From infancy to adulthood, Livada serves the orphaned and abandoned children of Mures county, Romania. Our mission is to engage, evangelize and equip Romanian orphans and at-risk kids for life and ministry. Loving embraces, life skill training, dentistry assistance, humanitarian aide, evangelistic camps, teen programs and weekly programs are just a few of the things we offer to children in state care, the Gypsy villages and those in our Christian residential care.
Group Home Care
In 2004, Livada responded with a commitment to investing in the children not only physically, but spiritually, emotionally and educationally.
Our first full-time, family style group home Casa Rebeca was opened in September 2004 followed by Casa Nadia and Casa Ana in September 2005. These kids have affectionately become known as our “LOC kids.”
Foster Care
Some children, due to special needs or severe past abuse, are not best served in a group home setting. Livada is meeting that need by providing for such children in a foster care setting. This allows the child to bond with and be nurtured in a more intimate environment by a set of “parents.” Livada foster parents receive training and have the support of our staff psychologists and others to assist them in providing the best care possible for these children.
Orphan Outreach
Orphan Outreach encompasses a broad range of ministry to the children residing in state care. Through a combination of serving both the felt and spiritual needs of the children, we have watched many children graduate out of the system successfully, who might have faced a much different future otherwise.
Prevention of Abandonment
Livada works to assist poverty stricken Roma (Gypsy) families at risk of abandoning their children. We help to provide supplemental counseling, physical aid, employment search assistance and other social services in effort to help struggling families stay together.
Orphan Graduate Care
A time comes when every child becomes a young adult and needs help transitioning from dependence to independence. Our Orphan Graduate Care provides support and assistance for these young men and women as they “graduate” into another stage of life and venture into independent living.
As we coach our orphan grads through this process, we remind them that they always have a family at Livada.
Cradle Care
In response to continued needs of babies entering these pediatric wards, we are working to serve one such hospital. Our Livada staff and volunteers work to assist the hospital staff in the care of these abandoned babies. Our Cradle Care program works in a variety of ways to better the lives of these innocent infants. We offer everything from diapers to the developmental training and therapeutic needs of these children. Offering a tender embrace is only the beginning. We work daily with these babies in hopes of preparing them for a forever home through our Foster to Adopt program.
Camp Ministry
Summer Camp memories are among the greatest for the children we serve in Romania. At camp they spend an unforgettable week with teams, staff and volunteers. For many, this is the one week of the year that they can escape the uneventful world of their group home or experience a brighter, more cheerful place than conditions in their village.
Caregiver Training
Caregiver training is offered by our professional, clinical staff to help foster parents, adoptive parents, and group home/orphanage caregivers to know how to better parent kids that come from difficult places