Helping disadvantaged children. The Ház a Holnapért turns 20.
For the past twenty years the Ház a Holnapért (House for Tomorrow) Association has been offering help to orphan and socially disadvantaged children and young adults. The NGO offers a good example for the entire Romanian childcare system with its activity - considers Csaba Sógor, Member of the European Parliament and president of the association. The 20th anniversary was held in Cristuru Secuiesc / Székelykeresztúr on 16 September, in the presence of the association’s German supporters.
The Association has been trying since 1996 to offer the children from the area of Cristuru Secuiesc / Székelykeresztúr the chance to overcome their difficult situation. The founders imagined the activity as an alternative to the former local orphanage.
With the support of the Rumänien Arbeitsgruppe Hemmingen German non-profit association 5 houses have been built since 1996. The first was inaugurated in Rugănești/ Rugonfalva in 1996, followed by one in Mugeni/Bögöz in 1999. In 2000 two houses were finished in Secuieni/ Újszékely. The fifth house was opened in Șimonești/ Siménfalva in 2011. In the houses dedicated stepparents take care of the disadvantaged children, helped by a teacher and a housekeeper. In the past twenty years 76 children grew up here, leaving the family house and going on their own way. Now 41 children of different ages are being taken care of in the five houses.
Csaba Sógor, RMDSZ MEP said at the festivity in Cristuru Secuiesc that 20 years ago it was thought that the Romanian childcare network will develop faster and that the activity of the association would be taken over by the state. „Reality shows us that the activity of the association is still needed, this is why we hope that our German friends will continue to support us in raising and taking care of the children”, the MEP pointed out. According to Csaba Sógor the exemplary project shows „how the work of the civil society can successfully complete and occasionally even replace what the state cannot adequately provide”.
The MEP thanked at the festivity those who organized the daily activity of the association in the past years: former executive László Sebestyén and the current manager Kinga Balázs. Regarding his work in the EP, Csaba Sógor said that, together with his colleagues from the Employment and Social Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, they work for the promotion of best practice exchange programmes between Member states, adding: „We invite the Member States, including Romania, to consider the development of the national social network a priority and provide sufficient budgets to handle difficult social problems, not only because the welfare of its citizens is a duty of the state, but also because it is in its best interest.”
