Radio România Internațional

Tag: volunteering

  • Via Danubiana

    Via Danubiana

    Work is in progress, in Romania, for an ecotourism route, meant to provide the explorer with one-of-a-kind experiences, ranging from the natural and cultural heritage to the landscapes, unique in Europe. The Danube Gorges, the Iron Gates, the islands and islets the river forms in its course, the Danube Delta or the spectacular areas where the river flows into the Black Sea, all these are but a few of the Danube’s attraction points. The project has been developed by the Greener Association. With more on the association itself, here is its PR director, Alexandra Damian.

    „We have been developing projects in several fields since 2008, when the Association was founded. We seek to build a culture of responsibility and of the volunteering for people and nature, in Romania. We plant trees, we get involved in combatting river Danube’s pollution with plastic, we have a large-scale program With Clean Water, where we carry activities of sanitation on banks of the Danube and its tributaries. We installed several floating dams in a bid to stem the flow of waste that are carried by the course of the river and its tributaries, and, basically, we promote the natural areas that can be found in Romania, so we somehow get closer to nature in a way we have forgotten to that, sort of, as of late. “

    Through the creation of a wide-scope ecotourism route along the Danube, tourists who love natural areas will discover the tremendous potential the area offers. Also, the local community will benefit from a sustainable economic development. With details on that here is the Greener Association’s PR director, Alexandra Damian. But how the idea of the Via Danubiana came about?

    ” The idea of the project has laid dormant for a couple of years now, with us, it existed in a drawer. We very much wanted to create this ecotourism route since we all know the Danube offers unique experiences. From the point where it enters Romania and all the way to the point where if flows into the Black Sea, we come across many beautiful places, a natural and cultural heritage, landscapes which are unique in Europe, reason enough for us to bring to the fore one of Romania’s less-promoted areas. “

    In the region, a series of protected areas and Natura 2000 sites have been identified, while the trail crosses forest areas along the shore, islands, canals and islets. As we speak, these are not accessible to the lay public because of the lack of infrastructure and poor promotion. We continue to map the more than one thousand kilometres river Danube flows in Romania.

    “We’re speaking about the mapping of the natural objectives, of the cultural and historical assets, of the local cuisine, all that can be found along the river. In the initial stage, we marked the segment flowing through Giurgiu County along a distance or around 100 kilometers, a zone which is rich in protected areas, in Natura 2000 sites, in cultural and historical objectives, which are very important yet very little promoted. The route we have mapped also goes through shore forests, islands, canals, islets lovers of nature will definitely want to discover. In September we placed the first milestone in Giurgiu County’s commune of Gaujani, at the Youth Educational Centre. It is one of the milestone points along the route. We’re next going to place two other milestones, in two other strategic points along the route. “

    The route offers a great many ways to spend your leisure time, only one hour’s drive from Bucharest. For the lovers of nature, the area benefits from an attractive list of species and can become the perfect place for birdwatching and the observation of the fauna and flora that are typical for river Danube. Along the route, we come across several natural protected areas, with more than 300 species of extremely rich flora and fauna, with very important invertebrate species, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals.

    From a cultural and historical point of view, there are several points of interest, which are nonetheless unbeknownst to the lay public and hitherto un-signalled, such as the ruins of Mircea the Elder’s fortress in Giurgiu, a period half-buried house or the range of bunkers in Slobozia. Also, for those who love the local cuisine, some of the culinary traditions can be revitalized, such as the pies that are specific for the Romanian-Bulgarian space, riparian to the Danube Delta, the pepper salads or the salads prepared with aubergines baked on glowing embers, or the goose thick soup. All the details needed for the journey along the Danube have already been published in a Traveller’s Guide you can access at viadanubiana.ro.

