Bradet

The Bradet School

In November 2009 we decided to carry out an intervention in the village of Brădet (685 m above sea level), in the south-west of Romania, one of the poorest and most abandoned villages in the whole of Romania.

About 400 people, including many children, had been left without work due to the closure of the nearby coal mine.

The school/kindergarten was in a total state of abandonment (broken windows and doors, no bathrooms, a very old electrical system with exposed wires, a dangerous heating system.

The children often, especially in winter, did not attend and the teachers were abandoned to themselves.

Scuola di Bradet
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The project consisted of:

  • - providing materials for the renovation, with the help of available sponsors;
  • - involving the inhabitants of the village, parents of the children, in the work to alleviate unemployment and, in some cases, teach a job (which happened);
  • - giving the inhabitants of the village the desire to live in a cleaner and more orderly village, with the collection and disposal of all the waste shamefully scattered in every corner (for the children it was a pleasant and instructive game);
  • - agreements with the municipality of Anina to involve it in the initiative and give new impetus to the school.

In the summer of 2009, the entire first floor of the school was renovated: laminate floors, internal bathrooms with tiles and hot water, PVC windows, all the walls repaired and painted in bright colors, electrical system up to standard, 15 new stoves, new windows and entrance door, furniture and equipment.

In 2010, the first floor was also renovated using the same method, where a beautiful kitchen was set up, a fully equipped cinema room and various accommodation rooms with bathrooms for visitors and volunteers.

The eternit roof was completely rebuilt with an intervention that was careful about proper asbestos disposal (probably the first in the area).

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A great lesson

This happy experience has demonstrated the intelligence of this type of charity, which achieves three important results:

a) not giving away money but providing work;
b) encouraging people to learn a trade;
c) involving an entire community in loving and respecting its own territory

The Il Giocattoli Association won the 2nd Prize (out of eighty projects) in a National competition for the project "A new school for Bradet"; the novelty of an intervention that saw the active participation of the population in the renovation of the building was appreciated.

The prize, symbolic but with useful visibility, was collected at the gala evening in Bucharest with the presence of the Prime Minister Dacian Cioloș.

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