Together with the LaPrimulBebe Association, we have completed the construction of the family home in Rupea, Brașov County – the first house in our portfolio built entirely from donations made by individual supporters. The project continues the commitment started three years ago by the Foundation and LaPrimulBebe Association: to ensure that every child in Rupea has a real home to return to after school — a place they can truly call home.
The new family home offers modern, safe, and welcoming conditions for the 12 children and young people who will move in. They come from other residential-type social services or from vulnerable families where they can no longer stay safely.
Built on two levels, the house includes all necessary facilities: a living room, kitchen, cozy yard, four bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Designed after the model of a family home, with both private and shared spaces for daily activities, dining, and gardening, the new home will help children develop essential independent living skills.
The project was carried out with the support of the Brașov County Council, the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection Brașov, and Rupea Municipality, which provided a 457-square-meter plot of land to the County Council.
The staff will provide continuous guidance, counselling, and emotional support to help each child build self-confidence and form healthy relationships.
„ For the first time in our history, a house was built entirely through the support of ordinary people — over 16,000 parents who chose to believe that the childhood of other children matters too. The ‘Close the Circle’ appeal by LaPrimulBebe Association was a collective act of love — a bridge between parents and children who never knew their own. Every donation was a carefully placed brick, a helping hand, a promise that no child deserves to grow up alone. In the Rupea house, children will wake up in a place that smells like home. They will run through a yard that’s theirs. They’ll argue, make up, laugh, dream, and slowly learn what it means to be loved. I thank the 16,000 parents, phenomenally mobilized by LaPrimulBebe Association and especially Atena Boca and her team, for this incredible initiative. Words are one thing, but actions are what change the world. You’ve closed a circle — and opened a future”, declares Ștefan Dărăbuș, National Director at Hope and Homes for Children România.
In turn, Atena Boca, founder of the LaPrimulBebe Association, states: „Beyond the joy of building a house where institutionalized children can truly feel at <home>, the involvement of the LaPrimulBebe community meant more than just an act of support. The humanitarian campaign ‘Close the Circle’ was our way of sending a strong message — of channelling the energy, compassion, and strength of parents across Romania toward a cause that affects us all: child abandonment. A deep wound that has marked Romania for decades and, sadly, still hurts. We were moved to see the profound impact of this campaign — not only through the funds raised but through the life stories about abandonment shared by thousands of mothers and fathers in our community. Stories that, perhaps, would otherwise never have been told.”
The Rupea family home is the 132nd of its kind built by Hope and Homes for Children to date.Casa familială de la Rupea este a 132-a casă de acest tip construită de Hope and Homes for Children până în prezent.
