Established in 1991

GENERAL INFORMATIONS:

The Children’s Fund of the Slovak Republic (Detský fond Slovenskej republiky) is active and officially registered in Slovak Republic since 12th May 1990.

It became a DCI section in 1991 during the International General Assembly of DCI held in Granada.

DCI- Slovak Republic is based in Bratislava.

It can counts on a team of 24 people, working on a part-time basis and a number of volunteers.

FIELDS OF INTERVENTION:

Defence for Children Slovak Republic operates in Slovak Republic, for and with children, carrying out initiatives for the protection and promotion of rights in the following areas:

• Social prevention and counselling for disadvantaged children, youth and excluded community
• Supporting and counselling family with a child with ADHD and ADD (ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder)
• Children with disabilities

PAST AND CURRENTS ACTIVITIES & PROJECTS:

• Social Prevention and Counselling for Disadvantaged Children and Youth and Excluded Community

* The MIXKLUB- Low threshold centre for children and juveniles.

DCI-Slovak Republic has been implementing projects of social prevention and social counselling for disadvantaged groups since 1992. Clients are provided with information service, crisis intervention and long-term counselling in stressful life situations. Low threshold centre for children and juveniles in Bratislava- MIXKLUB, is located in Bratislava–Vrakuna.

Low threshold means breaking the barriers (social, race, communicative, economic and etc.) and enabling maximum availability of services (without registration, fees, without restriction of race, gender, nationality or religion).

MIXKLUB is addressed to children and juveniles of 6 to 18 years of age, living mainly in risky and asocial environment. It is carried out from the year 2004, offers wide complex of services through contact work, social help and psychosocial support, which are combined with the offer of leisure-time activities. The target is to create conditions for making contact – relation with individuals and social groups, which are ignoring or do not seek for the standard institutional assistance. DCI-Slovak Republic is trying to increase the quality of live of the target group also by creating conditions for active leisure-time spending, increasing social and life skills of children and juveniles and giving them assistance in solving their problems. The part of the project also consists of work with inhabitants of the local community and with representatives of local authorities.

* The MIXACIK- Low threshold families´s centre.

From its work in MIXKLUB , DCI-SR has identified a need to offer services also for children less than 6 years of age and their parents. Therefore at the end of 2007, it has been decided to start a new project named MIXACIK. It is a low threshold families´s centre supporting improvement of parent’s abilities. This centre is created for children to 6 years of age and to their parents or to their wider social surroundings, it is mainly addressed to young families in danger. Its activities are aiming to improving children’s motor, language and communication skills and their creativity. Parents can use qualified help and social counselling provided by professionals.

• Supporting and counselling family with a child with ADHD and ADD.

From the year 2004 DCI-Slovak Republic offers counselling and support to families with children who suffer from hyperactivity, have attention and behaviour disorder (diagnoses: ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder).

For the past 3 years this project is covered by the project of Bratislava municipality “Centre for families in crises”, which enables DCI-SR to provide these families with more complex support. These children have often difficulties to keep friendship, they have lower self-confidence, they are usually very impulsive, and they have problems in adjusting to collective and systematic work. They have also serious problems with learning and with the overall situation at school. The whole family is pressured and usually under the influence of failures and criticism from the community, they live in stress, worsening mutual relationships within the family.
Consequently, the organisation helps children and whole families to stabilize, to understand better themselves and others, to learn how to support each other, to better handle conflict situations.

• Project “They are our children, too” .

Loss of a child is one of the most difficult situations in one’s life. It befalls the whole family, their close community and poses enormous psychological burden, which is often cause of pathological cases (e.g. alcoholism, divorce, psychological disorders, loss of a job, etc.). Besides the very difficult task to safe life of a child, the personnel has to face another not less difficult task in case of announcing serious diagnoses or death of a child to the close relatives, who are full of expectations and hope. Very often the hospital personnel does not realize that the way they treat relatives in such a situation could have a significant impact on the process of accepting the serious diagnoses or death, on the mourning process itself and on the way the family will go about the new situation after.
The aim of this project which DCI-SR organizes since 2009 is to assist personnel and parents in providing and accepting the message about serious diagnoses or death of a child in the most effective way. As part of the project, DCI-SR has published an informative material for hospital personnel and a brochure for parents. In addition, it has been created informative web site www.ajonisunasedeti.sk. In 2010, DCI-SR organised education for doctors and hospital personnel in University Hospital of Saint Cyril in Bratislava (40 participants in total) and printed additional 350 brochures for parents.

• The Barriers Account project: assistance to children with disabilities.

The Barriers Account is a project with nationwide operation, which has been in existence since 1993 assisting children and young people with a disability to improve the quality of their life.

The main objectives are, to provide material assistance and to contribute to aids, equipment and activities helping to overcome barriers. It contributes particularly towards wheelchairs, carriages and accessories, listening apparatuses, various rehabilitation aids and facilities, contributions towards accessibility modifications, etc.The contribution works on the basis of individual applications from parents and applications from institutions, which care for children and young people with a disability.

• “Prevent children from Injury” Campaign.

Injuries are the main reason of children death. DCI-Slovak Republic has been organizing national campaigns to reduce fatal injuries of children named. Many children and juveniles die every year because of traffic accidents, accidental drowning, various falls, burns and scalds, suffocation and poisoning in Slovak republic. Traffic accidents are the main cause of injury death for children and the young, it is about 40%. Campaigns have been consisted of billboards, radio/Tv, spots, posters in paediatricians' waiting-rooms, press conference and articles.

• “I am here with you” Project.

The project, running from the year 2002, aims to improve stay of a child in the hospital. In the year 2005 DCI-SR finished the 4th stage of this project with an objective to arrange more departments for common stay of parent and child in the hospital. During all fur stages of this project from 2002, equipment for 53 departments and 21 PC sets were purchased.

• Organising Expert conferences on Child at risk.

Since 1990, the Children’s Fund has been organizing or co-organizing conferences about “Child at risk” focused on mapping the current status of threats to healthy development of the young generation, particularly from social, health, mental, and legislative aspects.

• Campaign “Hitting people is wrong...Children are people too!”

The project was implemented in 2001 and the objective of the campaign was to open a public discussion on the topic of (impunity of) the use of corporal punishment on children. The campaign consisted of a press conference, billboards, radio spots, a web discussion site, an answering machine, advertising, PR articles and interviews for media.

SOURCES OF FUNDING:

• Subsidies from governmental sources
• Grants from NGO
• Fund raising for Barriers account
• Donations

NETWORKS:

• Slovak Humanitarian Council (SHC). The Children’s Fund has been a member of the Slovak Humanitarian Council since its foundation. SHC acts as a national voluntary centre of humanitarian and charity organizations

• Association of Low threshold programmes for children and youth in Slovakia ( Association NPDM). Children’s Fund belongs to foundation member of the Association NPDM that was constituted in August 2008 to support development of low threshold centres for children and youth in Slovakia.

CONTACTS:

Main Contact :
SYNKOVA Alena
MATULA Stefan

Address:

Phone : + 421 2 4363 4354
     + 421 2 4342 2634 

e-Mail : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Website: http://www.dfsr.sk

Updated on June 2012