Bucharest, July 24, 2019 – The Vodafone Romania Foundation will support, for the third consecutive year, the 12 social „School after school” centers as part of the strategic program „Investment in Rural Areas”, the budget allocated for the 2019-2020 school year being 920,000 lei.
This program aims to develop rural communities by providing specific support to pupils and their families, teachers and local NGOs. In order to implement the program’s activities, Vodafone Romania Foundation continued its strategic partnerships with the Royal Foundation Margareta of Romania and the World Vision Romania Foundation, two NGOs with great experience in supporting children and disadvantaged families in rural areas. The financing granted by the Vodafone Romania Foundation from 2018 to 2019 amounts to over 1 million lei, out of a total budget of over 2.4 million lei, and the number of beneficiaries amounts to almost 4,000 people from rural areas, economically or socially disadvantaged (children, adults and the elderly).
Presently, six of the 12 „School after School” centers are equipped with interactive boards, tablets and digital educational programs. With their help, students learn to use electronic means for study, show more involvement in class and interact more easily with teachers. After finishing the school hours, the children participate in numerous activities organized by the specially trained staff, which helps them to develop their cooperation and communication skills. The efficiency of the program so far is reflected in improved school results of the 456 students who are enrolled in the centers: 99% of them attended the classes with done homework for the basic subjects, 99% read better compared to last year, 90% were proactive in the class, and 96% of them had a better school attendance. At the end of the 2018/2019 school year, all 456 children attended camps, for many of them it was their first experience of the kind.
Additional to supporting the centers, last year the program „Investment in the Rural Areas” focused on offering integrated services addressed to the members of the communities in which the 12 centers are located: the counties of Alba, Bistrița Năsăud, Cluj, Constața, Dolj, Ialomița. Ilfov, Maramureș, Neamț, Teleorman and Vâlcea. In order to create a greater impact and enable a sustainable rollout of the program, particular attention was given to the development of local NGOs. Sustainable strategies and solutions were set up for these organizations so that they, in turn, can contribute to the development of their entire local community. This approach will be continued in the 2019/2020 school year, by organizing training courses for teachers, fundraising and organizational strategy courses. Emphasis will be placed on student-centered programs, especially, taking into consideration social and educational vulnerabilities. Similar to the previous years, special attention will be given to educating parents and, in general, empowering communities so that they support the education of their own members.
The Vodafone Romania Foundation is a Romanian nongovernmental charitable organization, established in 1998, which operates separately and independently from the Vodafone Romania SA’s business. During its over 20 years of activity, Vodafone Romania Foundation has funded 1,132 programs run by 730 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of healthcare, education and social services. These projects had 3 million beneficiaries – children, young and old people, physically, socially or economically disadvantaged. So far, the Vodafone Romania Foundation has invested over 30 million euros in projects run by nonprofit partner organizations. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available at fundatia-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.fundatia-vodafone.ro/ and www.facebook.com/fundatiavodafone.
The Royal Foundation Margareta of Romania is one of the elite nongovernmental organizations in Romania and contributes to the development of civil society, with social and educational programs that support people. With over 29 years of activity, Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation has supported projects dedicated to children in dramatic life situations, who face extreme poverty, risk of school or family abandonment, health problems or social exclusion. A total of 25,000 children and young people and about 2,500 families with precarious living, as well as 650 small local NGOs, have received help and assistance from the Foundation since 1990. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available at www.fpmr.ro, www.facebook.com/www.fpmr.ro
World Vision Romania is part of the World Vision International partnership, present in nearly 100 countries around the world. World Vision Romania is a Christian foundation that carries out humanitarian intervention programs of emergency, development and advocacy, putting the child’s wellbeing at the heart of its work. The Foundation focuses on working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. Inspired by Christian values, the foundation works with the most vulnerable people in the world, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. In nearly 30 years of presence in Romania, the foundation has helped over 500,000 children and adults in 400 communities across 8 Counties. World Vision Romania believes in the right to equal opportunities for rural and city children, therefore, in the rural communities where it is present, the foundation runs long-term community development programs focusing on education and reducing school drop-out, health and child protection, agriculture and rural development, civic and Christian engagement. Thus, children have access to better living conditions through the sustainable development of the community they live in. The projects focus on transforming communities and their members to achieve a fulfilled life for each child. Please access: www.worldvision.ro, www.facebook.com/WorldVisionRomania, blog.worldvision.ro/ for more details.
