Across Romania, community organizers are hard at work connecting with neighbors and challenging local political practices. One of ECON’s partners in the nation, Resource Center for Public Participation, also known as CeRe, shepherds these projects from their creation to fruition by providing training, resources, and financial support to local organizing movements.

The Mai Mult Verde Community project is an example of a newer project that CeRe supports. The program is funded through grants designated for the protection of the Danube River, a river that flows through ten countries from Germany through Romania to the Black Sea. CeRe has partnered with local organizers in hopes of creating organizing teams that will raise awareness about good environmental practices. 

One effort is beginning in the town of Oltenița, a town of approximately 2,000 residents located next to the Danube. The organizer in this city, Ade Pirvu, was born and raised in the community. He has been involved in environmental projects since high school when his teachers invited him to be apart of cleanups at the local parks. Now Ade is the first organizer in his community and hopes to one day educate his neighbors on the importance of recycling.

Another project CeRe supports is an effort to increase transparency in local political practices in Sacele. After moving back to Romania after living in the United States, Elena Belloiu noticed a lack of rights for women and had a strong desire to remedy this through the empowerment of the residents in her community. She started an NGO and leads projects responsible for petitioning the City Hall, educating women and children, and holding the first protests her neighborhood has ever seen. 

Elena hopes that her work within her town can be a positive example for other cities around Romania, especially with the push for women’s representation and gender equality around European Union nations. One project the organization runs is called Sacele Civic Group – Citizens in Action, which started in 2018 and works to put pressure on the city council to share meeting agendas and the spending of local funds with community members. Last year, the organization won the “Small Cities, Big Citizen” award at the ninth annual CeRe Public Participation Awards Gala. 

Elena used the financial support from the joint project between CeRe and Sacele “Innovative Approach in Advocacy Campaigns” to increase awareness of the work of the group, invite people to the first series of protests in Sacele, and continue to grow her efforts to other towns around the region. 

Another project supported by CeRe is called Grupul de Initiativa Favorit, a group that started ten years ago with the help of a CeRe organizer. The initiative now runs independently from CeRe but occasionally reaches out for assistance with events. Staff members are able to aid the group leaders by leading workshops, such as a program teaching kids about good neighborhoods. The hope of CeRe is to help local initiatives grow strong enough to function on their own.

Follow CeRe’s work at http://cere.ong.