Habitat for Humanity Beius on the podium with project “Big Build 10” at the Civil Society Gala
Bucharest, 9th June: Habitat for Humanity Beius won second place in the category “Volunteer Projects & Campaigns” at the Civil Society Gala which took place on Thursday 9th June at the Opera Romana in Bucharest. HFH Beius’ project was “Big Build 2010” which benefitted from fundraising of 600,000 lei and a massive involvement of volunteers from Romania and from abroad.
“We are honoured by the jury’s decision to award a prize to our campaign. Big Build is of Habitat’s most important projects and I can say that it’s already becoming a tradition. The third edition of “Big Build” will take place this autumn, again involving hundreds of volunteers where we will together improve the lives of another 10 families as we build decent homes”, declared Emil Popa, communications manager for Habitat for Humanity Beius.
The project “Big Build” is a program run annually during the first week of October with the help of over 100 volunteers from Northern Ireland plus numerous Romanian volunteers. Big Build is run in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Northern Ireland, with the 2010 event having the scope of build 12 homes in 5 days. As a result of the project, 12 families and young people who grew up in an orphanage, had decent homes in which they could now live.
Hundreds of volunteers from Northern Ireland and from around Romania have been present on the “Big Build” Habitat worksites. Among them included important personalities such as Former Romanian President Emil Constantinescu, athletes such as Gabi Szabo, Doina Melinte, Elisabeta Lipa and Nicu Vlad, and also diplomats including His Excellency Jan Sorensen, the UN representative to Romania and His Excellency Robin Barnett, UK ambassador in Bucharest. In future editions, Habitat would also like to involve other personalities including the President and Prime Minister of Romania.
Corporate partners of the project were Vodafone Romania Foundation, Lafarge, Adeplast, Saint Gobain Glass and Candore who provided funds and construction materials necessary for the building of these 12 homes. Some of these partners also had their own staff volunteer on the worksite.
Click for more details about the Big Build project.
