Young persons from 13 settlements prove they can contribute

Young people from 13 settlements became involved in implementing community projects, being supported by a project. They printed a school newspaper, connected the school to the Internet and repaired the benches in the school’s yard. They all proved that they can, project coordinator Alina Rusu said in a news conference, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Stimulation of Initiatives at Local Level Project was launched in March and was completed in October. Alina Rusu said its goal was to stimulate the young people to be active in their settlements. “We taught them how to identify the problem and the players to whom they can appeal, and how to collect funds for the projects they want to implement. Through these active young people, who had by a success story in their community, we tried to reach out to the inactive people and mobilize them,” said Alina Rusu. The organizers feared that the young people may abandon their projects if they encountered difficulties in finding financial resources. “They did not give up and even identified other projects. This is probably because of their age. When you are under 18, you do not become disappointed so much in society. The young people can do a lot in community if they are motivated and have will,” said Alina Rusu. According to the project coordinator, no matter where the young people are from - town or village, they can implement different projects with little money. “They can carry out awareness-raising campaigns on the damage caused by tobacco and alcohol to humans for example or they can work as volunteers for an NGO and help the elderly or clean up the settlements. There are projects that do not imply costs, only will,” said Alina Rusu. Sergiu Suruceanu, from Cojusna village, managed to find money for repairing the benches in the yard of the school. “Initially, we though about a project to connect the school to the Internet, but then realized that we do not have where to sit during the break,” he said. He stated that the young people continue to be distrusted by the local administration. “The economic entities and the mayor looked at us with skepticism, but we managed to prove that not the age, but the arguments count when you want to do something.” The Stimulation of Initiatives at Local Level Project was implemented by the National Youth Council with financial support from USAID within the FHI 360 Program.