Topolino has turned 10!
An update on the activity of one of the most active NGOs in the field of social services for newborns.
Ana-Maria Cononovici, 05.05.2026, 14:00
Today we’re back with an organization that has caught our attention in the past: “Topolino – Tudor – Alexandru Association,” or “Topolino, TA Association,” a non-governmental organization with charitable status, whose goal is to improve the living conditions and social adaptability of hospitalized new-borns and abandoned children, with a view to enhancing the quality of life for them and their families.
Quite a few people face challenges when their children are born, but few go on to dedicate their lives to social causes. Simona Grigoraş Olaru began her journey as a mother by taking her child to five different hospitals during the first few months of his life. She is the founder of the Topolino project and everything created under this name in the ten years since its inception. Here is what she told us:
“Topolino means ‘little mouse’ in Italian. That’s what the medical staff in Italy affectionately called my baby, because he was dependent on an oxygen tube, a little ‘moustache’ of oxygen. Then I realized that Topolino was the name of a mission I took on ten years ago, when, without realizing it, during one of my night shifts—I’m not a doctor, but I went through many night shifts, for months, to be with my son—I made a promise to God that I would help as much as I could and do a lot of good wherever I went.”
Once she had learned to be a mother and settled into this role alongside her child, having navigated the long journey of initial medical challenges, Simona Grigoraş Olaru realized what parents facing medical challenges with their new-borns need most, and she defined her role:
“To be honest, over the years as I’ve processed all the emotions and difficult moments I’ve experienced, I’ve come to understand that if others before me had changed something—no matter how small, as much as was within their power—perhaps my child would have had a better chance of not going through what he went through, of not becoming a case study for fourth-year medical students, and of not being the only survivor in the country with the complex diagnoses he received. It’s a miracle that he’s with me and that he’s wearing a Topolino T-shirt. In recent years, I’ve been called a “Paediatric Navigator” (a guide through the medical world) precisely because I’ve taken on the role of guiding other parents and paediatric patients through the labyrinth… of death, most of the time, so they can see “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
And since Topolino’s projects to protect the most vulnerable beings depend on the support of friends or partners (based on the principle of “One for All and All for One”) both individuals and companies are encouraged to stand alongside the association. Its circle of friends has grown organically, just like the initiatives to support children, which have continued to diversify. Over the past 10 years, the number of Topolino volunteers has reached 68, all forming part of today’s puzzle of “Navigators.” These are ten years in which those who joined first navigated toward themselves; only then, by understanding their mission, were they able, with gratitude, to leave every place they touched better than they found it, offering experience, kindness, and new perspectives.
Simona Grigoraș Olaru announced that while the call 10 years ago was “With a little from everyone, we SUCCEED in reaching as many children as possible,” the Topolino creed has now become: “Prevention Saves Lives, and Education Makes the Difference.” Simona Grigoraș Olaru told us more:
“On April 3rd, we mark 10 years of ‘Topolino – The Tudor-Alexandru Association,’ 10 years that we are celebrating in the ‘living room’ at FTMB (the Bucharest Municipality Youth Foundation), where I am marking 10 years of doing good. And as a mother once beautifully told me while we were in the neonatal intensive care unit: we don’t just show the light at the end of the tunnel; we light up the tunnel!”
To understand how Topolino’s actions work, look at the example of one of their most recent appeals. A week before Easter, a visit was planned for the children at the orphanage in Perișoru (Călărași County) to keep a promise made at Christmas: that the motorcyclists would come (many of Topolino’s friends, including the project’s founder, use motorcycles to travel more efficiently through the city), that they would host a barbecue in the yard, and that they would all spend an unforgettable day together.
The help requested included volunteers, including barbers or people skilled to cut children’s hair, as well as donations of clothes, shoes, funds for the barbecue and packages containing educational materials, hygiene products, sweets, and fruit. As a result, 72 children experienced glimpses of what life can be like in its normal state.
Simona Grigoraș Olaru and “Topolino – The Tudor-Alexandru Association” have completed 10 years of transforming feelings of revolt, despair, and hope into confidence, desire, faith, and will. (MI & VP)
