Civic association Filadelfie 
- Přístav Oldřichovice

Filadelfie Port Oldrichovice (referred to as OS FPO) is a civic association, which was established on March 17th 2003 as a non-government and non-profit organization. The association supports alternative family care. The members are people with Christian principles which they apply in all their activities. We feel sorry for children who have never had the chance to enjoy a safe family environment and have had to grow up in orphanages which, despite the best intentions, cannot provide family love and fulfill childrens’ need of “belonging”. The lack of emotional support and impersonal care results in the children not fully developing a basic understanding of the family environment and principles for daily life. No wonder the majority fail in their own personal lives. Our goal is to enable at least some of the children to grow up in a family environment and provide them with a safe haven to which they can always return even in their adult life. We would like to achieve this goal by finding suitable parents – foster carers. We would like to offer these foster families suitable conditions in newly built family homes in the beautiful “Moravskoslezske beskydy” where each child can enjoy a happy childhood. The first two houses were completed at the end of 2005 and they are now being used for this purpose.

 Foster parents represent the most important element in the whole project. They create an alternative home for the children and as husband and wife are role models. The boys will learn from positive male models, something their peers in orphanages often lack. The girls will learn about womans’ role and learn basic household work. After careful consideration we selected two pairs of foster parents. Both are members of the Foster Care Association in Ostrava and work with the Ostrava branch of the Endangered Children Fund. The first foster family are the Penkals from Ostrava who look after seven children – their own Terezka and Daniel plus five foster children - Sylva, Honzik, Maruska and one year old brothers Michal and Kristian.

  The other foster family which now occupies the second house are the Godfryds, also from Ostrava. They adopted Stepan and now they also look after three foster children Marek, Maruska and Verka. “When OS Filadelfia approached us to participate in this project, we had already submitted an application for the second foster child. The offer to live in a house made us able to take in more children at once. We decided for three siblings who, otherwise, would have had only a small chance to grow up together as it is very difficult to find foster care for three siblings. We and the children are now planning to add a little baby, in a while, to look after together.”

Contact

Filadelfie Civic Association Pristav Oldrichovice,
Oldrichovice 249 739 67 Trinec 1 ICO 
(Business Registration Number): 711 609 73 
Bank details: Ceska sporitelna a.s. Trinec, 
Account number: 1687639349/0800 
Phone: +420 588 348 209 or mobil phone:  +420 777 249 001 
email: ddpristav@tiscali.cz 
Web: http://oldrichovice.filadelfie.cz/