 1.1 million EUR, under its partnership with the Give Wings Association and Children’s Heart Association. The newborn intensive care unit will be equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment and facilities, special spaces for parents and for the medical staff, as well as with consultation rooms. The section will also be equipped with a telemedicine solution that will enable secure and real-time transmission of medical imagery and medical parameters and the remote monitoring of patients’ vital signs. At the Newborn Intensive Care Section of the Constanta County Hospital, a total of 1,000 sick children are treated annually, coming both from Constanta County and three other counties from the south-eastern region of Romania, namely from Tulcea, Ialomita and Calarasi, where infant mortality rate is highest in the country and three times higher than the European average.
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 Foundation has invested over 28 million euros in projects run by nonprofit partner organizations. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available at fundatia-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.fundatia-vodafone.ro/ and www.facebook.com/fundatiavodafone
The “Give Wings” Association was born out of the desire to coagulate under its wings the energy of all those who are willing and able to contribute the implementation of charitable projects that bring added value to the community. The Donate Wings Association is a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the healing chances of patients in the public health system and the survival rate of children with cancer in Romania, to promote the feeling of care and empathy from an early age and to encourage those who are willing to get involved in improving the life of their community. The “actual solutions to actual problems” slogan highlights how the Give Wings Association chooses the projects it develops: using those human, financial and time resources as are required to actually solve the actual problems identified. More details are available at http://www.daruiestearipi.ro/ and https://www.facebook.com/AsociatiaDaruiesteAripi/.
The Children’s Heart Association has been helping children with serious illnesses, especially those with a heart condition, since 2006. The Association has built the most up-to-date medical facility in the whole Romanian public healthcare system at the Marie Curie Hospital: the Center for Excellence in Cardiac Surgery (a project worth over 3,5 million Euro, of which 1,6 million Euro were collected and invested by the Children’s Heart Association alone) and the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (a project worth more than 2,1 million Euro, developed with the support of the Vodafone Romania Foundation, to which the Children’s Heart Association’s contribution amounted to over 700,000 Euros), which is to be fitted this year with the first breast milk bank ever built in Romania. The Association has also renovated at the same hospital the departments of cardiology and neurosurgery, has refurbished and equipped the neurosurgery theater and is continuing to support, including financially, the hospital sections it has built and implicitly dozens of young patients in need of medical care. More details are available at http://www.inimacopiilor.ro/ and https://www.facebook.com/AsociatiaInimaCopiilor
