Romania’s Family Olympics 2012 promotes school attendance

Some 5,000 people across Romania took part in "Family Olympics", a series of events organized by World Vision Romania in partnership with Asociatia 11 even during the month of July. Families from ten cities were invited to become involved in sports and recreational activities, have fun and also donate to a social cause.

“The event was created to encourage the family spirit and the idea of sports, especially since this is the summer of the Olympic Games,” explained Ovidiu Neamtu from Asociatia 11even, the initiator of the concept.

Parents and children, young people and groups of friends played team games and spent quality time together. They ran relay races, played volleyball, archery, badminton, synchronized for ski on the grass and won numerous prizes in sports equipment, donated by Dolce TV, the main sponsor of the event.

“A backpack full of dreams” was the slogan under which World Vision Romania fundraised and conducted an awareness campaign for preventing school dropout at “Family Olympics”. People and companies were invited to donate money for children’s backpacks and support World Vision’s work.

“A recent research conducted by World Vision pin point the fact that school drop out continues to be a problem in Romania. The rural areas are still exposed to various risk factors, one of the most important ones being the lack of financial resources of the poor families. The role of our campaign is to bring this issue in the attention of all the actors of civil society. We are all responsible for the education of our children,” said Madalina Dicu, Product Development Manager for World Vision Romania.

In rural Romania children still abandon school because of poverty and the difference between urban and rural areas is significant: the number of students abandoning secondary school in rural areas is 20% greater than the number of students in urban areas, while the number of students abandoning high school is 30% greater, says the latest study released by the Romanian Ministry of Education in 2010.

“A backpack full of dreams” represents one of World Vision’s efforts to support education in rural areas. World Vision works in six Romanian counties, where it develops several educational programmes to assist children from rural areas to access better education through after school, scholarship and recreational programmes.