    “We have already launched the site. There we have GPS coordinates for those who want to walk along the trail, at viadanubiana.ro. We’ve also published a Traveller’s Guide in Giurgiu County. We very much want those who love nature, those who are into outdoor walks, those who love the Danube and the Delta, we want them to come join us. Given that, as we speak, we only map a segment, 100 out of the 1,000 kilometres, they can get involved in all sorts of ways so that we can extend the route, so we can map just as we’ve mapped Giurgiu County and the other regions along the Danube. Also, donations are welcome, products can be bought in the shop that has especially been created for Via Danubiana. They can obviously get involved as volunteers in the activities we are going to stage and can of course become ambassador of the new route. “

    At vianubiana.ro you can access the whole range of options for the lovers of nature to get involved, in a bid to support the project. So far, appeals to volunteering have been successful, said Greener Association’s PR director, Alexandra Damian. Volunteers from outside Romania have also joined in.

    “We’ve had, we’re open and, of course, we shall continue to have volunteers from many countries, especially along the river. We had volunteers from Germany, Austria, Ukraine who helped us in the activities we have staged so far. That’s for sure, we wait them to join us in the future as well. “
    Who has walked a segment along the Danube at least once, they’re sure to have unforgettable memories, related to the impressive landscape offered by the river in certain areas, or to the historical vestiges people come across along the route or to the traditional food carefully prepared by the locals. Added to that are the species of birds and animals that are typical for the region and which, on the banks of the river, they can find food, resting or nesting areas. Furthermore, the Danube’s Romanian segment flows through 11 of Romania’s main 28 protected areas.”

  • Plastics Against Waters

    Plastics Against Waters

    Water
    infesting waste, mainly plastics, has become a very serious problem
    globally, including Romania. More and more environmental organization
    are trying to clean up waters with methods both user friendly and
    more on the edge, but also to raise awareness with the public at
    large and local authorities about the perils of this type of
    pollution. One of these organizations is called Act for Tomorrow,
    which runs the Acting for Waters project. According to most experts,
    plastics are 90% of human waste, including in marine systems.
    According to UN data, 1 million marine birds and 100,000 marine
    animals die each year from plastic pollution alone. We asked what the
    situation was in Romania. We found out that, even though Romania has
    little official data, most likely it is in line with the global
    trend. Andreea Petrut, with the Act for Tomorrow organization, gave
    us some details:

    In
    terms of waste polluting waters, Romania is short on statistical
    data. We don’t have official figures from the Ministry of the
    Environment, or other public institutions that could tell us how much
    macro-waste pollution there is in waters across the country. There
    are some European level statistics, some that say that the Black Sea
    is the second most polluted in Europe with man-made waste, others
    that it is the first. What I can tell you, statistically speaking,
    based on research we have run early this year, is that in all sweet
    waters in Romania, as well as in the Black Sea, there are
    microplastics. These are tiny plastic fragments, nanometric, which
    come from decaying plastics. These microplastic fragments are found
    in absolutely every body of sweet water in Romania. We should
    absolutely worry about them, because they are dangerous both for
    ecosystems and our own health.

    The
    above mentioned organization acts on several directions: prevention,
    awareness, collection, and recycling. Obviously, such a grave and
    complex problem cannot be solved by a single NGO, but their
    initiatives can be replicated by other organizations, as well as by
    the authorities. Also, raising awareness among the public about the
    dangers of plastic littering pollution is essential, and every effort
    to this end is paramount. In fact, Act for Tomorrow is just one of
    the organizations dealing with water conservation in Romania, and we
    have already mentioned some in previous installments. Andreea Petrut
    told us about the main coordinates of the Acting for Waters program:

    We
    act on four main directions in this project. The first is in the
    education and training for prevention, meaning the generation of
    plastic waste that ends up in waters. Then we have the intervention
    and cleaning element, then the community mobilization and advocacy,
    including research, then, last but not least, exploiting plastic and
    other kinds of waste we collect from waters, putting them back in the
    economic circuit, as part of the circular economy. Last year we
    brought to Romania the first infrastructure for collecting waste in
    the shape of giant marine animals, which had not been seen on
    Romanian beaches. This year we opted for eight animals we set up on
    the beach, which are meant to ring the alarm for tourists in terms of
    the waste they generate, which end up in the water. We have an
    original project we developed, the first sea faring ship in Romania
    for waste collection that is 100% electric, actually the first in
    Europe. It is a craft we developed from scratch in Romania, together
    with our partners. Last year we ran a campaign for information and
    education called ‘Faced with Water Waste’, which got awards for
    environmentalism and communication. Basically, we compared all
    endangered and protected species with their exposure to waste,
    comparing their life expectancy with the fact that waste is basically
    there to stay forever. Aquatic fauna has a life expectancy that is
    much, much lower. In Constanta we put up the largest mural painting
    in the world that actually purifies the air, in an attempt to raise
    awareness on our marine pollution. In addition to these campaigns, we
    are laying a lot of emphasis on cleaning up. We ran a lot of programs
    for cleaning up waters, either with our waste collection craft, or
    with boats and other small craft manned by volunteers.

