Archway Romania Team - Connecticut President Archway Romania

Our team at Archway Romania is large in impact. We have a deep passion for our work, as well as how donors think about the way they give to it. We believe in fostering an environment of collaboration and innovation.

Under the direction of our dedicated president from Connecticut, Ms. Susan Booth, Archway Romania’s staff and volunteers are committed to improving the quality of life of children living in the streets and sewers of Bucharest, Romania.

Executive Leadership:

Susan, President and CEO

As CEO of Archway Romania, Susan is driving the foundation’s vision of improving the quality of life of children living in the streets and sewers of Bucharest. She is an expert on working with partners and donors around the world, having also managed the company’s fundraising campaigns.

A group of people standing next to a van.

Origel (Gica) , Director

With more than 25 years of legal experience focused on the intersection of the charity and legislation, Origel (Gica) oversees Archway’s activities, HR, legal and government affairs functions.

Florentina (Flori) , Social Media Manager

Flori studies Business Administration at the University of Bucharest and she is managing the social media part of Archway Romania. She leads marketing development through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and our website, and truly believes that we can make our mission possible.

Gabriela (Gabi) , Marketing and Communications

Gabriela (Gabi) leads the marketing at Archway. She is a graduate of the University of Bucharest, Romania and wholeheartedly believes in the mission of Archway Romania.

Staff and Volunteers:

Archway Romania relies on a multitude of volunteers from all kinds of backgrounds every year.

A group of people standing around a truck.

Cola, Calu, Claudiu, Elena, Ciobanica, Alina and many more of the children who used to live on the streets when Archway started have now their own families and life enriching experiences knowing that they are capable of making a tangible difference in the lives of people who are going through exactly what they were going through until Archway discovered and helped them on the streets. Our volunteers support us with diverse jobs. Whether we are stuffing envelopes or building a contact list, delivering clothes on the streets or gifts for Christmas, we are all part of the same effort that achieves amazing outcomes for children.

Susan (Sue) Booth, President and CEO

An old friend of mine once said to me: “How lucky you are to have found your passion. Most of us just wander through life without ever discovering what we were meant to do.” He was right – I am very lucky to have found the street kids of Romania. My family thinks I’m crazy – but that is nothing new. I have been in love once or twice but that always took a back-seat to my relentless search for something meaningful to do with my life. It’s been a crazy and difficult ride – trying to create something for others that never existed before. That is what ARCHWAY ROMANIA is – a highly improbable foundation to care for the abandoned children living in the streets and sewers of Bucharest, Romania. We have been in existence for 24 years, and we will never stop fighting for these kids!

A group of children posing for the camera.

I earned a degree in education way back when I didn’t know where my life was going to lead me. I never earned tenure because after 4 years I got a job with Metro-North Railroad starting as a tower operator – switching the train tracks so that I could route the trains -who even knew there was such a job! Then I transferred to becoming one of the first female conductors out there. After doing that for 6 years I was asked to go into the training department on the railroad because of my long-ago degree in education. I worked in the training department for 9 years and then, after having a fight with a then-boyfriend and staying home on a Friday night, I saw a 20/20 program that showed the institutions that the dictator Ceausescu had set up in Romania to house all the abandoned, lost, and runaway children. It was gut-wrenching to watch these naked children eating from troughs and showing all the emotional damage done by the lack of a mother’s touch. Once seen, it could not be unseen so I decided that night that I was going to get a graduate degree in Social Work and save these children (such was my naivete). In order to earn my MSW I could no longer work 9-5 so I transferred back to being a conductor ( at a $13,000.00 pay cut) so that I could work nights and to go to classes during the day. While working and going to school I wrote to the huge international foundation about these children. When I earned my degree I took a plane to Romania. I did not think about it I just went because I was frustrated by the lack of response of the foundations and the lack of information about these kids. And the rest is history!

A group of people standing around in the woods.

The ARCHWAY ROMANIA team is hard at work and we will continue to work for and with these children of the streets of Romania.

We ask you to take an interest in our work and in the lives of these children who have so much to offer. I will be online, reading your messages and suggestions. I learned long ago that we never know where the help and ideas are coming from. When we started our foundation, we all pledged to leave no avenue unexplored and no stone unturned in our search to find a better life for these children and justice for those for whom we were too late to help. We ask for your ideas, your suggestions, your prayers, and if at all possible your donations. Even a small donation helps more than you can imagine. And we look forward to developing a relationship with those of you who will not stand by silently and let this tragedy continue.

A group of people standing around a table.

Our team in Romania can be reached for comment at: [email protected]. Any suggestions you have in regard to funding or collaborations or suggestions for our work overseas are gratefully appreciated and we hope to hear from you soon.

