Over 600 United Way Romania volunteers spent the summer solstice day (21 June) volunteering to improve the access to education for special need children and for children from disadvantaged families who face school dropout.
United Way organizations celebrate the Day of Action all over the world and the date of 21st of June is symbolically chosen because it is the longest day of the year. This way, the United Way volunteers have more time to be generous and to contribute to advancing the common good in their communities.
Last year, the event reunited volunteers from 10 countries who improved the lives of over 750,000 people. In Romania, the volunteers spent the 21st of June with children from disadavantaged families visiting museums, renovating day-care centers or visiting day-care center for disabled children and elders.
This year, the Day of Action focused on EDUCATION and engaged volunteers by the invitation:” Give. Advocate. Volunteer.”
The partner companies and their volunteers mobilized to offer children supported by United Way an educational summer kit containing books and school supplies so that children could stay in touch with reading and writing all throughout the summer vacation.
Accenture, Achieve Global, Allianz Tiriac, Arobs Transilvania Software, BNP Leasing Solutions, Citi, CMS Cameron McKenna, DLA Piper, Electronic Arts, Eli Lilly, Genpact Cluj, GlaxoSmithKline, JW Marriott, Kinstellar, Metro, Raiffeisen Bank ºi Romtelecom chose to participate to United Way Day of Action.
Together, the 630 volunteers collected school supplies and funds that were used for preparing 1,000 educational kits that will be given to the children helped by United Way in București, Cluj și Timișoara.
In addition to the support offered to children during school year, which covers the basic nutrition, clothing and daily help with homework in day-care centers, the children from poor families will come back to school in autumn prepared for success.
Other volunteers participated in renovating activities benefiting day-care centers for children from families affected by poverty. The Citi Volunteers renovated a day-care center from Bucharest so that 60 children could enjoy a better learning environment and the GlaxoSmithKline volunteers put in place a payground and relaxation area for children from a day-care center in Timisoara.
Day of Action was a day of fun for more than 150 underprivileged children supported by United Way to stay in school. Along with groups of volunteers from GlaxoSmithKline and Genpact, they visited museum, Zoo parks and then had lunch together.
„On the 21st of June we celebrate the Day of Action that brings together volunteers, donors and beneficiaries of our social projects. This year, we brought to life our LIVE UNITED message and invited our partners to apply the principle: „Give. Advocate. Volunteer”. Live United is a way of life that brings together all the members within a community. This way of life is centered on the belief that every community has enough resources so that every person can lead a decent life. It is the only way we can become a strong community and the day of 21st of June is a celebration of volunteering and community spirit” declared Cristina Damian, Executive Director of United Way Romania.
United Way Romania is a Romanian independent foundation affiliated with United Way Worldwide. Our mission is to improve the quality of life in our communities through individual giving, corporate giving and volunteerism so that everyone can enjoy equal chances in accessing education, a decent income and health services. The Foundation works with volunteers, companies, nonprofits legally registered as social services providers, citizens’ groups of initiative, local authorities and specialists from Bucharest, Cluj and Timisoara to put in practice the principle that „better” cannot exists unless it means „ better for everyone” Along with 55 companies, 2,800 donors and over 700 volunteers, United Way Romania helps annually more than 6,500 people at risk, thus the whole community because the lives of all people are interconnected and everybody wins when a child has good results in school, when every family can afford to buy proper food and when all people enjoy a good health.
For more details you can contact us by phone: 0734 325 000, e-mail: cristina.haita@unitedway.ro, contact person: Cristina Haita, Resource Development Manager.
