Dear Friends,

As we are getting close to the end of 2010, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope you’ve had a very good year, filled with successes and joy, despite – or, better still, in spite of – the current difficult economic situation. I am saying this advisedly, because I think we have managed to have a good twelve months at the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, continuing the work started by my parents, Ion and Elisabeth Ratiu, who established the Foundation back in 1979.

Then and as now, the Foundation’s goals are to promote and support programmes which further education and research in the culture and history of Romania in particular, and also to stimulate and support civil society in its understanding and application of democracy and democratic principles the world over. We hope that our work is living up to the high expectations Ion Ratiu had of the Foundation, and, of course, to your expectations: our friends, our audience, our beneficiaries.

As for the new year, we are planning to continue pretty much along the lines of our by now traditional programmes: hosting presentations and seminars, organising the Romanian Film Festival in London, promoting Romanian and Romania-related cultural and educational events.

During this year, we have mentioned on several occasions that the Foundation’s work in 2010 was especially dedicated to my father, the great Romanian democrat and humanitarian Ion Ratiu, as it was 10 years since his death in January 2000. We prefer not to say that this was our way of commemorating his death, but rather that this is how we celebrate his life, his ideals, his achievements, and have tried our best to fulfil the mandate left to us: Ion Ratiu’s legacy.

You can see images from the events supported and organised by the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in 2010 and earlier by visiting the Photos section of this website.

We would like to thank you all for your support and for your continuing interest in Romanian culture and education.

See you in 2011!

Nicolae Ratiu
Chairman
Ratiu Foundation