The Coalition for Promoting Volunteering Law and Activities is staging the ninth National Volunteer Week “Join in with volunteers!” in the period between May 11 and May 17. The event launch included an auction to sell eight paintings made by prisoners of the Cricova Penitentiary, while the proceeds will go to a child who needs surgery, IPN reports.

Diana Pantea, head of the Education Division of the Cricova Penitentiary No. 15, said it is the second year that the prisoners take part in volunteering activities. This is a method to help the convicts to easier integrate into society afterward.

The ninth National Volunteer Week covers nine new districts (Cimislia, Stefan Voda, Anenii Noi, Dubasari, Sangerei, Edinet, Ungheni, Leova, and Cahul) in addition to the eight districts (Ialoveni, Soroca, Rezina, Straseni, Orhei, Criuleni, Causeni, and Soldanesti) and two municipalities (Balti and Chisinau) that were involved last year.

Antonita Fonari, who heads the Association “Youth for the Right to Life”, said the situation concerning volunteering promotion has changed considerably over the last few years. The mass media now pay greater attention to such events and the people became more active. If certain associations provide assistance in a settlement, the people become involved by themselves in charity.

Antonita Fonari noted that the event to launch the National Volunteer Week had three objectives: to show the people that they can do nice things by allotting only several hours of their time; to help the people held in jails to socialize, and to help a child regain sight by raising money by selling paintings made by detainees.

Prisoners of the Cricova Penitentiary were brought to the Park “Valea Trandafirilor”, where they painted the wording “Change starts from you” on the asphalt near a lake. The words are seen from a very long distance.