Women for a Clean Future organized symposium in Roma village Garla Mare, Romania

Women for a Clean Future (FVC), a Romanian community based organisation, held a symposium in the district in Garla Mare, Romania; ‘Healthy People in a Healthy Environment’. WECF were invited as speakers.

01.06.2008 |Anna Samwel

Children in Garla Mare

Saturday, 24th of May 2008, Women for a Clean Future (FVC) organized a symposium in the district in Garla Mare, Romania; ‘Healthy People in a Healthy Environment’. FVC was established in 2005 with support of WECF in the frame of the MATRA project ‘Safe Drinking Water for All’.

By organizing a symposium every year for which participants have to pay, the community based NGO is able to finance their office costs, organize environmental activities with the school children and participate in nation wide programs such as ‘Eco-Scoala’, which includes a program on environmental education for which the school has to pay.
Special this year was the visit of Vera Suciu, representative of WECF partner WISDOM from our target community Bolduresti, Moldova (www.ecosan.md). Like Garla Mare, they have the first Ecosan school toilet in the country. It was both for WISDOM and FVC very interesting and motivating to see that they have similar experiences with introducing Ecosan in their villages. Very probably, a school partnership between the two villages will be the follow up of this meeting.

recycled waste
The symposium started with a cast show by children dressed in recycled waste, which was positively received by the audience, and the children visibly enjoyed it. An introduction on the activities of WECF by Anna Samwel followed, continued by a brief overview of the possibilities of alternative energy, especially solar energy, for sustainable rural development. This topic became very relevant, though little known in rural areas, keeping in mind rising energy prices combined with higher demand for comfort, and climate change, causing failing harvests in the region for several years already. Vera Suciu gave a clear and inspiring presentation about their Ecosan project in Moldova.

At the end of the session there was a meal for the participants to talk about what they heard. Those who never saw a urine diverting toilet made use of the opportunity to inspect the Ecosan toilet in the school yard.
Because of the high acceptance of the Ecosan school toilet and the good capacity of the NGO in Garla Mare, WECF will build this year a school toilet in the neighboring village Vrata in partnership with FVC, financed by Foundation Ensemble.