We Help Sibiu Association – Ioana Dancanet

Blog
25.01.2021
We Help Sibiu Association – Ioana Dancanet
25.01.2021

1. Hi, Ioana. We are glad that you are part of our column with and about the beautiful people from Sibiu. I know that you are successfully running a humanitarian association in the city. Please tell us, what does the We Help association do and what are its objectives?
Servus Magdalena, thank you for the invitation to participate in your section People from Sibiu.
We Help! is a Non-Profit association, based only on volunteering, we have no employees, and our goal is to offer children from disadvantaged families the chance to a better life.
We try to support them and involve them through different projects, in activities, with didactic and practical purpose of their integration in society.
Children receive moral and educational support, thanks to our partners and volunteers, guidance for a better life.

2. How was We Help born?
Well ... it's a pretty long story but in short, 13 years ago when I was 21, I was a student and we also have a job, I thought that this life doesn't just mean doing things for us, that it is important to get actively involved in the lives of those who need support / help.
So, in the years 2007-2008, the term "volunteer" was not very well known, nor were there any visible NGOs to offer volunteer programs in Sibiu, and one day I went in with another friend. and simply in the Sibiu Child Protection building and I told them that we want to help the children from the Placement Centers, with any homework, outings in the park that we could do in our free time.
We were directed to the Gulliver Placement Center because there were many children of all ages and there were few employees at the time.
I got there the next day and I met the little ones and from that day I couldn't help but think about them every day.
For 6 years I did actions on my own, I collected clothes, games, books and took them to the Placement Centers both in Sibiu and in Orlat, I organized trips, I went out to the Gong theater, I was in the park, finally I started to grow up with them and we try to bring as many smiles to the little ones.
I started to involve my colleagues, family friends in my volunteer actions and after 6 years I received an encouragement from Adriana, a good friend, who said to me, “Ioana, why don't you set up an association, you do so much things, and if you had a legal form you would certainly be able to do more good deeds.
In 2013 we founded the WE HELP Association! everything that happened after that year was simply magical, other volunteers started coming to help me change the world of the little ones a little better.
At present we have many beautiful projects, around 40 volunteers, beautiful people without whom we could not do so many good things.
3. It is said that volunteering shapes souls. At what point in your life did you realize that you want to do more for people? That you want to give support?
I think I kind of answered above, but my grandmother taught me when I was little to help.
I believe that empathy, love of neighbor and the desire to help others are behaviors that can be learned. It seems natural and normal to me to volunteer and help!

4. What projects do you carry out and what can the people of Sibiu do to help the association?
Our main projects are on the side of: EDUCATION and HEALTH.
For example, we have an afterschool project "Helping children from disadvantaged families to go to school" where 17 children receive educational support and more.
Initially, the project was funded by the Community Foundation through the Sibiu International Marathon, 2014 edition, and at the moment, we managed to create a space (2 rehabilitation activity rooms and properly furnished) in which 17 children from Sibiu are at risk of abandonment. school, primary school students, benefit from after-school programs offered by our volunteers throughout the school year.

At the same time, they were provided with a snack throughout their participation in this project, as well as supplies and teaching materials needed to participate in daily classes.
In all these years, we have managed to create a network of over 40 volunteers (pupils, students, teachers, academics, professionals and ordinary people) who have supported through their involvement and work more than 40 families and 50 children, who were helped to stay connected to compulsory school services but also to develop harmoniously.
The third generation we have in the project consists of 17 children, from grades I - IV, with whom we meet twice a week.

Children benefit from:
· Homework help
· Snacks (sandwich, fruits, vegetables, tea, etc.)
· Social, educational, cultural, recreational integration activities, excursions
· Medical consultations (dentist, ophthalmologist)
· Staple foods for their families
· Clothing and footwear
· Birthday celebration (cake, gift)

More details can be found here:
https://we-help.ro/ajuta-copiii-din-familii-defavorizate-să-meargă-la-școală/

Other important projects were: "We Help School in Mag, We Help School in Sacel and We Help School in Tichindeal" - I practically wrote projects after which I raised money by running at Martonul Intrenational Sibiu.
For example, at the Mag School our objective was to arrange and equip a research, documentation and information room.
The project consisted of: interior design, arrangement of a library with books, endowment with laptop, video equipment for educational presentations, printer, educational plans. In this room we created a space where children can do extracurricular activities and more, a place where they can read a book and develop their horizons.
Students need a space outside the classroom where they can watch educational movies, play or enjoy a book, and often in rural areas need help.
More details can be found here: https://we-help.ro/we-help-școală-din-mag/
Another project dear to us is SHOEBOX, a project that unfortunately last year due to the pandemic we could not organize but we did not give up and launched another beautiful project "Christmas Wish".
I don't have to tell you much about Shoebox because the campaign is very well known. But what can be said is that we started from 300 gifts collected in 2013 to over 2500 in 2019.
The "Christmas Wish" campaign was born from the desire of people to help even in the current situation. Because we wanted to organize a project to help children, but at the same time to make sure that our entire team is safe, we decided to organize an online fundraiser. Through this project we managed with your help to prepare 190 children for the winter (we bought them winter shoes and jackets).
Details: https://we-help.ro/dorința-de-crăciun/

5. But from the gift is made heaven. Tell us how can we, the New Concept Living team, support you in the activities you carry out?
In this period of pandemic, practically even the after school activity is online, because we do not want to put anyone's safety in danger.
But we also need volunteers for online homework, so if you have knowledge of math, Romanian, foreign languages ​​you can send us a CV and a cover letter and we can talk more about how you can help a child from a disadvantaged family with homework.
Other ways to help ... for example we need firewood in the winter, we have enough families that really depend on our help these months.
You can also help with donations, we have everything as transparent as possible on our facebook / site page and more recently my colleagues also created an Insagram account.
Details: https://we-help.ro/doneaza/

6. We know that every year you organize the Shoe Box project. How is it now compared to the moment you started and what is the feedback of the people of Sibiu related to this project?
Yes, we are partners in the Shoebox program.
All our projects we have mean a lot of work, time, energy and wonderful volunteers that really involve body and soul. But at Shobox something really overwhelming is happening, before 2020 December was the most demanding month of the year, we had 3 Gift Collection Centers, over 60 volunteers who often stayed in the cold and eagerly awaited the young and old. , because children came who donated gifts. In the evening we gather at our headquarters where we organize everything by categories, girls / boys / ages, after which we centralize and see exactly which areas in the county we can help.
After 3 weeks of collecting, we went to the field, we went to schools in the county, in the villages of Sibiu where we knew there were children from disadvantaged families.
Why did I go to school? Basically we try to encourage the presence of students at school and only those who were at school that day or who were absent motivated would receive ShoeBox gifts.
Besides schools, I also went to the Placement Centers: Sibiu, Orlat, Turnul Rosu and Sos Satele Copiilor Cisnadie.
We also thank all those who contributed to Shoebox and not only.
"ShoeBox" is an initiative to help children from families with limited material possibilities, a campaign started in 2007 by a family from Cluj, continued at city level, then extended throughout the country. The concept assumes that the donor offers one or more gifts with a reasonable volume, which can fit in a shoe box, hence the name "ShoeBox".

7. Who are the people who make We Help activities possible?
There are about 40 volunteers, but we have a team of about 10 people who are very, very active who really work and do very nice things for children.
I don't know if it's good to actually mention names because every volunteer is very valuable to the organizers