What is Big Build 2010?
Big Build is the year 2010’s event of Habitat for Humanity in Romania and Northern Ireland and a major event of the European countries affiliated to our organization. It is hosted in Beius, Bihor County, Romania, during October 2nd – 9th, 2010. During the event, we will build 12 homes in just five days in partnership with disadvantaged adults and families, with some 150 Northern Ireland and other volunteers. Also we will celebrate “UN World Habitat Day” 2010 on the work site.
See below two short movies about Habitat for Humanity Beius and Big Build 10 project!
Thank You to Our Sponsors and Media Partners!
See daily pictures from the event on our Facebook page!
Click image below to see the Friday’s pictures.
Click image below to see the Thursday’s pictures.
Click image below to see the Wednesday’s pictures.
Click image below to see the Tuesday’s pictures.
Click image below to see the Monday’s pictures.
Click image below to see the Sunday’s pictures.
Clik the links below for more pictures at a high resolution!
Who will benefit?
The beneficiaries are the poorest people from Beius. The former mayorof Beius tried to temporarily help these families by giving them each a room in an abandoned industrial office building. The building, lacking proper insulation, a bathroom, a kitchen or anything resembling a home, became a trap for the families. While it offered 4 walls and a roof, the “White House” kept the families mired in poverty. They have n
o place to wash themselves, no place for their children to study and they lack adequate space to live having a room no bigger than 80 sq ft. The poverty and lack of ability to maintain a level of hygiene marginalized them and their children, keeping the parents from finding decent jobs and the children from performing at school. Some of them have started their own families, creating an even larger need to escape their impoverished housing conditions.
Worst of all, they live in constant danger of their home burning down. Lacking a place to cook or a system to heat their room, the families have fashioned make-shift wood burning stoves. The building has caught fire twice already and as the particle board walls deteriorate around them the risk of a catastrophic fire grows and grows. The building is so degraded that it cannot support repairs, leaving the families to stuff old clothes and blankets in the hole in the exterior walls to keep out the winter cold. The “White House” is a textbook example of poverty housing.
Habitat for Humanity Beius proposes to build homes for these families that will offer them the chance at a better life. No longer will the families have to worry that their homes will burn down the next time they try to heat their home. No longer will their children be teased because they could not bathe in the river that has frozen over in winter. No longer will the families be robbed of the dignity and chance at a normal life when someone have a decent home.
The beneficiaries
1. The Fodor Family
Vasile Fodor grew up in a single room adobe home with his parents and 5 brothers, just barely having enough to eat on his mother’s sick pension and his father’s day labor. When he married Adina in 2008, they moved into a small communist bloc apartment which they are forced to share with the owner. Just 3 short months ago, the joy of their life, Abigail, was born. As their family grows, so does their need for a home of their own where Abigail can study and play.
„I pray that our new home will bring us a little security and stability, because now, with an infant, we live in constant fear that the landlord won’t let us stay in his home and we’ll be on the street” shared Adina.
2. Felicia Diana Varciu
Despite the hard work of her single mother, Felicia’s childhood was tougher than it should be. Every day, every year, she had to travel dozens of miles to Beius from her village just to attend school; she stuck through though, finished school and found a job as an accountant with a local company. Her meagre salary forces her to live in a crumbling one room studio apartment lacking adequate insulation, a leaking roof and thin, poorly constructed walls from the communist era. At the rate that rent is raising in Beius, she’ll soon be unable to afford even her meagre room.
„I’ve dreamed of my own home since I was a little girl. I prayed so much to God to help me. He’s heard my prayers and has shown me his kindness through Habitat.”
3. Florian Oros
Florian was forced to live in a home that was taken from it’s original owners 60 years ago by the Romanian communist regime. After the revolution, his wife having passed away and his children moved on, the government took his home from him and gave it back to the original owners. He found himself living in the „White House” in a tiny dirty room of just 10m2.
„This isn’t a home, it’s a manger. It’s inhuman to live in such conditions. Every time it rains water pours in from the roof, but when you fix the leak it just comes in from another place. At night it creaks and pops so loudly from swaying in the wind that you feel like the building is coming down around you” remarked Florian.
4. The Nagy Family
Andrei and Camelia got married 4 years ago and were soon blessed with their daughter Andreea. As Andrei moved his family from his grandmother’s home to his mother’s room in the „White House” to be close enough to Beius to get jobs, they told themselves that they could get by. But as winter set in they realized how much work it is to cut and carry wood all winter to heat their tiny room, to carry water from a fountain 500 meters away just to cook food on a makeshift stove, to fight off the cockroaches which have infested the decrepit building.
„The worst is the terror of the cockroaches. I’m not scared for myself but for Andreea. Twice I’ve had to take her to the hospital because cockroaches got stuck in her ears while she was sleeping! I cried myself to sleep sometimes from shame and hopelessness” said Camelia.
5. The Macarie Family
Since finishing music high school, Elena has bounced from one studio apartment to the next with her husband Gheorghe. When they met and married three years ago, they new they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. Shortly thereafter, they were blessed with their son Patrik. With just one 15 m2 bedroom for the three of them, their crumbling bloc flat is too small to support the family. The lack of adequate heating kept Patrik sick throughout last winter. Elena summed up her family’s instability with her life story.