    The
    results of the campaign were beyond expectations, say the organizers.
    In only 5 months, they collected almost 19 tons of waste, both from
    the sea shore and from the most polluted waterways and lakes in the
    country. All the selected waste was recycled to be turned into
    resources. In total, 400 volunteers took part in the events,
    dedicating their time and energy to cleaning up waste that piled up
    in waters and on the shores. Over a million people visualized online
    the campaign for raising awareness called Facing Water Waste, which
    we mentioned above. Local public institutions mobilized to offer
    support, and became partners in the activities. Numerous local NGOs
    took the message further to other communities, contributing to the
    mobilization of volunteers.

  • The passion for volunteering

    The passion for volunteering

    For a long time associated in Romania with
    so-called volunteer work imposed by the communist regime, volunteering has
    become more popular in this country fairly recently. A younger generation, less
    marked by the scars of communism and perhaps also influenced by the European
    Union programmes to encourage social involvement among youths, is becoming more
    and more involved in volunteer work in areas such as ecology, culture and
    social care.




    A key role in the revival of volunteering may
    also have been played by a dedicated law passed in 2014. According to this law,
    even if volunteering work experience is not added up to seniority, volunteering
    activities are however recognised as professional experience. Young volunteers
    can therefore cite their volunteering work experience before prospective
    employers.




    Moreover, volunteering has proven lately to be
    a means to bring together communities who want to help themselves, instead of
    relying on the state. One example is the recent event organised by the ArtTour
    Romania organisation alongside the Predeal National Centre for Tourist
    Information, Promotion and Mountain Rescue. The event brought together 150
    volunteers who took part in the restoration of 19 mountain trails in four
    massifs: Baiului, Piatra Mare, Postavaru and Bucegi. This was an event born out
    of a passion for mountaineering, and as a means of encouraging others to try
    this kind of tourism. The principal organiser, the vice-president of ArtTour
    tourist advertising association Octavian Bodron explains:




    I am passionate about mountaineering, I love
    trekking in my free time, and promoting various areas of the country. Our
    intention is help disseminate information about mountain trails in order to
    reduce risks for tourists, making the experience better for tourists who want
    to breathe fresh air on safe trails. They want to be better informed before
    setting off on mountain trails and be prepared for potential dangers on their
    travels.




    Octavian Bodron’s enthusiasm has been
    transmitted to a few other young people who love spending time outdoors instead
    of in the city. Ionela is such a young person, and she told us about her hobby:




    I work with ArtTour as a collaborator, I am the
    friend of a volunteer. I like the association, I like their projects, and I
    want to help them. When I go up the mountain, I want to know where I’m going,
    because I’m a beginner. It’s essential to know where you are when you walk in
    the mountains, where you can easily get lost and maybe stumble upon bears. I’m
    also concerned with cleaning up the mountains. When I see trash on the trails,
    first I get really angry, then I think I should help clean it up. It isn’t such
    a great effort. I’d like to find a way to educate people to stop littering.




    Cleaning up the mountains and putting fresh
    markings on trails are not the only kinds of action that Ionela gets involved
    in:




    I have a job, and it has nothing to do with
    volunteering. In my free time I get involved in lots of things, and
    volunteering is just one of them. I manufacture hand-made products and I help
    an association that helps children in placement centres. Having a choice is
    essential for me. If I do something, I do it because I can do it and I want to.
    In short, volunteering helps, because it’s something I choose to do. I noticed
    that more and more people have started getting involved in volunteering in
    various ways, depending on their passions and concerns. It’s important for
    volunteers to get their friends involved as well, in order to help others and
    ultimately ourselves.




