This Easter, when children are often preoccupied with vacation time and chocolate eggs, a group of secondary school students from Cluj County in northwest Romania has set aside their own time to help families in need and in the process have experienced their own kind of transformation.
In partnership with the local Mayor’s office and World Vision, they created and printed Easter cards and posters and visited 250 families to share the cards and invite them to participate in the fundraising effort and „show solidarity with those less fortunate”.
‘People let us into their homes; they donated clothes and toys and also money, which made us happy. In the beginning we were very emotional and unsure but then we got used to talking to people and presenting our cause. It is great that the majority of the people asked to participate came back to us with their donations. And many of them were happy to see us doing something for the people in need’, said Denisa, one of the students who organised the campaign.
‘We let the children take care of each and every detail of the campaign, starting from making the campaign visible and ending with collecting the money and the donations. And they created a total success’, said their teacher and educational counselor, Ms Carmen Mircean.
‘This experience has raised their self-esteem. It is a tangible fact; it is exactly what the children feel. All their teachers and parents can see the difference created inside them. And most importantly, they can feel it too. They are changed because now they know they are capable of giving without waiting for anything in return’, she continued.
‘I feel that I am a better person and a more responsible one’, added Denisa.
With the money raised, the ‘Charity Centre’, established by the volunteer group of students, bought basic food supplies, which were very welcomed by the families in need. The students collaborated with the Mayor’s office and received a list showing single-headed households, families in which parents are unemployed or poor families with more than four to five children.
‘We thank you very much and we wish you to have a happy Easter’, said one young mother of five, living in one room with her children and husband while receiving the gifts from the children.
‘Even if a litre of oil, a kilo of flour and one of sugar may not be much, it is Easter time and the children’s initiative counts enormously! They are for sure a living example for the adults in their community,’ said Ciprian Tehei of World Vision who is responsible for civil society initiatives.
These students are involved in the editorial team of the school magazine and several months ago they met Ciprian and were encouraged to create a local volunteers group and generate ideas to benefit their school and community. The result of this interaction was called ‘The Charity Centre’ and the Easter campaign is their first fundraising initiative.
‘We would like to create a sports field at school. There is a very old one in the school yard and we want to fundraise for a synthetic field to play tennis and basket. I totally love the idea of this new project and I feel great that I am going to work on it’, shared 14-year-old Adela.
Six months ago, World Vision initiated a strategy of creating rural centers for volunteers in Cluj. Today there are already 12 such centres consolidated around schools, churches and local community-based organisations.
The students involved are mostly secondary and high school pupils and their initiatives have been visible in numerous fields of activity such as education, charity, preserving traditions, ecology and promoting the communities in which they live.
