Today we want to tell you about a meaningful initiative we’ve been involved in. Have you heard about the project at the school in Aghiresu-Sat? Our bank, together with the Professor Gheorghe Balaci Association, launched this project to support children at school and help develop the village of Aghiresu. The project started in September 2016 and is the first educational program for children there.

In the second phase of the project, another 10 students were included. For 12 months, every Tuesday and Thursday, they also received a hot meal and took part in reading, writing and arithmetic classes, as well as personal development activities. In addition, both students and teachers met with volunteer psychologists who helped them better understand themselves and mentored them.

We know a project like this can benefit both children who have only recently started school and those now finishing middle school, so the project includes students from 2nd through 8th grade.

The best way to see how this program helps is to hear from the students themselves:

• Alina (8th grade): “I like Romanian and math because I’ve managed to raise my grades in these subjects. I even received an honorable mention at the end of the school year. My parents were very happy. I’d like the project to continue over the holidays as well.”
• Gabriel (2nd grade): “The classes were very useful and helped me get better grades. That’s pretty cool.”

After thinking about how we could involve parents in this project too, we realised we could set up a producers’ association. So we launched the first producers’ association in Aghiresu, with the aim of supplying organically grown, fresh, high-quality produce (mint, basil, arugula) to companies that want to support the education project. In this way, 30% of the price of the products was donated by the association to the school to support the project. And if you’re curious what happens to the association’s produce, you can find it in dishes at 15 restaurants and terraces in Cluj-Napoca. Plans for the future also include growing crops over the winter.