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Alina Tudose: A Small Example of Civil Society from Romania
A small example of civil society: the organization of a social campaign for collecting books for orphans in Bucharest - an attempt to turn orphans from institutionalized children into individuals whose merits can be acknowledged.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed people can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead
The concept of "civil society" has a history of 200 years. Defined by many scholars, its evolution has reached the level in which it is known as "those more or less spontaneously emergent associations, organizations and movements that, attuned to how societal problems resonate in the private life spheres, distill and transmit such reactions in amplified form to the public sphere" (Jürgen Habermas).
Having this in mind, I consider that civil society can be more than the sum of associations or organizations. It deals with helping the ones that need us, and also, it is a behavior that can be learned. For this reason, I would like to describe in this article, as an example of "civil society", my experience in co-organizing a social campaign for collecting books for three shelters in Bucharest. I believe that teenagers need guidance, and that it is our responsibility to show them the best way of acting in a civil society spirit.
To start with, in the last four years I was involved in several NGOs from Bucharest, doing many social actions (fundraising, organizing social activities for orphans, informative campaigns, etc) but the experience that chanced my perception on change was the social campaign "Books for children... orphans need to read as well", organized by Enjoy Your Future Youth Association, Bucharest, in which I had the chance to participate as a co-organizer. Then I realized that a small group of people with a lot of goodwill can transform the reality they live in.
The idea of the campaign came as a result of past experiences that two Enjoy Your Future members had in 2003 by doing voluntary work for the Child Protection Institution in their home city. Interacting with the orphans from different shelters and with the officials of the institution, the volunteers discovered that most of the shelters don't have private libraries. Children living in shelters should benefit from the same chances as others. Why should donations be restricted to toys and food, why shouldn't everybody think of orphans as normal children, and give them fair chances to succeed in life? And what better way is there to educate, what better way to make differences fade, than reading? Reading is a very important activity for any child, as it broadens their horizon of knowledge and shows them new perspectives. Orphans have to be aware that they can overcome their social condition, they can become successful, and reading is just one step further in accomplishing these objectives.
After a few meetings, the members of the Enjoy Your Future Youth Association started to make a plan of action for the campaign. They decided about the target group - from publishing houses, libraries and students to elderly persons who are willing to donate books from their personal library, books that their children had once read. The next step was the distribution of tasks among the members, as each of them knew that the success of the campaign would depend on their personal efficiency. In a random order, the duties that the members accomplished were: to contact publishing houses from Bucharest who might be willing to donate books, to contact the Ministry of National Defense in order to receive two tents to be located in public places in Bucharest - Water Spring Park and Heroes' Park -, so that people would be able to come and donate books. Then they went to the City Hall of Bucharest (Sector 6) in order to receive legal approval for placing the tents in public areas. After the legal formalities were made, an important part of the campaign was to find three shelters in Bucharest who agreed to receive books. Before the campaign started, the volunteers had to persuade local newspapers to print the announcement of the campaign, and to find other youth associations in Bucharest to become partners. Two youth associations helped the Enjoy Your Future team at the tents to receive books from the citizens of Bucharest.
Furthermore, the Enjoy Your Future team promoted the campaign through the internet, by sending emails to more than 1500 teenagers who have subscribed to Enjoy Your Future's Newsletter, as well as posting flyers at universities, student campuses and in the center of Bucharest.
After three days of collecting books, everybody was amazed by the results. The campaign was bigger than estimated, and more high quality books were raised than expected. Thus, three centers - that shelter almost 200 children in all -, were equipped with books.
For each of these shelters, the team of Enjoy Your Future and its partners have established a small library with up to 1000 books, for all ages.
Yet we haven't fully achieved our goal. The volunteers decided to encourage the children to read. Within two months, a contest entitled "My favorite book" was planned, in the course of which children were supposed to present their favorite book, basically in any way they could imagine: in writing, in drawing, in role-playing etc. The contest, which was about trying to encourage the children to find their own ways of expression and the areas they excel in, was an attempt to turn them from institutionalized children into individuals whose merits can be acknowledged. The volunteers hoped that if they would give a push to the children, they would start to like reading and make a habit of it.
The final mission was to find sponsors for the contest who were willing to buy presents for the children. Pepsi, Carrefour and Heidi had been some of the companies that agreed to contribute and also to be members of the jury.
On the 1st of June, children of various age categories had to present their favorite book to the jury, in the form of drawings, paintings, summaries of the books, clay figurines of the characters and a beautiful play of Little Red Riding Hood.
The jury rewarded the best of them with sweets, toys and diplomas.
This small example of civil society can encourage teenagers around the world to challenge themselves to contribute to the social good of their fellows. Sometimes goodwill and courage is all you need!
The author is an M.A. student at ISES, Kőszeg, Hungary.
