Habitat for Humanity România – winner for the third consecutive year at Civil Society Gala for the project Big Build
Bucharest, June 4, 2013. Habitat for Humanity Romania’s project Big Build won first prize in the Volunteer category of the 11th edition of Civil Society Gala. This is the third consecutive year that Big Build has won an award at this prestigious competition, proving that is the best volunteer project of the year.
“We thank our Romanian and international volunteers that were beside us at Big Build 12 and helped us to fundamentally improve the quality of life for 14 families from Oradea and Craiova. Also, we thank our partners and supporters, and also the local communities for their trust, their efforts and support for this project,” says Elena Serban, General Manager Habitat for Humanity România.
The accelerated building event Big Build, now in its 4th edition, took place last year between October 1st and 5th, in two cities – Preajba, Dolj and Oradea, Bihor. One major goal of the event is to raise awareness of the housing situation in Romania. Vodafone Foundation, the main partner, supported the event for the 4th consecutive year, with a sponsorship of 100,000 Euro and 300 volunteering employees. The two Big Build 12 sites hosted many guests from around the country: local and national mass-media representatives, bloggers, public figures and authorities from the local community and the beneficiary families, who were directly involved with construction of their own houses. The beneficiary families also helped build the houses belonging to other beneficiary families.
Big Build 2012 meant:
• The construction of 14 new houses for 14 beneficiary families from Preajba, Dolj county and Oradea, Bihor county (36 total beneficiaries) in just 5 days.
• Coordinating 200 volunteers per day on average, a total of 20,000 hours of volunteering.
• Encouraging foreign volunteering in Romania through attracting and coordonating, during one week, a group of 50 volunteers from Northern Ireland.
• A sense of responsability for Big Build beneficiaries by involving them in the building of their own houses and others, through performing 600 hours of volunteering for each family.
• Part of the blogger community, which worked together with the beneficiary families were: Alex Tunaru, Roxana Bursuc, Anca Duma, Elena Ciric, Razvan Baciu, Andreea Stan, Auras Mihai, Oana Bratila, Alin Pandaru, Lavinia Marica, Toma Nicolau, Adrian Ciubotaru, Lavinia Biberi, Ruxandra Predescu, Cristian Clita, Dan Dragomir, Andreea Burlacu, Ionut Oprea, Ioana Onicioiu, Adrian Duma, Marius Octavian Calugaru, Razvan Irimescu, Gabriel Calugaru and Aurel Geambasu.
• The main figures which took part in Big Build 12 were: Mariana Ionescu Capitanescu, Marius Magureanu, Ionel Garoafa, Lavinia Birsoghe, Constantin Enceanu from „Ansamblul Maria Tanase”, Catalin Baicus, Natasa Raab from The National Theater and Alina Serban from TVR Craiova.
• The involvment of the private sector in social activities through attracting 500 employees from many companies in Romania, to volunteer on the Habitat sites.
• Addressing the issue of housing in marginalized communities and raising funds for improving the future: 18 partner companies contribuited with funds, construction materials, services and hours of volunteering
• Sustaining the event’s message through all mass-media chanels
Big Build 12 partners were:
Main Partner: Vodafone Foundation Romania;
Partners: Habitat for Humanity Northern Ireland, Caminul Felix Oradea, Wienerberger Sisteme de Caramizi, Europharm Distributţie, Porsche Romania, Celestica, Lafarge Romania, Good Sign, Ursa Romania, Elpreco, Kronospan, Camera de Comert si Industrie Dolj, Asociatia Firmelor Bihorene;
Suporters: Azalis Gaz, Knauf, Moviplast, Oz Maraton, Pan Group, Basicra.
Media partners: Agenda Constructiilor, Cocor Media Channel, CSR Media, Radio Lynx, Radio RFI, Romania Pozitiva, Gazeta de Sud, Radio Sud, www.craiova.ro, Editie Speciala, Indiscret, TVS Craiova, Crisana, www.voicetag.ro.
