“Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime” – Lao Tzu.
Over the years, with the help of many different sponsors, foundation Charis has purchased a building in a village near Cluj, called Floresti. We officially opened the doors to our Educational Center, “Casa Speranța”, in March 2007. Many years have passed but we are proud and happy to say that the foundation is still standing strong, growing and developing constantly.
Foundation Charis’ primary focus is working with disadvantaged and marginalized children with the purpose of reducing the percentage of school dropout cases. The needs and challenges of these children are significant as many of the children, most of which are Roma children, do not finish school. This is due to factors such as spending their days searching through trash to find materials (clothes, food, furniture etc.), babysitting their brothers and sisters, or spending their days begging for money. But even the kids that do go to school regularly face some big challenges, as their parents do not have the financial possibility to buy clothes for their children, lunch during school hours or to pay school fees. Also, most parents do not have the necessary education, some of which do not know how to read/or write, enabling them to help their kids with their homework. The parents do not always understand the importance of education which effects both the parents and children’s motivation to continue their education. Because of this, many children dropout before even finishing primary school or do not continue their education after they finish the first eight classes, ending up not having a diploma. Not having a diploma makes it almost an impossible task of finding a job. This overall lack of education also hinders the social-emotional development of these children.
Despite the complications and the hardships that these children grow up in, foundation Charis believes that everybody deserves a change to a better future; we believe that there is hope and we, as a team, work together to break the vicious cycle regarding the people’s perspective upon education.
We have up to 50 children, 6-14 years old, attending our Education Program. All kids come to Casa Speranta twice a week. Here, they receive the opportunity to get extra help with their schoolwork, constantly being encouraged to keep on going. In addition to that the children also receive a healthy lunch and snacks, lessons on managing their time, personal hygiene, handling money and social skills.
Our vision is to keep on growing, not only in the way that we do things, but we also want to grow the number of people that we help through this foundation. All that we do is through the help of amazing people that have decided to sponsor a child or make donations for this project.
How can you help us?
You can help by becoming a sponsor for only
€25 a month. This will go a long way to help change the future for these children. This will also help in giving a child the chance to dream and achieve that dream. For more information, please click on the button below.
Sponsor a child