Silvia and Romanian Angel Appeal: A 30-year story of angels, lives saved, and special people you can build with

Some of you know us as the foundation that cared for children in orphanages, or those who insist on lung screenings, those who bring solutions in education for vulnerable students, who have run programs for people with HIV, who have helped children with autism, or who have planted the seeds of empathy in teachers and courage in the hearts of refugees.

We are all of the above. And we are also those who, for over 30 years, have dedicated ourselves to the good. For a fair world – for every child, young person, and adult.

But to understand the present, we must return to the past

And to do that, we look at people – because without them, RAA would have long lost its wings. Today, we learn the story of Silvia Asandi, General Manager of RAA. Her relationship with the Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation is perhaps the most complex and by far the oldest.

Silvia knows her calling and manages to continue the organization’s activities in times that are at least interesting. She joined RAA during the post-communist period.

Her ability to identify the right people for the job has been complemented by the luck of finding absolutely special individuals who have built the RAA Foundation as we see it today. People whom she has come to consider not just colleagues, but extended family.

The most difficult part of the interview for her was describing herself:

“I am Silvia Asandi. I have spent more than half my life fueled by the joy of seeing children, young people, and adults free and happy. I see the glass half full in any situation and I still haven’t lost hope in humanity.”

First steps in the NGO sector

Silvia joined RAA at the end of 1993. She had graduated from the Faculty of Pediatrics two years prior and had started working in a hospital, splitting her time between Bucharest, Iași, and Hârlău.

At that time, she would go to the hospital but also do a lot of fieldwork, evaluating children in these institutions: “It seemed like a kind of work in vain, we managed to solve too few cases, and I had lost the desire to volunteer for children in Africa because the shortages and needs were so great here at home…” Silvia recalls.

Through a newspaper ad, she discovered Romanian Angel Appeal, an organization unlike any other

When she saw that Romanian Angel Appeal was looking for a pediatric graduate for a program dedicated to children with HIV/AIDS, Silvia decided to give it a try.

She felt the need for a larger and more structured project, and the fact that it addressed children with HIV/AIDS motivated her greatly because she had spent her last two years of college researching the HIV/AIDS phenomenon in the pediatric population of the country. She thought about specializing in this field at some point.

“I planned to work for a maximum of 2 years in this combination of hospital and NGO and then return to being a full-time doctor in the system. It didn’t work out. I stayed full-time at RAA, the organization that I learned at the interview was unlike any other organization that had come to Romania at that time.

The story, the artists, the music, the empathy of people who got a massive aid operation for children in Romania up and running in the blink of an eye… it all seemed like a movie, and I was allowed to be part of it”, says Silvia.

“A whole new and fascinating world”

Regarding her integration into the RAA team, Silvia says she was “thrown into the fire from the start”, in the best sense of the word.

She learned a lot then from the directors about how a humanitarian organization is organized and run, the importance of motivating a team, financial responsibility, project management, and the importance of multidisciplinary assistance, day hospitals, etc.

Within a few months, she managed to read almost the entire office library and visit all the work points in Bucharest, Timișoara, Constanța, Iași, and Botoșani, getting to know the teams and collaborators, familiarizing herself with procedures and all organizational bureaucracy.

“It wasn’t easy for me, but I had entered a completely new and fascinating world, and no effort seemed too great because, in the end, I saw amazing results: children who previously did not speak and did not socialize were now telling us stories and deciphering the alphabet, completely renovated and equipped hospital wards with everything needed, Romanian staff learning to work with children in a new system where care, empathy, and professional integrity were no longer exceptions”, Silvia confesses.

George Harrison, The Beatles: “You are doing a fantastic job for the angels”

The first serious task she received was to plan the establishment of the daycare unit for children with HIV/AIDS at Colentina Hospital (now the National Institute of Infectious Diseases Matei Balș) in Bucharest.

She had a little over three months and a strict budget to cover everything: medical and non-medical equipment, furniture, sanitary supplies, medicines, personnel costs, food, etc. A few years later, she managed to add social and psychological assistance components to the daycare unit.

“I made mistakes along the way, but I was lucky to have fair bosses who supported me and understood the culture I came from. They had the patience and openness to teach me to meet the work standards imposed by the culture of traditional humanitarian organizations in the UK”, adds the GM.

She reached the UK two years after joining RAA, on a study visit, during which she visited Olivia and George Harrison at their residence in Friar Park. She had already met Olivia.

She had come to Romania twice and had already impressed Silvia with her generosity, modesty, and way of making you feel at ease, “but shaking hands with George in his living room, getting a tour of his garden, having him play the banjo for you, and at the end thanking you because ‘you are doing a fantastic job for the angels’ with a long hug from the greatest Beatle… that was something I will never forget.”

Liquidation of RAA or developing the organization in Romania through own efforts?

For Silvia, the GM position did not come overnight. She was 32 years old, already a Project Director at RAA, and it was not quite a proposal in the true sense of the word: “I had to choose between helping the Founders’ Board liquidate RAA (because after almost 8 years since its establishment, it was considered to have fulfilled its emergency aid mission) and continuing to develop the organization in Romania through our efforts. I chose the second option because I had already invested significant time and effort and because that year (1997) I managed to attract the first grant to develop the social assistance component for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS.”

She took a risk and admits she was afraid she wouldn’t succeed: “But I succeeded, obviously not alone, but together with a handful of special people with whom we continued to build.”

“We saved lives and gave families hope”

How did she find the energy to continue with all the difficulties she encountered?

“What we did, especially in the first 20 years, was very hard. You can’t simply close up shop at 5 PM. We saved lives and gave families hope”, says Silvia.

She had moments of impasse, especially related to the volatile political and financial environment in which we operate.

And yes, she had moments when she thought her life would be much simpler, freer, and easier in another professional context. “But what always brought me back to reality were the people in my team.”

She has always felt a huge responsibility towards us, the people at RAA, simply because we chose to stay in a risky and often uncertain work environment.

“I can say that my ability to identify the right people for the job has been complemented by the luck of finding absolutely special people who have built the RAA Foundation as we see it today. People whom I have come to consider not just my colleagues but my extended family.”

We kept Silvia’s wish for the celebration of 32 years since the founding of the Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation for the end:

“I wish it the strength and endurance to fulfill its future of good deeds as it envisioned, the skill and luck to continue its journey with the most suitable allies and supporters.”

Find out how you can support our projects – DONATE