Alba Eglesia Foundation – Activity Report 2024
Introduction
Alba Eglesia Foundation is a non-governmental organisation founded in 1996 in Romania, which aims at the sustainable development of rural communities in Transylvania through education.
Alba Eglesia Foundation works in 4 priority areas: education and youth; cultural and natural heritage; sustainability; community development.
The foundation is active in Southern Transylvania, Romania, a region with a rich history and heritage. To preserve and promote the region’s tangible and intangible heritage and existing natural landscapes, several actors have contributed, in time, to the formation of an ecosystem in which people, NGOs, public institutions and companies are working for the development of local communities.
There are also problems and challenges, particularly in rural areas. Most of them are related to access to quality educational services and healthcare, social inclusion, modernisation of infrastructure and transport, lack of jobs, lack of digitalisation, etc.
Solving these problems and challenges requires time, access to resources and changes in people’s mindset. And, as usual, the first step is education!
Local context
According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census in Romania, Bunești Commune, of which Viscri is part of, has a population of 2498 people. The majority of the population is of Roma ethnicity and has a low level of education, with schooling up to 4 grades at most. Many of the inhabitants of the commune’s 5 villages lack the ability to read and write and are deprived of access to education.
In addition, living conditions are extremely poor, with no access to running water and no sewage system. Most people in the commune do not have a secure and stable income. A large number live in inadequate houses, heated with unsafe and unauthorised installations.
These unsuitable housing conditions affect the quality of life, and represent an unsafe and unsuitable environment for the upbringing and development of children.
More than this, schools in rural areas are not equipped to work effectively with these children. As a result, they spend years in the public education system without learning the basics and without acquiring the practical skills necessary for independent living.
In response to this social and educational context, the Alba Eglesia Foundation opened the Educational Centre in Viscri in 2023, supported by partners, sponsors and the local community. The program at the Educational Centre is structured on 3 main types of activities: educational activities, extracurricular activities, recreational activities.
Through the activities at the Educational Centre: we provide assistance to children with learning difficulties and who are about to drop out of school; we run, with our partners, extra-curricular activities promoting the village heritage and environment, arts and crafts; we encourage children to interact with and learn from the volunteers who come to Viscri and the Education Centre, people in the community and outside the community.
Projects of our organisation in 2024
2024 was a year of premieres for our foundation and also a year of consolidation of past activities. We invite you to take a look at the projects carried out this year and the main beneficiaries of these projects.
Educational Centre from Viscri – our core project in education
In 2024, the group of approximately 20-25 children who came to the centre participated in tutoring, recreational activities and 2 complementary projects of the village partners: cycling and gardening.
The tutoring activities were led by our local instructor and consisted of tutoring for children with lower grades as well as tutoring in reading, counting and writing for small children. The testing for these tutoring sessions was done using the “Hai echipa!” app.
More children from the Centre participated in the ICARTE Association‘s “Read, Children!” Campaign at the beginning of June 2024 and in the workshop organised by the Pro Patrimonio Foundation at the end of September 2024, part of the project “Heritage Kit and Caravan – Homes and Communities Working Together”.
The recreational activities at the Educational Centre consisted of local excursions in the village, film screenings, bike rides, making handmade decorations during the winter holidays, etc.
Several children were also involved in complementary projects run by 2 local partners: cycling – a group of boys participated in regional cycling competitions such as the Mediaș Bike Marathon in relevant age categories and gardening – a group of children, who worked in the garden at the King Charles III House in the village, went with a local instructor to Dumfries House in Scotland for an educational trip to learn more about gardening and the cultural and natural heritage within the property.
WHV Viscri Action Camp 2024 – new volunteers discover Viscri
WHV Viscri Action Camp 2024 took place from September 16 to September 30, 2024. The camp was carried out under the World Heritage Volunteers Initiative of the World Heritage Education Program. The partners of the camp were the Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation and the Cultural Association “Heritage for the Future” and the Informal Council of Viscri. The project was supported by the National Commission of Romania for UNESCO.
The young volunteers went to the Educational Centre in Viscri and met several children from the village and found out information about the centre and its activities. The volunteers explored trails in the village with the children on their bicycles.
Volunteers and children from the centre participated in the heritage education workshop run by the Pro Patrimonio Foundation as part of the Heritage Caravan 2024.
Volunteers walked on trails around the village as well as on village streets to see the condition of the orientation signs and to take stock of new materials needed to improve them.
