About us

Published: Friday, 02 January 2015

NGO Foundation Latgale Regional Support Centre Rasas Perles was established in 2008 in order to provide inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services to abused children, women and families in Easten part of Latvia. The Centre was founded with help from Latvian Children Fund and local municipalities to act as an education and support center for children and families in times of crisis to ensure their wellbeing.

The aims of the Foundation are:

The centre provides social and psychological rehabilitation for abused children and their families. Social rehabilitation is available to the children who are victims of criminal offence or exploitation, have been sexually exploited or subjected to violence or another unlawful, cruel or sincerely offensive activities.Firstly, they are children who have suffered from emotional, physical or sexual violence, as well as neglection. In the Centre there is available the state paid social rehabilitation service for the children who have suffered from violence and in the need or crisis situation the municipalities have been enabled to place the children in the Centre free of charge.

Children's rehabilitation may take 30 or 60 days if criminal proceedings were initiated against the oppressor. An accompanying person, mother or guardian may stay together with the children in the center. Since 2009 till 2015 social rehabilitation was provided for 1145 children, there were 173 accompanying persons. Within the framework of the project 87 adult persons have been rehabilitated.

Unfortunately, after rehabilitation the clients mainly return to their previous environment and in most cases violence continues. That's why the Centre every year in addition to the implementation of the state programme realizes projects connected with improving the quality of the life of inhabitants.

In the Centre there are 23 employees: 3 social employees, 3 psychologists, 10 social educators, a nurse, 3 cooks, a cleaner and a bookkeeper work in the team of social rehabilitation. The team is led by the director of the Centre who is also a member of the Management Board of the Foundation.

"Rasas perles" is different from other Latvian Crisis centers for children affected by violence with the fact that we are situated 250 km from capital of Latvia in very rural community. We have a large area (5.18 ha), own garden and greenhouse for vegetables. The children and families living in centre are helping in maintaining the gardens, to maintain the surroundings of the Centre.