Globalworth Foundation and Ioannis Papalekas donate €1 million to United Way Romania for the „Nesting a brighter future for children” project that will offer support to 3,500 children and 2,800 parents by 2021. The partnership is set to create long lasting and sustainable impact and develop communities all over the country through multi-annual educational and assistance programmes created and implemented by the NGO.
‘’I strongly believe that the task of educating the youngsters, of offering them assistance and providing them at least the minimum health care must be a priority for us and an amazing accomplishment of our corporate social responsibility. Youngsters represent the future and investing in their education is key. We hope to contribute as much as we can, and we stay committed to increase and expand these programs alongside the tremendous and extraordinary work of United Way Romania,” said Ioannis Papalekas, Founder and CEO, Globalworth.
“For over 14 years, we have been taking upon the challenge to identify and come up with solutions to issues that Romanian communities face, from poverty to social integration, financial stability and access to quality education and health services. We aim to enable potential and catalyse change by coming up with an integrated approach. Our intervention is designed to include every member of the community – we make sure that children are healthy, well taken care of and stay in school, that their parents have access to health services, trainings and jobs, and that the schools and teachers have the proper training and materials to work with. Globalworth Foundation’s involvement in our project helps us continue the process of reaching our objective of improving the relationship inside the community-school-family circle and put the children at the core of it,” said Cristina Damian, Executive Director, United Way Romania
The donation will help establish and furnish Community Centers in 12 cities in Romania (Urlați, Băicoi, Jilava, Pădureni, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Șemlacu Mare, Mașloc, Carani, Sînandrei, Bucovăț and Fundulea), enrolling 3,500 disadvantaged children, 2,800 parents, 700 teachers, educators and school mediators. The program provides financial support to children and their families, covering their basic needs, health services and medication, school supplies, daily hot meals and clothes, trips and non-formal education activities, as well as counselling and guidance.
The program also focuses on qualifying specialists in the community that will be able to replicate the model, create, and deliver learning sessions and materials that will represent the basis of implementation of a best-practice model such as the Teachers and Parents’ Academies and Handbooks. What is very special about this program is that the beneficiary children bring their own contribution within the tutoring part, as older kids offer math, literature or science help to younger ones. This isn’t just a sporadic voluntary activity, but a long-term commitment. Elder students are tutors over a period of at least six months.
