<<Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not. be shortened Happiness never decreases by being shared. >> (Buddha)

Romania is a beautiful country with many contrasts. The population living in rural areas face a large number of difficulties related to poverty, isolation, bad infrastructure, lack of jobs or services. Poverty is, unfortunately, extended and affects a large category of population, especially the elderly not able to work their land any more or families with many children.

The East of Bacau county, known as Podu Turcului area, is considered to be the pole of poverty in the region, the population is poor and barely surviving on subsistence farming and products obtained from working the land with empiric methods and hands. The area is quite far from the nearby cities (between 50-90 kilometers) and the primary health care is basic and primitive with one doctor and a nurse having to cover many satellite villages (one community has between 10-20 villages) spread on difficult hilly area with very bad connection roads (there is no public transport between the villages). The local dispensaries (being the only health care facilities) are poorly equipped and the doctors struggle to do their difficult jobs. Health services are therefore an “expensive” luxury for these people. Abortion is widely spread and used as a main form of contraception.

Some years ago FSC engaged in a challenging mission of changing this situation through setting up various medical, social and educational services.

In 2009, the dream of making a significant difference for the area started to become reality thanks to the financial support from Norway through the Norwegian Cooperation Programme for Economic Growth and Sustainable Development in Romania. The project entitled Integrated and Innovative Health Care Programmes for Rural Romania, initiated by FSC together with its partner Selbu Municipality obtained the necessary funds and was initiated in May 2009. The project is a unique chance for the partners to design and implement integrated services in a large rural area with impact on the entire population, meaning 34 440 people living in 10 communes with 94 villages, representing 4.78 % of the county population and 8.81 % of the rural population.

The project is complex, ambitious and designed to serve large categories of population. It is also known as "Little Norway".