Presentation of the Asociaţia Umanitară "NOROC" (Romania) at the third SenVol meeting in Klaipeda (Lithuania). July 2012.

1. Senior Volunteering in Europe
a Grundtvig Learning
Partnership
3rd Meeting 4 – 7 July 2012
Klaipeda, Lithuania

2. Asociaţia Umanitară
"NOROC" Tulcea
Str. M. Kogălniceanu, Bl. 26, F.14, 820002 Tulcea, Romania
“Ajutorul
adevarat vine din Tel: +40-723-544364
inima” www.noroc.org.ro E-mail: noroctulcea@gmail.com
“Great service
comes from the
heart” “NOROC”
Humanitarian Association Tulcea,
Romania
www.noroc.org.ro
E-mail: noroctulcea@gmail.com

4. Bran Castle Bucharest: The Atheneum
The Village Museum
Brasov

5. Sighetul Marmatiei
Histria

7. In Romania, a region distinguishes itself through its
uniqueness: the Danube Delta

8. And Tulcea city is the “gateway” to the Delta
.

11. Tulcea is very tolerant, a place
where people belonging to 14 ethnic
groups live peacefully. In our district,
two blocks from where we live, there
is a Jewish synagogue, farther down
the same street is a Muslim Mosque,
within the same block there are
several Orthodox churches, a Baptist
church and a Seventh Day Adventist.

13. One of the NGOs which activate in the city
of Tulcea, working exclusively with senior
volunteers, is our Humanitarian
Association “NOROC”, which means
“God bless” or “good luck” in Romanian.
It is also the acronym of “New
Opportunities for Romanian Orphaned
Children”
“Noroc” was organized and started its
activities in 1997.

14. Our motto is “Great
service comes
from a Big Heart!”. That is why all our
programs have the word heart or hearted in
them.

15. Through its senior volunteers, NOROC”
Humanitarian Association activates in the
orphanages from Tulcea city and county: 14
grannies for the pre-school kids (“Big-hearted
Grannies”), 9 primary school teachers and 8
teachers (“Big-hearted Teachers”), 2 psychologists,
2 social workers and 4 counsellors (“Big-hearted
Friends”).

16. The aim of our first program (1997) was to bring
retired persons to work with little children. The
program is called “Big Hearted Grannies”.
Instead of lying in cribs all day long, children 0 to
6 years of age now receive attention and love.
The grannies have made remarkable progress
with the babies. We have grannies at three small
group homes, and in the county hospital, the
section for abandoned babies.

18. “Big Hearted
Teachers” Program
works with all the
children in the children’s
homes to help them
stay up in school. We
provide tutoring for all
elementary graders and
all 7th and 8th graders.
We have specialized
teachers helping
students who will take
the baccalaureate
exams to complete high
school. In addition to
tutoring, we provide
financial assistance for
textbooks, eyeglasses,
medicines and basic
school supplies.

19. We also have an apartment for girls -
transitional housing - when they need a job,
lose a job, are kicked out by landlords. This
apartment also provides us space for girls to
learn independent living skills, such as
sewing, cooking, and traditional Romanian
crafts. We have a small house called “Casa
Noastra” (= Our Home) for transitional
housing for boys and a club house for
worship services and small group meetings.
In the back there is a garden and a place for
a barbeque pit.

21. “Big hearted friends” program helps the older
children adjust into society. We organize monthly
birthday parties, sports activities under the direction of
a physical education teacher, and outings into the town,
for recreation. On holidays, we take the children on
longer excursions to nearby places of interest. We also
organize small groups that meet twice a month, for
support, service projects, fellowship and Bible study.

24. Horse therapy and painting of icons on glass among the latest
activities our senior volunteers have developed with these kids.

25. We also started working with the children who are sent out of
the orphanages into the community, trying to re-integrate
them into their birth families, and sometimes they are sent
back into abusive homes.
The program is called
“School Waits for
You”. We bus nine
children from a local
village into Tulcea city
to go to school,
because after they
had been sent back to
this community, they
abandoned school.

26. This year we have 8 students in university
because of our efforts. We are not paying tuition
for all these students. Many of them have a free
spot in the university, but our efforts got them
out of the system and into the mainstream.

27. At Christmas, “NOROC” is
among the few organizations
that gives children gifts with
their individual names on
them.

28. This year, for the Christmas holidays our senior
volunteers prepared 323 bags and 298 boxes as
gifts for the children in the orphanages or those
belonging to poor families in the villages, as
well as for assisted old people.

29. Our volunteers began
preparing the Christmas
gifts in November . They
packed them in bags and
boxes, specifying the
name and the age of the
child.

31. The Home for Elderly
People from Tulcea. Our
senior volunteers
presented a show of
poems and carols,
together with the kids
and teenagers from the
state protection system.

32. Helping young people recover from poor choices is a daily
heart rendering task for “NOROC”. To help us in this recovery
effort, in 2008 we opened a counselling center and two certified
psychologists offered to help in steering these young adults
onto a better path. Our excellent social workers also help them
with finding jobs and places to live.
One reason we enjoy to work so much for “NOROC” is
seeing these young people choose a different destiny for
themselves.