Raiffeisen Bank and OvidiuRo collaborate in an Experiment in Volunteerism
- May
- 07
One rain-soaked day in mid-April, 13 Raiffeisen employees assisted the local Fiecare Copil in Gradinita team (local teachers, social workers and the school mediator) in recruiting children for kindergarten in one of Brasov’s poorest villages.
After Fiecare Copil în Gradinita was launched in Budila in 2012 preschool attendance boomed. Three new classes had to be formed and 2 additional teachers hired to meet the demand. In fact, over 300 children living under the poverty line now attend kindergarten daily thanks to Raiffeisen Bank’s sponsorship of all FCG programs in Brasov County.
The Raiffeisen employees who visited with some of Budila’s neediest families are now “recruiting” their colleagues and friends to donate 2% of their payroll taxes to OvidiuRo and FCG. One of the volunteers observed afterwards, “I was surprised by how excited some of the mothers were to register their kids for kindergarten.” Another said, “we need to pay more attention to the people around us.”
Fiecare Copil in Gradinita is a partnership between local government authorities, the County School Inspectorate, and Asociatia OvidiuRo and largely funded by the Romanian corporate sector. FCG offers poor parents 50 lei (12 EUR) meal tickets per month – conditional on their 3-5 year-old children’s regular attendance in kindergarten. Currently, 1500 children in 25 communities are benefiting from the program.
Photo credits: Daniel Vrăbioiu
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