Many young people in Romania
\nwho want things to improve and who cannot wait for the state to get involved
\nhave started to create their own charities. One such example is the Beard
\nBrothers of Cluj, a group of bearded and tattooed bikers who wanted to turn
\ntheir atypical image into a brand name. Cornel Hoza, a member of the group,
\ntold us what that has achieved: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We set up the group in
\nNovember 2013. We have grand plans, we want to be involved in society and help
\nas many people as possible. So far we’ve organised seven large scale charity
\ncampaigns, and a lot of other events and satellite campaigns. We get involved
\nin any kind of action, we don’t have a pattern. If we feel that we have to get
\ninvolved in something, we do it. So far we put a few pennies aside for a kid
\nwith cancer and got a hold of a minibus for a special needs kindergarten.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Beard Brothers have run
\nmore campaigns, such as cleaning up party places and collecting waste, as well
\nas gathering donations for a few needy families. We asked Cornel Hoza if their
\nnon-conformity helped them: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It definitely counted. When
\nyou see a huge guy with a beard and tattoos selling cookies in the central park
\nin Cluj… that has an impact. In addition, we had campaigns for which we shaved
\nour heads in the centre of the town to raise funds. We are trying to do all
\nthis in a different way. It all started with a group of nine friends, but as we
\ndeveloped we drew in all kinds of people, from all walks of life. However, we
\nshare a wish to help others. We don’t have any personal benefits, this is
\nexclusively voluntary work.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The beards, the tattoos, the
\nbikes, but mostly their empathy, brought in the largest number of members into
\nthe Beard Brothers group. The association now has 29 male members and 30 female
\nin the group’s so-called sisterhood division. The passion for travelling also
\nworked in favour of charitable causes, especially combined with their
\nnon-conformity. Iulian Angheluta, one of the members, told us about the
\nbeginnings of the organisation, in 2012: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We started cleaning up
\nbeaches and gathering clothing and shoes for the needy. Our biggest achievement
\nwas the trip we took to Mongolia, with an old school Dacia car, in the summer
\nof 2012. This was a humanitarian rally. The challenge was to take the car all
\nthe way over there, and then donate it to a Mongolian NGO, which auctioned it out
\nalongside all the other cars in the rally. The project was meant to bring
\ncomputers to Mongolia, where the population is mostly nomadic. The idea was to
\nsupply people with tablets or other digital platforms to provide education in
\nspite of their nomadic lifestyle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
When they came back from
\nMongolia, where they donated their car, Iulian Angheluta and the other
\nvolunteers started focusing on bringing electricity to villages in Romania that
\nhave none. Having no electric power affects people in ways you may not have
\nthought of:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to data from the
\n2011 census, Romania has 248,000 homes without electricity. This is the
\nofficial figure. Of these homes, maybe 100,000 are not inhabited, but what
\nmatters is the number of people living there. These are impoverished people,
\none home without electricity can house as many as five to ten people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The campaign to bring
\nelectricity to villages started in Ursici, a village in Hunedoara county, and
\ncontinued in four other counties. Volunteers brought in solar panels bought
\nfrom donations. Slowly but surely, these isolated communities started feeling
\nthe benefits of electric power generated by solar panels. Here is Iulian
\nAngheluta with details: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
This is in line with our
\norganisation’s environmental purpose. Costs are lowers, we haven’t cut down a
\nsingle tree and have not drawn a single wire from the grid. The sun is free of
\ncharge. The equipment entails some costs, but that is ok. Until this spring, we
\nhave brought electricity to four schools the Ministry of Education didn’t even
\nknow they had no electricity. We continued our field research to see how many
\npeople are deprived of electricity. We had sponsors to persuade, but the
\nhardest thing is to convince the public authorities. The state has made
\ncommitments towards the European Union, and they also have a moral commitment
\ntowards the citizens. In my estimation, tens of thousands of people live in the
\ndark, using candles and gas lamps. Thousands of families are cut off from
\ninformation for lack of power. There are health issues too, given that kids do
\ntheir homework by candlelight, and their sight is affected.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The problems are compounded by
\npoverty, because usually families who live in homes without power could not
\nafford a monthly electricity bill to begin with. The good news is that Iulian
\nAngheluta and his peers do not expect anything in return for their efforts, all
\nit takes is their continued commitment. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whether through donations or volunteer work, Romanians are becoming more and more involved in charity campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":141541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[43495,35750],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-141540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-beard-brothers","tag-charity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n