    For people who love mountaineering, refreshing
    trail markings and encouraging trekking is important, because mountaineering
    seems to have somewhat lost in popularity in certain areas. Volunteers can help
    in this regard, especially when they work together in associations. Florin is
    21 years old, is from Predeal, and is a member of the Education Group for Youth
    Support (GEST). Their mission is to put fresh markings on trails and to clean
    up litter. Let’s listen to what he told us:




    My father used to take me mountain climbing
    when I was three or four years old. We would go up Piatra Mare to look at
    rhododendrons. When I grew older, I still continued to do trips in the
    mountains. I began with the trails that start off in Predeal, then, when I got
    older, I started doing the trails in Bucegi. Then I registered with GEST
    association, and they helped me get to know the mountains better. Few countries
    can boast mountains like we have in Romania, with landscapes and trails like
    these. I would like to spread the word, to tell people that they should come to
    the mountains. Not just to clean up litter and refresh markings, but to take a
    walk and see how awesome it is to just wander for 10 hours or so through the
    woods, in the mountains, to pitch a tent, build a fire, and get away from the
    everyday grind.


    VF Octavian Bodron and the ArtTour association
    assure us that restoring the trails around Predeal will be followed by similar initiatives
    in other areas of the country, grouped under the ReMarking Romania project, and
    they are eager to take in more volunteers.

  • The heroes among us

    The heroes among us

    Since life can sometimes be a matter of seconds, all those involved in the emergency activities of the Medical Assistance Services are in a permanent race against time. Hence the idea of the program entitled “There is a hero in each of us.


    Doctor Cristian Grasu, the initiator of this program, has further details: “We started from a necessity and we came to get more involved emotionally, especially thanks to the people who are part of this program. At first, we had to solve the problem of our staff in Bucharest and Ilfov County, given that, at that time, we were obliged to hire only one person if 7 people of our staff quitted. So we came up with the sole viable idea of volunteering. Because regulations in the field were crystal-clear and in Bucharest we had to reach emergency situations in less than 15 minutes while in Ilfov county in less than 20 minutes. And the human resources of the Ambulance Service could only provide 90% of these services, therefore the only way to cope with the respective situation was to resort to volunteers.



    How does this program function and how can you get information about it? Here is doctor Cristian Grasu: “It functions in a simple manner. In the Dispatchers Department of the Bucharest-Ilfov Ambulance Service we have created an interface between the management system of Emergencies called Dispec and the application ‘There is a hero in each of us. When an emergency call is registered from a public area, with a code yellow or red emergency degree, that call reaches automatically the application by means of the interface. The application immediately searches for available volunteers on an area of 1,000 meters around the victim. The volunteers automatically receive information about the existence of an emergency situation. Volunteers are trained, they know what they have to do, it is up to them to intervene or not.



    In the 4 years since the program was set up, more than 5,000 volunteering contracts have been registered. The larger the number of volunteers, the higher the chances of potential victims to benefit from help as soon as possible. What is this program lacking in order to be implemented at national level? It lacks very few things! A partnership agreement has been signed with the Special Telecommunications Service (STS), the 112 Single Emergency Number Department, to have all necessary information across the country, the necessary hardware was purchased from the funds of the Ambulance Service, more exactly two servers and everything which is needed to meet the security requirements set by STS. Now, only the necessary funds are needed to update the mobile application, to be compatible with the current versions of android and IOS applications.



    Doctor Cristian Grasu will now tell us what story has impressed him the most: “One of the most impressive or touching stories in my case was a meeting at the National Emergency Medicine Conference held in Poiana Brasov, two years ago. Back then, a volunteer of the program ‘There is a heroin each of us, Mihai Moldoveanu, met with a man he had rescued in dramatic circumstances. Mihai had found that man, aged 50, in cardiac arrest and started performing CPR until the ambulance arrived. Mihais CPR maneuvers were successful, as the mans heart started beating. Two years on, in Poiana Brasov, the two men finally met face to face, being tied by a wonderful friendship, a friendship for life, I would say. Very often, volunteering under the program ‘There is a hero in each of us changes destinies.



