About us

Our mission


We share the vision of a world in which blind and deaf people in Romania enjoy the same rights, opportunities, responsibilities, fulfilment and quality of life as their able-bodied peers.

Our objectives


We aim to support Romanian people with a visual or hearing impairment to improve their lives, to expand their possibilities and to become active and accepted members of the Romanian society.

We aim to achieve our Mission & Objectives through:

Changing the attitudes and social behaviour towards blind and deaf people
Being a catalyst for social and professional inclusion of the blind and deaf people
Encouraging better education, training and employment of blind and deaf individuals in Romania.
Providing educational support services to the schools for sensory impaired and families with sensory impaired children from our resource centre
Promoting accessible information and equipment
Developing integrated programs on early intervention and employment support

Values


We aim to achieve our Mission & Objectives by following our values

Respect and dignity for the individual
Making a positive difference to people
Participation and empowerment
Aiming for equality
Light Into Europe

History


Light into Europe is a British-Romanian charity founded in 1986 and which has been active in Romania since 1990. From 1997 to 2003 Light into Europe was invited by the Ministry of Health to be the sole provider of Air Ambulance services, saving 900 lives over 4000 flying hours. In 2003, the Air Ambulance service was handed over to SMURD.

Since 2003, the focus of Light into Europe has been on supporting blind and deaf people in Romania and developing services to support them to be able to live independent lives as part of the community.

In 2007 we opened our Resource Centre for the Sensory Impaired which hosts our Guide Dog Centre, Braille Library and Big Print Book production as well our creative education workshops.

In 2010 we successfully trained and matched our 1st Guide Dog for the Blind, Chloe with Gabi Nicolescu. Since this time we have trained and expanded the programme to support more visually impaired around the country and also provided assistance dogs to children with autism and persons with epilepsy.

Light Into Europe

Our board


Light into Europe is led by a group of highly qualified professionals that bring a wealth of expertise, all of whom are bound together by their commitment to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities in Romania and making a long-lasting difference to the lives of children and adults that live with sight or hearing loss.

HMA Giles Portman, Patron
Stan Platt, OBE, Chairman
Lucian Mindruta, Board Member
Mihai Andreescu, Board member
Sean Dilley, Board member
Other members of the board
Georgiana Pogonaru
George Mucibabici
Roberto Musneci
Mihai Tudorancea
Iulian Zamfir
Neil McGregor

Our team


Camelia Platt
Managing Director
Robert Bousie
Development Manager - Apprentice GDMI
Anca Vasile
Guide dogs programme co-ordinator
Nick Pastore
Guide Dogs Assistant
Raluca Dumitru
Guide Dogs Assistant
Mihaela Pavel
Admin Assistant
Alex Ionescu
Designer
Prof Florea Barbu
Sign Language programme co-ordinator
Anastasiia Strelkova
Admin Assistant/Ukraine Support

Big Thank you to our Sponsors


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