Bucharest, November 8, 2018 – Seventy young people from disadvantaged communities, aged between 18 and 24, are attending courses for apprehending trades such as baker, cook, waiter, carpenter and gardeners, under the “School for Job, School for Life!” project. The courses will last until August 2019 and are delivered in Ploiesti, at the venue of the CONCORDIA Vocational School of the CONCORDIA Humanitarian Organization. The project is supported by the Vodafone Romania Foundation with a funding of approximately 200,000 RON through the “Good Deed Fund” program, and is aimed at helping young people integrate themselves professionally and socially in the community.
The funding allocated provides logistical support for the delivery of the courses and covers the cost of the human resources involved in youth training: foremen, instructors, teachers and social workers.
The project is mainly dedicated to young people from, without limitation, the counties of Prahova, Tulcea, Brasov, Buzau, Dambovita, Cluj, Vaslui, Dolj, Giurgiu and Ialomita. Trainees are provided with accommodation, meals and transportation during the project duration. Upon course completion, the young trainees are helped to find a job with one of the companies that have signed partnership agreements with the CONCORDIA Humanitarian Organization. Currently, the organization cooperates with eight companies from Bucharest and from Prahova County.
“We are glad to join the CONCORDIA Humanitarian Organization again in supporting a project that is extremely useful to socially vulnerable young people. It is the second project we and the CONCORDIA organization are developing jointly and the results of our previous collaboration make us believe that this project, alike others before it, is going to be a success story. Thanks to solid professional knowledge and training acquired, the young trainees will have much better chances to become socially integrated and to live a financially independent life”, says Angela Galeța, Director of the Vodafone Romania Foundation.
„Young people who are leaving the special protection system after the age of 18 represent a highly vulnerable category, at risk of social exclusion. In the absence of family support and socio-professional integration skills, these young people are also facing problems due to functional illiteracy and educational retardation, disability, inequality, lack of skills, including lack of basic foreign language skills and of digital competences. This project responds to the needs of social integration and development of independent life skills among these young people”, says Ramona Vasiloae Năstăsache, Coordinator of Educational Programs CONCORDIA Vocational School.
Trainees are also attending classes on civic education, applied mathematics, English, IT and creativity, as well as hand-on training on global education and active citizenship, designed to enhance their social responsibility and their involvement in social and decision-making processes, along with their knowledge of nowadays issues related to environment and sustainable life. Courses consist of both practical (75%) and theoretical training (25%).
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 20 years of activity, Vodafone Romania Foundation has funded 1,104 programs run by 706 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of healthcare, education and social services. These projects had a total of 2.7 million beneficiaries – children, young and old people and physically, socially or economically disadvantaged people. So far, Vodafone Romania has invested over 28 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.
CONCORDIA is an independent, non-governmental and non-profit organization, which has been active in Romania for the last 27 years and whose mission is to support the social, family, school and professional (re)integration of children, young people and families in difficulty, helping them become self-sustained individuals. Our projects are carried out in Bucharest, Ploieşti and Ariceştii Rahtivani, Prahova County, and are addressing more than 2,000 people each year. For more information, visit www.concordia.org.ro