    There are many examples of people who got in contact with each other, got involved in the program and changed their lives. They had different professions at the time and gradually shifted to healthcare, emergency medicine, attended nursing schools and then went to the Medical School, out of the wish to do something they like and feel useful.



    Volunteer Alexandru Andrasi, the coordinator of the Volunteering Department of the Bucharest Ambulance Society Association has shared with us his volunteering experience: “One day, a person fell down at the University metro station, and there were many people gathered around. I went there to see the person, who was in cardiac arrest. I quickly started performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, then I called 112. The First Aid team arrived at the site and obviously I received a notification on my phone.



    This is one of the situations which prove that sometimes a few seconds can make the difference between life and death.

  • Volunteering and social housing

    Volunteering and social housing

    The most disadvantaged categories are in dire need of a house, as their children don’t have their own room or a proper table where to do their homework.



    There are families that live crammed in dormitories for singles or in houses deprived of electricity and heating. Since the authorities are frequently unable to cope with these situations, they turn to community for help. People mobilize to help each other out.



    An example in this regard is “Habitat for Humanity — Romania”, an organization based on volunteering. With a 20-year activity, the organization has built houses for families with small incomes or has refurbished the old buildings of poor families.



    So far their programs have benefited 64 thousand people as they have built 600 new houses and renovated more than 2,000 buildings spread across Romania in Transylvania, near Cluj and Mediaş, in Moldavia, in Bacău, Comăneşti and Botoşani as well as in Constanţa county, in the southeast. Loredana Modoran is a coordinator with “Habitat for Humanity” and she gives us more details.



    Loredana Modoran: “People need to comply with 3 criteria. The first one is the need for a home. The second criterion requires the beneficiary to have a source of income so as to be able to return us the price of the construction materials that we purchased for their houses. Since our programs are meant to make the beneficiaries responsible, we are looking for people who, despite working all day long, obtain too small an income to afford taking out a loan from a bank. These people are trapped in a poverty cycle. We mobilize certain resources, which help them assume responsibility for their lives. The 3rd criterion requires the beneficiaries to work alongside us and our volunteers on building or renovating their houses. Before being selected, the candidates have to volunteer for a number of hours, actually they need to volunteer for about 1 thousand hours or more. We are not giving alms to people, we simply give them an impetus to carry on with their lives afterwards.”



    Volunteers work side by side with beneficiaries. They come from all over the world, belong to all social classes and have the most diverse jobs. Veronica Soare is one such volunteer, a radio journalist involved in several charity projects which she describes on her site called “minuni.ro”. She started working on the building sites several years ago and will next share with us her experience.



    Veronica Soare: “Working on a building site for several hours gives you a unique feeling. You feel something special when looking at the wall you have just erected, when looking at the people you have just met on the site and you realize that we, the common people, can make a change. It is a great feeling to go to the building site on a Monday morning, where there is nothing but the groundwork or foundation of the house, and then to see with your own eyes how a house emerges with the help of your hands.”



    The beneficiaries, in turn, become volunteers and supporters of other beneficiaries. The money which they pay by installments, without interest rate, for the materials used to build their houses will go into a fund. Then, the money will be invested in other construction projects. Veronica Soare could experience the joy people feel when helping their fellows.



    Veronica Soare: “This year I have visited one of the families that had a house built last year. And I was impressed by two things: the mother was very happy that she now had a decent place where to raise her children and she expressed her wish to go to work as a volunteer at the building site, to help other people just as other people helped her. I don’t know if these people have ever volunteered before but they have now understood what it means to be helped, and so they want to give a hand in their turn.”



    Bacău county, a region with many disadvantaged areas, has benefited from this system of building houses with the help of volunteers for 12 years. Andrei Chirilă, the coordinator of the Comăneşti branch of “Habitat for Humanity” organization talked about the social problems people are facing in this region.



    Andrei Chirila: “I could say that the existing houses across Romania are rather old, many need repair works as families have no longer invested in refurbishment. There are many young families with children who still live in the same apartment with their parents or other relatives. These people really need to have their own space. Some families have even asked us to help them purchase central heating systems, to replace their old wooden windows with plastic PVC windows and insulate their walls to save money on heating bills.”



    The demand for houses is very high, so new building sites will be set up in Comăneşti and its surroundings where volunteers will work to help their fellows have a decent home.


