The Good House has worked wonders for the children of Ferentari
Located in southwestern Bucharest, the district of Ferentari has over the years came to be synonymous with squalor, poverty, violence, extreme instability, which have become widespread due to subpar living standards. The district is home to a large Roma community and it very much resembles a ghetto, as its inhabitants seldom go beyond the tangible and symbolic boundaries of the neighborhood to seek a better life elsewhere. The solution would therefore be to improve the lives of the people inside the ghetto, something which Valeriu Nicolae has been doing for over 10 years. A computer scientist with work experience in the United States and Canada, the founder of the first think-tank on Roma issues in Romania, a member of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, regional advocacy director of World Vision International and a Secretary of State in the Romanian Government in 2016, Valeriu Nicolae has constantly militated for the rights of the underprivileged.
Having himself emerged from a disadvantaged background, being a Roma ethnic, Valeriu Nicolae is familiar with the problems of the marginalized and knows how important it is for children, above everyone else, to be given the opportunity of leaving the ghetto. This is why back in 2007 and 2008, together with a group of volunteers he started working in one of the schools in Ferentari, helping children do their homework. The school was located in the vicinity of the so-called "Drug Alley", a place where a minimum of 50 people are struggling with withdrawal in plain sight on a daily basis, Valeriu Nicolae says. Municipal waste, rats, cockroaches, 14-square-meter studios where up to 6 people live packed, all of that adds to the reality the people of Ferentari are facing, a reality Valeriu Nicolae is helping them cope with. With the volunteers' tenacity and help, in the summer of 2019 children in the district would come to school to get help with their homework, taking up as many as 5 classrooms, Valeriu Nicolae recalls:
"We would help them do their homework, and we did a lot of extra stuff as well: we obtained disability certificates for some of their parents, we helped people in bad shape, from people who needed a dentist or heart surgery up to polypectomies, dental extractions or orthodontic treatments. We tried to help out the best we could. Nearly every child we worked with was on the brink of dropout. None of them gave up, and now from over a hundred children only a couple are struggling with school. Before everything was a disaster. As soon as they got to the fifth grade, most of them dropped out. Now we have children who go to high school, so the situation has definitely improved. We're also giving them hot meals".
The place was running smoothly, maybe too much so, as the District 5 City Hall decided to implement its own social assistance programme at that school, thus eliminating the activities designed by Valeriu Nicolae and his team of volunteers. But Valeriu Nicolae didn't give up and set up the so-called Good House. In a nearby building close to his home, located close to the district of Ferentari, children are brought over from the ghetto for afterschool activities. Built with the generosity of donors and volunteers who worked selflessly to get the place up and running, the Good House opened one month after the venue was purchased, in the autumn of 2019. Valeriu Nicolae:
"We bought two vans, and with the volunteers' private vehicles we brought the children over every weekend, as it was a lot better. We had as many as 100 children. The Good House is a place where we can do everything we want. We set up a great library, and things are looking up. We've got a lot of help, for instance from famous chefs who come here to cook for the children".
Things again were running smoothly, up until the state of emergency was called, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Schools were shut down and lockdown became the norm. Children can no longer get to the Good House. Still, Valeriu Nicolae has come up with solutions:
"Children were making progress, and we couldn't just call off the activities. Therefore I started setting up computers and hotspots all over the ghetto. I was donated a number of unlimited Internet access accounts, and I got hold of a bunch of older phones from various people. We moved very quickly, and I got back to my old job as a computer scientist, and managed to install everything that needed installing. We got the terminals up and running and fitted them with educational software. Now we have over 50 volunteers who work every day online with these children. They stay and work from their homes, and we keep the children connected".
In the ghetto present-day restrictions, in addition to the suspension of multiple economic activities, make it hard for many people to get on with their lives. Valeriu Nicolae and his team of volunteers are getting however donations from various companies, and are providing local people with dairy products, bread, various foodstuffs, coffee and tea.
"We manage to cover the necessary food supplies. Many people in the district lost their jobs. But since the lockdown was called, our families are ok, we're managing to cover their needs. I hope we will continue to do so, but things are getting rough for the people. Although the people know me, even drug users, sometimes things get out of hand, as the addicts need food as well. They know I'm coming to help the children, but they need food too. Domestic violence has also gone up, and so have all sorts of abuse. Unfortunately, no one cares to put an end to such things in a place like Ferentari".
Valeriu Nicolae estimates that Bucharest alone is home to a few dozen underprivileged children who lack access to online educational resources, and who might get behind with school during the lockdown and might eventually drop out.
(Translated by V. Palcu)
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