Building Big in Romania

Over 250 volunteers, local and international, will gather in Romania this October to build 10 homes in just 5 days in Beius, Bihor County.

These houses will be constructed for orphans, raised in the crumbling state institutions of the communist era and amid the horrors of the post-communist orphanage system. Since being thrown out on the streets at 18, without decent education or job skills, they were marginalized by communities.

For years this youth has been living in crammed single-room apartments without decency and respect that comes with a clean and safe home. Some of these young people have started their own families, creating an even larger housing need.

According to the national statistics, around 35 percent of the housing stock in Romania is in the state of complete neglect and needs urgent repairs. Progress towards a stable market economy has been slow and difficult after years of the oppressive Ceausescu’s rule. Real wages for working Romanian families have dropped by about 40 percent, putting additional pressure of the strained social system. Housing issues are neglected both by central and local authorities.

Big Build will start on October 5th, observed by the UN as annual World Habitat Day. On this day, all concerned people gather to reaffirm that adequate shelter is a basic human right. Attention is drawn to the conditions of cities and towns around the world.

Big Build will be this year’s event for Habitat in Europe and Central Asia. By October 9th, all 10 homes will be finished and future homeowners will receive keys to their new homes.

The idea of having this build started as a way of celebrating 10 years of partnership between Habitat for Humanity Romania and Habitat for Humanity Northern Ireland, which has sent hundreds of volunteers to help Romanians families living in poverty housing.

Big Build volunteers, over 200 of them coming from Northern Ireland, will send a powerful message that providing a solution to poverty housing is a worldwide problem. They will do it by offering a helping hand up to those in need of decent, safe and affordable homes.

Who will benefit from Big Build houses?

All 10 homes will be dedicated to people who left orphanages and live on low incomes.

“I was abandoned by my parents and I grew up in an orphanage in Beius. At the age of 16 was hired at a local clothing factory. Because of my medical problems, I had no money for a room of my own. I dream of having my own family and my own home.”
Irina Farkas, Buig Build beneficiary

“I was 12 years old when my mother died and my father left us. My sisters got married, so I was raised by an aunt. Now I live in a two-room apartment in a house together with my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law and his family (wife and their three children). We don't have running water and inside bathroom, just a toilet in the garden. I really want to raise my little boy in better conditions.”
Teodor Sandra, Big Bild beneficiary.

If you want to know more about this event or take part in the Big Build, please read more information here.