  • The Volunteer Challenge

    The Volunteer Challenge

    The Ajungem Mari educational program emerged one year ago out of the wish to help children from foster care centers in Bucharest become responsible adults, self-sufficient and confident in their own strength. With long term educational programs suited to their needs, they can overcome the trauma of institutionalization or of life in broken and often abusive homes. This is the goal of the Ajungem Mari organization, whose name means ‘we’re growing up’. Iarina Stefanescu, founder of the program, told us about it:



    “The program started after I had been involved in an English language program in social centers. I realized that two hours of education through play for children, with volunteers who encourage them interactively, meant a lot to them, providing them with knowledge and values.”



    Iulia Blaga and Andreea Dumitru both volunteered for the program, but they were not content doing what they started, running cinema and creative writing workshops. They took the children to movies, visited museums and bookshops, planted flowers and painted, took them to the park, showed them a city that many of them had never had the opportunity to discover. In their opinion, one of the greatest problems of the system is the lack of motivation, both for children and for staff. Andreea Dumitru:



    “The children are not motivated to take steps towards their future, maybe because they don’t have many alternatives at the center or even outside it. It is a known fact that, when they turn 18, they go into a total unknown. We, volunteers, are trying to show them that everyone has their own way to make it in life, that each of us had to choose their own path. I would like these children to understand that things are not predestined, that there are things outside these institutions, that they can develop outside the system. Sometimes we, volunteers, feel that we are just a drop in an ocean, and whatever we do with the children in one hour goes down the drain.”



    Being a volunteer means having quite a few qualities. Perseverance is definitely one of them. Here is Iulia Blaga:



    “You have a lot of work to do with them, but I feel they are very receptive. And I feel sometimes that they will forget tomorrow what you tell them today; but other times, I feel like what we tell them will stay with them forever. One day we showed them Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, they loved it, and one of the kids asked me: ‘Miss, were you there, in the movie?’ I didn’t know what to say, but I guess when you show them a movie, in their minds you were there, with Charlie Chaplin and the team.”



    Here is what Andreea Dumitru told us:



    “I agree, the biggest struggle is with this attitude that the staff passes on to the children: ‘You don’t know anything, you can’t do anything, you won’t manage to do anything in life’. I’m so happy every day when I see the smallest step in the opposite direction. I got very attached to some of the children at the center where I volunteer, but especially to a couple of children who can barely be said to have a family, and I want to work with them on a long term, I think it is the greatest challenge to work with children who are not given a single chance in the beginning, children that were said on the first day to have such a low IQ that they wouldn’t be able to do anything. Also, I want to take them as much as I can out of those centers, to see as many places as I can, to see them flourish. I’m sure they will flourish in a few years, and recover.”



    Iulia Blaga agrees:



    “Even the small steps with grammar can be seen as progress. If you correct them a few times, they get it. I’m trying to look at the small things that they do right. For instance, I do literacy with a boy, and I asked him to respect the time we set to meet, and I can see how he started keeping his promise. We went to the “Grigore Antipa” Natural History Museum, to a large bookshop, and when he saw so many people and books, he was scared and didn’t know how to react. He thought all the children were smarter, cuter, more loved and appreciated than he was. When I took him to the NexTKids International Film Festival, I noticed he was very good with his hands. An artist there was making little skirts from wire, like the characters in the movie, and he made one and gave it to me. I’m thinking I should help him develop this talent.”



    Iarina Stefanescu, founder and manager of the educational program, told us:



    “I’m thinking it would be useful, after we have got to know the children, through the ‘Pass On Your Passion’ volunteer project, to carry out some vocational training, helping us discover their vocation, their skills, help them on a long term. Next we should start implementing the ‘Dare Dream’ project, taking them to factories and company offices, have them talk to people from various environments. Most of the time, the children don’t have role models, and don’t know much about what a profession supposes, so it is natural for them to find it difficult to find their way. Which is why they need people to tell them that they also went through difficulties, but that they made it in the end.”



    The good news is that this program will be expanding outside Bucharest. Timisoara, Iasi, Cluj and Buzau are the next cities where the volunteers in the program are going next.