The Multifunctional Youth Center will be an adequate place for running social programs for children and disabled young people (including physically disabled people). The constructions of the center were started in Micfalău, Covasna county in 2005. At this moment the center is operating with 7 wooden cottages, the ground floor being completely accessible for disabled people.
The multifunctional center has become indispensable because of the following reasons:
• the big number of Maltese projects organized for marginalized children and young people,
• the growing number of the beneficiaries,
• the success of the programs organized for this segment.
As a result of our experiences and the feedback that we got, we have understood that the great impact of these projects is mainly due to the pleasant, healthy surrounding and also new to the beneficiary, different from home or school environment.
The project concentrates on three directions:
• programs for children and young people in need
• education of the youth in a charitable spirit
• SAMR resource center
Programs for children and young people in need – Many children do not have the chance to take part in school camps. Actually, many children rarely have the chance to leave the settlement they live in. Every year SAMR organizes many camps for children coming from large families with low incomes. Unfortunately, poverty is often associated with other problems which are a result of the lack of education: the risk of school abandon, hardships with studying, aggressiveness. We wish to fill this lack of education by the special programs of our camps.
The risk of domestic violence is a special problem that many children are exposed to. We wish to offer these children an education that will help them in such hard situations.
Disabled young people and children in most of the cases are isolated in the apartment they live, for them it is a special opportunity to take part in programs going on in another environment than the home one.
Many times, society neglects and underestimates the potential represented by the young people. There still exists the conception that the education of the young people is entirely the responsibility of the school. Unfortunately, mass education is more concerned with transmitting the information than forming the individual. Transmitting Maltese values is one of the priorities of the Maltese Relief Service. We wish to ensure the continuity of our organization by forming the youth. They are, with their enthusiasm and energy, our most valued power. One of the objectives of the Multifunctional Youth Center in Micfalău is precisely to offer these young people a place where they can participate in educational and recreational activities, which strengthen their feelings of belonging to a group, which offer them orientation points in creating their own identity and turn their energy to constructive activities which serve their and also the benefit of the society.
The Multifunctional Youth Center will be a valuable resource center for the entire organization. This will be the place where trainings for volunteers will be organized in order that their work with the people in need becomes more efficient. For the same reason changes of experience will take place among the branches of the organization, but also with abroad Maltese organizations.
Until the end of the year 2007 the following steps have been taken in the construction of the center:
• Over 200.000 euro worth investments have been made until now (a big part of this sum was raised at the charity concerts ‘The House of the Desires’ in 2005 and 2006)
• Three hectares of land in the property of the Romanian Maltese Relief Service
• Put the final touches to 7 cottages (built-up area 49m2, building area 98m2 – in the picture)
• Pavilion – built exclusively by Maltese volunteers
• Connection to the electricity network
• Trial boring: at a depth of 30m drinking water was found, enough for the needs of the center
Thanks to everybody who made these results possible:
Robert Bosch S.R.L., BSH Electrocasnice S.R.L., Dr. Christian Zeileissen, Ambassador of Austria and Franz Alfred von Hartig, Ambassador of the Knights of the Sovereign Order of Malta.
Future steps
• Furnishing the already existing 7 cottages
• Installation of the central heating, drinking water system and canalization
• Construction of the common multi-purpose building suitable for all the activities and purpose of the camp:
• Canteen with dining hall and kitchen
• Conference hall
• Multimedia room/ library
• Room for kineotherapy and other therapeutical activities
• Psychological and spiritual counseling room
• Training hall for small group activities
• Arrangement and systematization of the land:
• Driveway and car park
• Pavement and walking path for pedestrians/wheelchair