They prepared signposts, wooden posts and arrows to be placed at the entrance to the main village street and on the footpaths leading into the village and mounting pillars for the signposts and maps. After preparing and finishing the signposts and the mounting pillars, the volunteers went to the agreed locations and placed them.
Erasmus+ RUBY project – mass tourism and possible ways for a more sustainable tourism
The Erasmus+ RUBY project was the first Erasmus+ project in which our foundation participated as a partner. The project “Youth Exchange RUBY: Rural-UrBan Youth Connection”, acronym RUBY, which took place in Dicomano, near the city of Florence, Italy, was funded under the Erasmus+ Program, KA151-YOU – Accredited Projects for Youth Mobility and focused on mass tourism and ways of promoting sustainable tourism.
The project brought together 33 young people from the 5 partner countries: Italy, Croatia, Romania, Spain and Latvia, who participated in: workshops, debates, team-building activities, local excursions, energizers, intercultural evenings with traditional cooking and dancing.
The national group of 7 young people representing the Alba Eglesia Foundation conducted a case study workshop on mass tourism in Viscri and Sighișoara. Here, participants learned more about the 2 tourist attractions and the negative effects of mass tourism and offered possible ideas to counteract these effects and promote more sustainable tourism among the important actors in the region such as NGOs, local authorities, tourists and visitors, locals, hostels, restaurants, destination management units, travel agencies, businesses, etc.
Local trip for children from the Educational Centre in Viscri, Brașov County
The local field trip for children was the first grant won within the Pepcolandia CSR Program run by Pepco Romania and implemented at national level by the Humanitarian Organisation CONCORDIA. 14 Beneficiary children from the Educational Centre went on a 1-day trip to the Praid Salt Mine in Harghita County and to the Black Lake in Sovata, Mureș County, where they could visit the salt deposits, the salt mine museum and the tyrolean zip line park and spent free time at the Black Lake.
The 1-day local trip was followed by 3 days of painting and creative workshops led by the local instructor at the centre. During the workshops, children created drawings and paintings inspired by the local trip and the places visited but also by their own imagination.
The local trip was valuable in itself, but it became even more valuable because the children developed a series of works based on the trip. The children’s works were displayed in a public exhibition open at the Educational Centre from the village for 1 month from August 15 to September 15, 2024. We would like to thank Pepco Romania for the funding and the Humanitarian Organisation CONCORDIA for their support in implementing our project.
Art camp for children and teenagers – when children meet artists
The art camp for children and teenagers was our first project co-funded by the National Cultural Fund Administration in Romania. The beneficiaries of the training were children between the ages of 8 and 18, mainly from rural areas in the villages neighboring Viscri.
At the beginning of the camp, on August 24, 2024, 52 enrolled children and teenagers got into contact with the 5 Romanian artists, Irina Motroc – engraving, Daria Popa – ceramics, Simona Cîrlugea – drawing, Octavian Angheluș – photography and Mihai Ristea – music, learned what each field represents and participated in a collective practical test where they were evaluated by the artists.
Then, the artists selected the most talented and motivated 30 children and teenagers for training.
From August 26 to September 1, 2024, the training workshops took place in Viscri, where the 30 children learned from the Romanian artists the theoretical basics as well as a number of techniques in each field: watercolor technique, macro photography technique, sgraffito technique, monotype technique, relief engraving technique, coil building, pinching method, etc.
The children’s creations from the camp were displayed in the public exhibition in Viscri called “Art and small hands” where visitors could see the world through the eyes of children and also traditional elements represented in these creations, such as floral motifs, symbols found in local architecture and local houses, decorative objects, etc.
Erasmus+ project POIESIS – expressive arts for young people from vulnerable backgrounds
The Erasmus+ POIESIS project is a 2-year project, which started in 2024 and where the Alba Eglesia Foundation is a consortium partner. The POIESIS project promotes arts like music, dance, poetry, theatre, visual arts, etc. among young people from vulnerable backgrounds and aims to train more young people from 3 countries: Austria, Italy and Romania using expressive arts therapy.
In November 2024 we attended the kick-off meeting of the project together with the Austrian coordinator IRARU – IG zur Förderung von Kultur, Integration und soziokulturellen Initiativen and the Italian partner Creative Art Farm in Italy APS.
