Volunteering

Quarterly Report

April – June 2010

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE REPORTED PERIOD

1.Involving the volunteers in social projects with the purpose of helping disadvantaged people in Bacau

2.2% Campaign

3.Cleaning campaign to make at least 10 of the SIC beneficiaries’ homes more hygienic.

4.The street campaign around the Easter holiday in ARENA MALL

5.Organizing the National Week of Volunteering

6.Organizing a celebration of the volunteers in XIIth grade – “Graduation day”

7.Selecting the volunteers for Summer Schools.

Objectives evaluation:

All the objectives have been met or are in the course of being finalized.

BENEFICIARIES

Direct:

a)Volunteers

MONTH	ACTIVE VOLUNTEERS
April	150
May	162
June	175

b) program beneficiaries

“Mozaic” Center	45
“The Gluey Club -Tache”	120
S.I.C.	16
Profamily Complex “Ştrand”	20
Profamily Complex ”Bistriţa”	19
Profamily Complex CFR	18
County Hospital, Neurology Dpt	60

Activities at the Pro Family Centers for children	The relationship between the volunteers and the children is getting better, the results in school have improved proving the benefit of the volunteers’ involvement in doing homework and tutoring. 60 volunteers are assigned for this project.
Activities at the Neurology dpt., in Bacau County Hospital	Each month the volunteers involved in the project were trained and counseled in order to improve the work with the beneficiaries of this project. We continued the socializing activities and offering support for those in an advanced state of illness and for those who can’t get out of bed. We have 38 volunteers assigned for this project.
Activities at the administrative center	The volunteers helped at sending and writing the 700 envelopes with the magazine for “Together” network. -10 volunteers sorted and delivered UPC invoices.
Activities at the caring program for the elderly	- weekly visits by the volunteers for socializing, helping with the shopping, buying medicines, taking them to the doctor - 16 volunteers
“Mozaic” Community Center	5-6 volunteers go there every day to help the children with their homework and other 2-3 volunteers were assigned for a new activity: teaching the alphabet to 20 children of roma ethnic 45 volunteers were assigned.
“The Gluey Club” in Domnita Maria School Bacau	Here come more than 40 children from Ist to IVth grade every day and participate to different clubs – visual arts, painting, dancing, sports and English. 35 volunteers were assigned.
UPC project	10 volunteers sorted the invoices on areas and streets and another team of volunteers (25 students) helped distributing over 38.000 invoices.
Management activities	We organized meetings with the volunteers in each college to evaluate their activities. Those who had no activity were assigned activities at children or elderly people, according to their wishes and abilities. We arranged monthly meetings with each department and we improved the methods of working with the beneficiaries. So there are 5 meetings every month with each coordinator and the volunteers involved in the 5 activity centers: thus a monthly meeting with the coordinators and the appointed leaders. We had a series of meetings with the leaders of the volunteers and with the centre coordinators and we assigned volunteers according to the activities. Also, we selected the volunteers for the Summer Schools and they brought a planning of the activities for each club. We formed the teams that will attend the 7 Summer Schools and we will have a session of training for the volunteers involved in this project. During the vacations the number of volunteers is decreasing because of the students that finished the XIIth grade and those who are not from Bacau. This required some changes in each project and we have already implemented them.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

a) Renovating a playground in Roman (town) and opening a new volunteering center

During the National Week of Volunteering, at the initiative of a few teachers, we organized a debate on volunteering in which we participated as trainers, presenting the FSC volunteering program as a model. Over 80 students from Roman attended the debate together with 5 FSC volunteers from Bacau. After the debate, with the support of the school and Roman City Hall, the students from 10^th and 12^th grades went to the playground in the city center and, using the materials they were given, they painted the surrounding fence, the swings and the benches. They cleaned up the area and in the end everything looked better. The activity was a good opportunity for the students to bond and understand that they can contribute to the changing of their town. Also, 5 FSC volunteers participated, trying to combine the theory with the practice.

