Easter house was finalized
Monday morning when volunteers arrived on the worksite to support the construction of the Easter House, they just found an bare foundation. Today, when they left, they left behind a home for 3 families. But they left much more than that, they left behind friends for who they had helped changed their lives
At midday, there was a lot going on around the Easter House as everyone was cleaning up and preparing for the house dedications. There were Gavrilă Ghilea, the Prefect of Bihor county; Gheorghe Costin, the deputy mayor of Beius, Adrian Ciorna, the founder of Habitat pentru Umanitate Beiuş; Marcel Coroiu, the preseident of Habita Beius; Mircea Jurcan, the executive director; mayors from various villages where Habitat has beuilt homes; local concil members; directors of other public institutions; representatives of political parties and of other NGOs with whom Habitat colaborates and last but not least the volunteers who volunteers who built the homes together with the beneificiaries and their friends and families.
The ceremony began with a prayer and short ceremony in which the homes were blessed, after which various invitees addressed those in attendance. The first speaker was Habitat Beius’ preident Marcel Coroiu who spoke of Habitat’s 15 years of activities in which over 1200 people have been helped and that the plan for the next 5 years is to eliminate substandard housing from Beius with Beius being the first town in Romania to accomplish this. Next, the Prefect of the county underlined the importance of the international volunteers:
„On Monday, I came here to play a part in building the Easter House. I worked for a few houes alongside these wonderful young people and I was profoundly moved by what I saw. This has made me affirm publicly that I will always be a supporter of Habitat indiferent to what position I have, as this type of initiative truly deserves to be supported.”said the Prefect Gavrilă Ghilea
Adrian Ciorna spoke about the meaning of the Easter House event and the importance of being close to God through acts like here. The Deputy mayor of Beius reiterated the cityhall’s support of the charity, mentioning that that the Easter House was built on a part of the 5000 m2 of land which has been donated by the local council to Habitat Beius for the construction of social housing. Volunteers handed over symbolic keys, bibles and flowers to each of the beneficiaries and reafirmed that actually the volunteers received much more than they gave during the week. The Lira Choir from Beius conducted by Remus Lazea, the vice president of Habitat Beius, sang a hymn to the delight of all there.
The most emotional moment what when the beneficiaries of the project had a word. Although both Ionut and Andreea from the Mance family are deaf and dumb, they wanted to transmit a message to everyone there and this was done with the help of the Association of the Deaf from Oradea. „I’m very happy that at last we have our house. I worked together with the volunteers all week and I saw thise house rising up with my own eyes. If I hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have believed it was true. Thank you everyone for what you’ve done for us, you are in our prayers!” said Ionut Mance through sign language with tears in his eyes.
The Prefect of Bihor county, a volunteer at the Easter House
Beius, 18.04.201
More than 40 volunteers started the construction of the Easter House today.
Each year, Habitat for Humanity Beiuş helps at least one needy family to have a decent place to live in time for Easter. The home is built during Holy Week by volunteers from the local community and from around the world alongside the beneficiary families. The same thing happened today when 21 volunteers from abroad worked alongside the same number of volunteers from Romania. The volunteer of the day was the Prefect of Bihor county, Mr. Gavrilă Ghilea who chose to come to the worksite this morning to support Habitat’s actions through the encouraging of the volunteers especially their labour efforts and their financial support
“I received the invitation from Habitat and I really wanted to show my large appreciation for what they do. I would like to encourage the achievement of many more of these types of activities in the communities throughout the county and I believe that by everyone get involved we can make every community prosperous. “ says the Prefect, Mr Gavrila Ghile.
The Prefect, took a hardhat, put on overalls and collected some tools and took his place alongside other volunteers. He hammered in nails, and help in raising the walls of the Easter House, working shoulder to shoulder with the other volunteers and jumping to help other less skilled volunteers
During the coffee break, the Prefect socialised with the volunteers and he also went to visit other Habitat homes built in the vicinity. He chatted with beneficiaries and was delighted by what he saw, which is why he said that besides the work that he did on the Easter House, he wishes to support it with an important donation on his behalf through construction materials needed in the raising of the house.
„I didn’t know who is who on the worksite as there are many volunteers here. But when I heard that the Prefect is also here, I was overwhelmed. I wanted to go and personally thank him for coming and coming to help us, but my emotions held me back from doing so. I hope that he as well as all the other volunteers will find out how grateful I am, for what that they are doing for me” declares Silvia Lacatus, who will receive a studio flat as part of the Easter House project.
On Good Friday at 12:30pm, the Habitat Easter House will be inaugerated and Habitat would like to publicly invite all those who wish to attend the event.