On the first day of the meeting, the organisations presented their mission, current NGO activities and projects, discussed the GANTT plan of activities of the Poiesis project and did a tour of Chianciano Terme, located in the Region of Val d’Orcia, part of the UNESCO World Heritage.
On the second day of the meeting, there were 2 workshops, one on expressive arts therapy and one on photography, led by 2 artists with whom the organisations collaborate, in which the artists exemplified working methods used in their current activities and offered ideas for future pilot workshops within the project.
Partners of the Alba Eglesia Foundation in 2024
In 2024, we had the support of the following partners:
- Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation
- Pro Patrimonio Foundation
- King Charles III House in Viscri
- PESTCONTROL EXPERT SRL
- Viscri Community Centre Association
- Viscri Informal Council
- Viscri Begins Association
- ICARTE Association
- Cultural Association “Heritage for the Future”
- Imbold Cultural Association
- Adept Transylvania Foundation
- Viscri 32 White Barn & Blue House
- Viscri 125
- Experience Transylvania, etc.
Our international partners were:
- ICSE & Co – International Center for Southern Europe – Italy
- European Academy of Strategic Training and Business (EAST) – Croatia
- Cēsu Novada Vecpiebalgas Apvienības Apvienības Pārvalde – Latvia
- Asociación Rumbo A Europa – Spain
- IRARU – IG zur Förderung von Kultur, Integration und soziokulturellen Initiativen – Austria and Spain
- Creative Art Farm in Italy APS – Italy.
Support the Educational Centre in the village of Viscri – Redirect up to 20% of your company’s 2024 corporate income tax
The Educational Centre is our core project in supporting the sustainable development of rural areas through education. Only by constantly supporting educational actions and projects, we can help the new generation of children and young people in the area to hope for a better future.
In 2025, our overall goal is to continue the series of tutoring activities, extra-curricular activities in arts and crafts, recreational activities and improvement of the infrastructure at the centre – equipping it for the winter period as well. This aspect is very important for the children to come in the winter months for indoor educational activities and to continue working with the local instructor.
You have the opportunity to make a significant difference in the lives of children in Viscri, Bunești commune, Brașov county!
Your company’s contribution will ensure that all the children who come to the Educational Centre in the village will benefit from:
- quality non-formal education,
- equipment and materials to use in their daily activities,
- one hot meal a day,
- projects and workshops designed to develop their mind, thinking, creativity, motor skills and guide them towards a future vocation when they grow up,
- all the dedication of the instructors and volunteers who work with them!
Law No. 227/2015 on the Romanian Tax Code allows companies paying corporate income tax to redirect up to 20% of the amount due annually to the state budget to non-governmental organisations (Art. 25, para. (4), letter i)).
Law No. 32 of May 19, 1994 sets out the legal conditions for deploying a sponsorship, which is “the legal act by which two persons agree on the transfer of ownership of material goods or financial means to support non-profit activities carried out by one of the parties, called the beneficiary of the sponsorship”. (Art. 1) and the categories of eligible beneficiaries (Art. 4).
Here’s how you can help:
- Download the sponsorship agreement by clicking the following link. Calculate 0.75% of your company’s turnover or 20% of your company’s corporate tax liability.
- Fill in the contract: Enter your company details in the contract and the desired amount. The amount completed on the contract will be subtracted from the corporate tax due at the lower of the following: 0.75% of turnover or 20% of the corporate tax due.
- Sign the document electronically or manually according to internal procedures and send the completed contract to contact@albaeglesia.org.
- Download Form 177 from the ANAF website and complete the form with the required information, including the amount of money redirected and other requested information. These are the data of our foundation: FUNDAȚIA ALBA EGLESIA; Înregistrată în Registrul Asociațiilor și Fundațiilor cu numărul 16022/B/2018; Sediu: Sat Viscri, strada Principală, nr. 36, 507039, județul Brașov; CUI: 9230143; IBAN: RO47 RZBR 0000 0600 2415 9822, Raiffeisen Bank, Sucursala Rupea; Reprezentant legal: Angheluș Constantin Octavian, președinte; Email: contact@albaeglesia.org; Telefon: 0724000351.
If you have questions or suggestions during this process, please email us at contact@albaeglesia.org.
We appreciate the commitment of your company and we are grateful for the support you give to the Educational Centre.
The Alba Eglesia Team
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The Romanian version of the 2024 Activity Report can be found here.
Thank you for reading our annual report!