If you want to get involved in the mission of helping needy children, you can make donations via PayPal, Bank Transfer (payment order from your bank to First Bank, Archway account) and Post Office box, and you can visit us on:

-Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087582820414

-YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ArchwayRomania

-TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@archwayromania?lang=en

Post Office Box:

Archway

P.O. Box 73

46 Water Street

Guilford, CT 06437

(if you can’t donate via PayPal or bank transfer, you can send checks to the Archway P.O. Box address)

ARCHWAY ROMANIA FOUNDATION

FIRST BANK ROMANIA BIC CODE: PIRBROBU

Account: RO14 PIRB 4237 7470 5700 2000 ; Currency: USD

(payment order from your bank to First Bank Romania, Archway Romania Foundation account)

Peace,

Sue

Copyright© Archway Romania Foundation, All rights reserved

Donate Save a Child

61% funded

With the funds raised, Archway Romania will have resources to help children, especially those from vulnerable families, benefit from integrated community services: benefit from the treatments they need, grow up with their families, grow harmoniously without violence and enjoy childhood. According to Eurostat data in 2013, more than 40% of Romania’s population, or more than 49% of the Romanian children’s population, were at risk of living in poverty. Approximately 300,000 children in Romania are outside the education system, over 60,000 children are separated from their families, and about 10% of pregnancies are recorded in adolescents. The reasons are complex, interdependent and continue to be passed on from one generation to the next. Low access to health, social and education services, plus limited knowledge of rights and opportunities, lead to social exclusion of vulnerable families and their children. The economic crisis has affected vulnerable families through job losses and reduced incomes from work in the country or abroad. The crisis has also affected the capacity of social protection, health and education systems to meet the multiple needs of vulnerable children and families. The most vulnerable children are those in poor families, Roma communities, and children with disabilities.

General Fund

ARCHWAY Romania needs donations to keep our organization viable and to help these abandoned children of Romania, Rest in peace, Radu.

Every day, children of every age become orphaned or abandoned due to violence, natural disasters, poverty or disease. Without the support of a family, the outlook for these children is bleak.

Your gift to Archway Romania today provides children with:

Warm clean clothes;
Healthy meals and medical care
Identity Papers
Preschool, primary and secondary education counseling and training
School supplies
Emergency relief help in crisis situations

Established in 1999, Archway Romania is the one of the largest organization based in Bucharest devoted to the care of orphaned and abandoned children living on the streets of Bucharest.

Donate Help a Child to Go to School

31% funded

Archway Romania foundation provides the necessary material and financial support for the education of the children who come from poor families, disadvantaged families, foster care , with disabilities and difficult health problems who need a warm meal, a sandwich, an education and a help for their integration in school system.

In Romania, 1 in 5 children are facing major deficiencies, the parents of these children have lost their jobs( most of the time temporary or seasonal jobs), and who ended up in the situation of not having food, hygiene products, medicine, basic foodstuffs to survive, lack of a home and the discrimination due to poverty.

The pandemic has deeply affected the education and has worsened the existing social inequalities.

Any of your contribution will be invested for the benefit of street children, to prevent school leaving, discrimination and juvenile delinquency, together with you we can give necessary equipment to be able to carry out their online classes( tablets, internet access), educational materials( backpacks, notebooks, pens, markers, crayons, geometric kits, pencil cases , etc), clothes and shoes, food and personal hygiene products to help them not to drop out of school because of poverty and poor living conditions.

Thanks for your interest in this critical step forward for our kids.

Please Help Us to Replace the Old and Broken Car

15% funded

Please help us raise urgently the amount of 20.000$ in order to buy a new car to continue helping street children and disadvantaged families that we help together for 23 years .

Our car is old, it was manufactured in 2006.We fixed several defects that the car developed over time, and recently in order to be able to help children from the street, we had to repair the water pump for cooling the engine and the oil leaks that the car has, shortly after that we had to change the clutch kit with the pressure plate.

Another more expensive repair was the removal of the rust that appeared aggressively in the car body because the car is 16 years old since it was manufactured and we had to repair it in order to get a license from the Romanian Auto Registry to be able to continue to drive it safely on the streets.

Now we have very serious problems with the engine, the car starts very hard and it is possible that the car will stop working and we won’t be able to help street children, we will have to raise money together so we can buy a new car because it would be very expensive to repair the engine.

Please help us raise urgently the amount of 20.000$ in order to buy a new car to continue helping street children and disadvantaged families that we help together for 23 years .

It is necessary to buy another car to ensure the transport of food, clothing, thick blankets and medicine to poor and needy children who live on the streets, to be able to drive in all sectors of Bucharest where street children live in abandoned buildings, heating sewers or shacks made of cardboard or plastic material.

We can make this mission possible if we join forces to raise the necessary money to replace the old car in order to continue helping poor and needy children and to be able to ensure that they live in a cleaner and more decent life.

Together with you we can make this mission possible, to continue our tradition of 23 years and to help further poor children living on the street. God bless us all to overcome this problem too and to continue this mission together with you. Thank you very, very much for your help!!!