Child Life Romania initially began as a program through Emanuel University of Oradea and the Victoriana Soritau Chair of Social Care endowment fund. This endowment chair was established in honor of a daughter of one of Emanuel University’s professors. Victoriana was diagnosed and successfully treated for Stage 3 neuroblastoma in Texas. She and her siblings were beneficiaries of a Child Life progra
m at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas where Victoriana received her treatment. After she recovered from her treatment, they decided to bring the Child Life program to implement in the children’s hospitals in Oradea, Romania with a greater vision to eventually open this job market to social work students from Emanuel University and other universities and develop this program across Romania and Moldova (where they speak Romanian as well). They had the perfect platform for this program through Emanuel University. Emanuel University is a state and European Union accredited, private university that has obtained High Trust status in their accreditation. They offer five different majors in undergraduate and graduate programs. Child Life Romania is also linked with Emanuel Hospice Foundation which is a hospice and palliative care service that a graduate of Emanuel University started seventeen years ago. They connect with the children and their families at the beginning of their diagnosis with any life-threatening or life-altering disease. Their services are available for cancer diagnosis, muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, and genetic diseases, to name a few. The first certified Child Life specialist has been hired as Emanuel Hospice Foundation's psychologist and works to implement Child Life principles in the hospice setting and in the hospital setting on the hematology and oncology floor of the local children's hospital that serves as a pilot program for the country. The Soritau family developed a partnership between Emanuel University of Oradea, Emanuel Hospice Foundation, City Hall of Oradea, The Healthcare System of Oradea and the Child Life department at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Over the past three and a half years Cook Children’s Child Life specialists, educators, and volunteer service coordinators have made yearly trips to Romania that they have personally financed to teach at Emanuel University, hold conferences for the medical professionals in Oradea, Bihor County, Romania, start a bereavement camp for siblings and children of Emanuel Hospice’s patients, teach seminars and workshops to doctors, nurses, social workers, medical students (many of them are international students), and social work students, as well as work alongside the volunteers and Child Life specialists of Emanuel Hospice Foundation.