Sponsors of the Easter House were: Lafarge cement which provided all necessary cement, Vodafone Foundation who participated financially in the project, Adeplast with their own materials, Grundfos with two pumps for the whole sewer system in the area, Saint-Gobain for donating the systems for the walls and other individual donors, the Forestry “Woods of Beius”, Gavrilă Ghilea, the Prefect of Bihor county and Pap Francisc.
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Find more pictures on our Facebook page!
See also Habitat ECA page of the event!
Families Story
Silvia Lacatus
Silvia was born on the 28th May 1985 in Oradea. Her mother abandoned her before she was even a year old. She has 7 siblings but she’s never had direct contact with any of them. At 3 years old she was left at the Tinca orphanage.
After finising school in 2003, Good Samaritan Beius offered her a job in their she was offered a job through the Good Samaritan Beius charity in their canteen. Good Samaritan in turn called on the Caminul Francesco Foundation who found her accommodation in Finis. Here Silvia was helped with meals, material, moral, medical and spiritual support from the sisters. In 2004, the canteen closed and Silvia remained without a job, but the sisters helped her in looking for a new job and she started work at a shoe factory in Beius. At the same time she moved back to Beius. This factory in turn also closed down and Silvia once again remained without a job, but in 2008 she found a new job at a clothes factory where she is currently working.
Habitat for Humanity has given her hope for her dream, to have a home which is her own and from which she knows she no longer need to move.
(Lacrimioara Ratiu who was intitially selected to benefit from the Easter House has chosen to start her life again in a different country. For this reason, Habitat together with partners from Caminul Francesco have chosen another person to benefit from the Easter House.)
The Mance family story
Have you ever asked yourself whether there exists parallel worlds? I found out that they exist and they are very close to world in which we live. It’s a world in which Ionuţ and Andreea live. It’s the world that although many people make huge efforts to make contact with “our world”, very few succeed, and the majority of us do not come to believe them.
Ionuţ is 27 years old and was born in Chişcău, a village situated 20 km from Beiuş. Meanwhile Andreea is 24 years old and was born in Braşov where she also grew up. They got married in 2009 and have 2 children, Andrei-Daniel who is 1 years old and Rosalinda-Emanuela who is just 2 months old. Up until now, it’s the story of any fulfilled family. But in fact their story is different. It’s within another world full of difficulties. Ionuţ and Andreea met 10 years ago in Cluj at the special vocational of arts and crafts for people with speech difficulties, both being deaf and dumb. Ionut was learning to make furniture in the carpentry classes while Andreea was learning to be a hairdresser and a pedicurist.
They tried to make a future together by marrying in Ionut’s village at Chişcău, but shortly afterwards when his parents learned that Andreea was pregnant they asked them to divorce. Andreea had to move to Oradea to a mother’s centre for 3 months as she had been chased out by his parents. But they couldn’t remain apart and sought a solution and eventually found found a place to rent next to the furniture factory in Beiuş where Ionuţ works as a carpenter.
“It is very hard because people look at us differently. It’s hard to go shopping, it’s hard to find a place to rent, and it’s hard to find a job. If we cannot speak, people find it hard to accept us into their world. But we won’t give up … ” wrote Andreea on the corner of the application form when they applied for a Habitat home.
Now their connection to the world in which we live was made through Habitat, who understood the difficulties that Ionuţ and Andreea go through every day and now helps them to build a home, in which their two healthy children with whom they have been blessed, can grow up. They will be the the beneficiaries of the 2011 Easter House.
Catiţa Maio
At 70 years old, Catiţa was the victim of trusting someone that he shouldn’t have. Being a pensioner, to help out with her bills he rented a room out to a younger woman. After gaining her trust, the younger woman asked Catiţa to co-sign a loan with her home as a down payment so that she could purchase a car. When she has co-signed, the younger woman immediately took off, never paying a single payment. Catiţa was soon thrown out on the streets and found her way to live at the „White House”, a cold shack full of rodents and insects.
„It’s been tough to live here. Rats and cockroaches run about everywhere, the noise from your neighbours is deafening as the walls are so thin. It’s terrible here. You can only imagine it if you’ve stayed here for a night,” Catiţa told us.
With no running water in the shack, she has to walk 500 metres and carry the water from a spring. Being 70 years old, she can only carry small amounts and more often. But the worst thing is that the outside toilets weren’t taken care off and fell into a state of disrepair which meant that she and others from the „White House” had to just go to a field to take care of their bathroom needs. It was a nightmare for an older woman to live here.
Catiţa wants to move into her new home to be finished as quick as possible so she can move in!
Easter House History
