Habitat for Humanity Beiuş celebrates its 15th anniversary in Oradea.
At the end of October, Habitat for Humanity Beiuş started a series of events in celebration of its 15th anniversary since it started as the first Habitat affiliate in Romania.
Forty –four volunteers from Provident Financial together with 10 volunteers from Great Britain helped Habitat celebrate its 15th anniversary as they helped with the finishing interior and exterior touches on 2 homes as well as preparing the access areas for other homes. Not only did they work, but they found out more about Habitat as well as having lots of fun.
“It’s wonderful that from time to time you can help a noble cause, like what I’ve been able to do today with my colleagues from Provident. I decided to come back and volunteer with Habitat after last year when I volunteered at the Easter House for a poor family in Buntesti. Then, I decided that I want to continue to be involved in this sort of project, and look, here I am again! Even if none of us have experience in preparing concrete, in plastering or finishing works on the walls, we’ve all done really well being led by Habitat staff and at the end of the day, we’ve achieved the objectives and it’s all gone great.” said Ramona Anca Mureşan a volunteer from Provident.
At a global level, Habitat started 35 years ago and works in 100 countries through thousands of affiliates. This year, Habitat has celebrated having served over 500,000 families around the world. Habitat started its work in Romania in Beiuş in October 1996 and it now has 7 affiliates in Beiuş, Cluj, Comăneşti, Craiova, Cumpăna, Ploieşti and Rădăuţi covering all the regions of the country.
“The first large event organized by Habitat was the Eclipse Build in 1999 at the time of the last solar eclipse of the millennium. In just 9 days we build 10 homes with the help of 380 volunteers. It was an amazing project and it gave us a great start for the program to grow year on year, and to extend our activities in the whole county and the whole country.” said Marcel Coroiu, a founding member and president of Habitat for Humanity Beiuş.
Habitat Beiuş has held lots of special events over the years and has led the way for Habitat not just in Romania but across Europe through pilot projects that it has done. In 2000, Habitat Beiuş helped the first roma families to obtain decent homes and then in the years that followed, the first apartment block attic, the first multi-family dwellings and the first accelerated build. At the same time, they initiated a series of special events such as the Easter Build, where one or more families are supported to obtain a healthy house in Holy Week; Women’s Build, an event involving women from the community in Habitat’s activities; Big Build, a project that attracted hundreds of volunteers to build 10 homes in one week.
From 1996 until the present time, over 300 families from Bihor country have been helped by Habitat for Humanity Beiuş, to live in decent conditions. Habitat has proposed that during the next 5 years it will double the number of beneficiaries and at the same time to declare Beiuş as the first town in Romania which has eradicated poverty housing.