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a) The Volunteer’s Gala 2010 ”, IVth edition

An enthusiastic atmosphere at the Volunteer’s Gala, IVth edition which took place on Friday, 23^rd of April 2010 at the Cultural House in Bacau from 17 o’clock. The organizer was Community Support Foundation and the official sponsor was Vodafone Foundation Romania, partner Bacau County Hall, Bacau City Council, City Hall, County School Inspectorate Bacau. In front of 350 participants, 7 of the most important NGOs from the county, awarded their most worthy volunteers and presented their most important projects. FSC represented itself the best, awarding 70 volunteers.

The most important moment of the event was awarding the titles of Volunteer of the year 2009 in Bacau county and the Volunteering Project of the year 2009 in Bacau county. The nominees were selected based on applications sent by 6 organizations. An independent jury was formed from Caludiu Balan (Bacau County Prefect), Dragos Benea (President of the City Council), Delia Pintilie (Deputy General Inspector at County School Inspectorate), Elena Serban (Vodafone Foundation Romania).

The jury decided the following winners for each category:

Volunteer of the Year 2009 in Bacau County: Ramona Bondalici, FSC volunteer;

Volunteering Project of the Year 2009 in Bacau County: “Singing carols to help people”, Habitat for Humanity Comanesti;

After the Gala which lasted about 2 and a half hours, all the participants were invited at an after-party which took place at the Marlene Restaurant in Bacau.

b) The National Week of Volunteering (NWV).

This year also FSC organized the National Week of Volunteering in April from 19^th to 25^th. This event has become a national tradition and in Bacau it was the second edition. This year the FSC Volunteering Center coordinated NWV in all Bacau county.

More than 15 organizations and institutions participated, unfolding about 30 events, involving over 1000 volunteers.

The following is a presentation of the most important events from NWV:

Day 1

In the small room of the County Hall we organized a press conference and a debate on volunteering. We presented the press all the activities for NWV then some representatives of the County Hall and the FSC president held speeches. The volunteers from Ardor Association organized a debate on volunteering.

Day 2

In the square in front of the Cultural house the Antidrug National Agency organized a street campaign to promote “clean” (no drugs) volunteering: “My antidrug message”. The volunteers spread notes to the passers-by, with the message “You are what matters”. The most important moment was the “gratitude moment” when everyone there had to call someone they loved and tell them the campaign message “You are what matters”. 4 general schools and 8 highschools attended together with 100 FSC volunteers.

Day 3

On Wednesday in front of the Cultural house we organized the Fair of the Volunteers in Bacau. For 2 hours five NGOs that work with volunteers presented the volunteers’ activities and promoted volunteering. While the music surrounded the town, the volunteers informed passers-by about the activities that they were unfolding. About 300 volunteers participated.

Day 4

On the fourth day of NWV the volunteers went to Comanesti. They were welcomed by Habitat for Humanity who presented their activities. Together with 2 volunteers of the organization the volunteers participated to the construction activities on a site. Some carried the working materials, some arranged the yard. 45 volunteers helped building houses for 8 families.

Day 5

On this day the best volunteers of 2009 were awarded although they never ask for anything in return of their daily effort. The Volunteer’s Gala was at its fourth edition and took place in the Cultural house. Each NGO of the 6 that attended the event awarded their most active volunteers. The highlight of the event was awarding the Volunteer of the County – Ramona Bondalici (FSC volunteer) and The Best Volunteering Project went to Habitat for Humanity for the project “Singing carols to help people”

Day 6

On this day FSC and Bacau County Hall organized an activity to plant trees in Stanisesti area. 100 volunteers left for Stanisesti at 9 am. Together they planted 5000 trees offered by the Forestry Department.

Also on this day the volunteers in Bacau were thrown a party. 200 volunteers from 4 organizations in Bacau attended the party.

c) 1^st of June, Children’s Day

The children in Bacau participated on their special day at the first car exhibit for children. They had the opportunity to admire and try out motorcycles, sports cars, regular cars, cars of the public institutions – car of the Road Police, one from the Gendarmerie and an ambulance car.