„For so many years I’ve dreamed having my own place to live. Since I moved to Beius 21 years ago, I’ve had to move constantly from one place to the next. As exhausting as it is to know that you could be thrown out tomorrow, it’s worse to have your hope of your own home unfulfilled.”
6. Covaci Roman
Covaci Roman (23) grew up in a care center which was a rough place. The older children would beat the younger children on a whim, and the care takers would only intervene to beat them as well. Until last year, he was a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity Beius for two years, learning about construction so that he could find a job on his own, while Good Samaritan found sponsors to pay him a stipend while he was learning. From august 2008 Roman is living in a house provide from Good Samaritan in a village outside of Beius.
“I can hardly wait to have a house of my own, where I can live like normal civilized people.”
7. Florin Colompar
Florin (21) was abandoned at birth by his parents, only to be reclaimed two years later. At the age of 7 he was sent to Beius to work for a family of 4 but was only able to finish the 4th grade. He has had to work his entire life, working as many odd jobs as he can to save up money for darker days. His illiteracy and lack of schooling legally blocks him from most jobs. He has lucked into a social service job with the city hall, maintaining the city’s green spaces.
„Now the thing that I want most in life is my own home that I can stay in. To have a place to rest my head when I come home from work. To have a place that I can actually take a shower! That’s it!”
8. Cristian Bors
Cristi, as his friends call him, was abandoned at birth. At the tender age of 6 he was transferred to the “Children’s Home” in Beius.
“For my entire childhood and teenage years I lived in state institutions. In the summer of 1992 I finished farming high school and was promptly thrown out of the institution without any orientation about life or a helping hand to transition to a normal life.”
For the last few years he was being helped by the “Good Samaritan” foundation in Beius, living in a dormitory with other orphans receiving transitional assistance. The time has come to him to move into his own place but the rents being as high as they are he would never be able to afford a place of his own.
“I hope that one day having my own home will help me have a real family, one that I’ve never had, so that I can give all my love to them.”
9. Otilia Beres and Maria Borha
Otilia (34), since her step-father passed away, has been unable to take care of both her mother Maria (68) and herself on her small wage. As a temporary solution the Mayor of Beius let them live in the „White House” shack, cramming both of them into a 15m2 room with no utilities. For the last ten years they have become the prisoners of their own homes, constantly sick from the cold winters, rodents and rain which enter the shack at will. They even have to walk to their neighbor’s house just to go to the bathroom, as the communal makeshift one has long since fallen apart.
„Our room has become infested with cockroaches that have become aggressive. They’ve started to bite us on our hands and legs while we sleep. I’m afraid to get dressed in the morning because they’ve got into our clothes.”
10. Lazau Patronia Marioara
„Don’t doubt but believe, that after every cloud, there’s an even sweeter sun, there’s a sweeter fruit. No cloud last forever, while the sun is the one, that
conquers and remains, the omnipotent one.” (Traian Dorz – Christian Orthodox Writer)
She is the youngest of four children, it was nomal for Marioara to remain at home to take care of her aging parents and grandparents in their old traditional home in the village outside of Beius. As her father’s drinking became a problem, dragging her mother and remaining older brother into a downward, alcoholic spiral of neglect, physical abuse and dysfunction. With their home falling apart around them, her job and hard work is the only thing keeping their family together, at the cost of destroying the future of her 25 year old life.
„I ask myself ‚how did I get here?’, I get down on myself for not doing more, thinking that it’s my fault. I gave up my life, my childhood to support those who gave me life, but every day I feel like I am wearing thin.”
11. Gal Family
„You are like the bows from which our children, like live arrows, are sent forth” (Gibran Kahlil)
“We got married when I was just 22 and my husband 24, quickly followed by our two now grown boys. Despite years of hard work, we’ve never been able to have a home of our own, having to stay in two rooms of a nationalized home without a bathroom. Now that the home that we were living in had to be returned to the the family that the communists took it from, we were going to be thrown out on the streets. 30 years after moving into our two little rooms, we had to live with the knowledge that we could be asked to pack up and leave at any time. It seems that God himself has sent the Habitat team from Beius, not just for us, but for everyone like us. I didn’t think that people would help other people just to help them.”
12. Kiss Zoltan
Kiss Zoltan (Zoli) of 21 was born in Oradea and was abandoned at birth. Being an orphan he was transferred to the “Children’s House” (a big orphanage from the communist time) in Beius where he lived till the age of 15. Then he was transferred to the “Arc House”, a family type institution where he joined 11 other children with ages between 8 and 20 years old. He stayed in there to the age of 19 and afterwards he worked afternoons at a tire repair shop close to his home. The owner appreciated his hard work and after he finished school he hired him. Zoli still works there. He finished 8th grade at “Samuil Vulcan” in Beius at the Sports profile and then he went to Stei at the vocational school for auto mechanics to where he had to commute for 3 years. Now he lives with other 3 boys, who were also raised in the “Children’s House”. They stay with rent in a house with 2 rooms. Since he was a little boy he dreamt to a have a house of his own and now he is very grateful that his dream has come true.
“I want to thank you everyone who helped and who will help me to build my own house. The lesson that I learned from them is important and no I’ll never forget it: I will always try to help others in need every time I will get the chance!” says Zoli.