Besides the cars, in the parking lot we brought special playground for children and a stage for the courageous kids. The FSC volunteers offered shaped balloons to the children and some did face paintings. The children sang together with Zmeuris Group from The Gluey Club at “Domnita Maria” School, and they danced along with some little cheerleaders. We also had some contests. The children proved their talents by drawing, singing and telling jokes. They were rewarded by FSC and the Global Auto Service, the organizers of the event, with photo cameras and many other prizes.

Over 60 volunteers were assigned.

e) National Project “The Living Library”

The Living Library wants to promote respect for human rights and human dignity and draw attention on the diversity in all its forms and stimulate the dialogue between people.

The Living Library works like a normal one – the readers come and borrow books for a limited period of time. After having “read” the books they return them to the library. There is one important aspect. The books in the living library are humans representing groups that are confronting or may be confronting with judgments and stereotypes (gender issues, age, ethnic issues, religious issues, etc.) and who might be victims of discrimination, social outcasts, of they might be people with stories that would offer the reader an unique learning experience in the area of diversity and intercultural topics.

“I am 15, I am a volunteer at FSC and I participated in this project as a living book called The Volunteer. For 3 days I offered my readers answers to any question about volunteering. I was asked things like why I wanted to be a volunteer, is it worth anything of what I gain from it. I answered dearly and with confidence that it is really worth being a volunteer because it is another way of making friends, of learning new things and developing useful skills, gaining experience for a future job, learning about responsibility and helping the less fortunate ones. I was also asked why I chose to volunteer and I answered that I did it for the inner satisfaction that I feel whenever I help someone who is an outcast and really needs help.”

Of course there were readers didn’t believe that volunteering is a good thing and they had a really different perspective on it, but telling them about the volunteering activities that I had unfolded such as fundraising for the disadvantaged children, cooking campaigns for the children on the streets, street campaigns, Christmas campaigns, educative campaigns and many others, I noticed how he slowly began to change his mind about volunteering. The last question I was asked was “How can I become a volunteer?” and that made me happy.

The Living Library is a project I participated in with enthusiasm and it gave me the possibility to share my experience as a volunteer with all the readers. I had 14 readers and I managed to offer them a clear perspective on volunteering. I believe this project is useful to respect human rights, project that I would gladly participate in again. ( Paul B. – FSC volunteer)

Meetings / Visits

a) In June 2 persons from England visited us. On Sunday, 20^th of June a few volunteers gathered at “Dr. Stefan Ciobanu” Center in order to tell the guests about the volunteering activities they unfold. At the end of the discussions we learnt about the project that the 2 guests had in England. They will make a study, a movie, in which they will present the similarities and differences between the teenagers in Romania and those in England. In the two days they spent here they had the opportunity of meeting teenager volunteers and the way of life of the children in the rural areas. They were impressed by the hard life the children in area like Panu or Podu Turcului have, but also by the power they find to smile and move on.

The two girls from England will be back in July together with 4 young people from England that are in the Social Service’s caring. They will find out the problems of the Romanian children and their way of dealing with every trouble.

b) Also, in June, I attended the National Conference on Volunteering where the strategies and plans for 2011 The European Year of Volunteering, were presented. At this conference was launched VOLUM Federation, FSC being one of the 12 founding members. This Federation aims at supporting and developing volunteering in Romania.

c) At the end of April I participated at a seminar in Mamaia, Constanta, on “Volunteering, certification for employment” where we were appreciated by the media as a model of good practice regarding our work with the volunteers and the partner institutions. On the website www.cugetliber.ro you can read an article about the statements regarding the FSC Volunteering Center.

OBJECTIVES FOR THE FOLLOWING PERIOD

1. Involving the volunteers in social projects with the purpose of helping disadvantaged people in Bacau

2. Organizing Summer Schools in Bacau and Podu Turcului with the involvement of UK volunteers
3. Organizing a themed camp at the seaside for 30 volunteers

5. Campaign to prevent and inform about “Victims of the human trafficking” in the communes where we will unfold the Summer Schools.

Gabriel Magurianu

Program Coordinator