Other work

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Donations and Material Assistance to Local Families

FAST always welcomes material donations from our friends and supporters, which we distribute to local needy families. In the last year, such materials included school equipment, clothing, and even computers and bicycles for local schools and families. For more information about sending such donations, please see our Donate to FAST page.

Ziurel Shop

In November 2008, we opened a small shop on the ground floor of our Ziurel Centre, selling toys, gifts, and clothing at low prices to anyone who visits our centre. The shop has already begun to bring in money, and we hope to expand it in 2009.

Community Events at Ziurel

We are always looking for ways to open our centre up to the community; for example, in 2008, a local teacher began holding dance classes for children in the evenings at Ziurel - at the moment up to 70 children attend - and this winter we turned a watery area outside the centre into an ice rink, where children and their families can come, rent skates, buy hot chocolate or tea, and skate to music. These activities have become very popular with local families.

Friends Abroad pen pal project

Started in 2007, the goal of the Friends Abroad project was to connect Rroma teens in the Brasov area with Rroma teens in the UK by facilitating communication and exchange of photos and videos over the internet. The project, which ran until March 2008, was supported by the British Council and implemented with the help of UK photographer Barbara Santi; it was able to provide video, photo, and IT equipment and funded the installation of broadband internet in a youth center in a church in Zizin - the only internet access in the village which is also used by children to research and complete their schoolwork.

Impreuna Network for the Arts

FAST, with the collaboration of an organization in Bacau, Romania, helped to run the Impreuna Network for the Arts, a network of charities working in the field of art therapy for the disabled. In addition to designing strategies and activities for the network in 2008, FAST also created the network's website, allowing for easier communication between stakeholders.

Community Aid Network

FAST has been working since 2007 with various partners to institute a communal network for charities in the Brasov area. This network could disseminate grant opportunities, organize trainings and volunteer recruitments, and allow charities working in the same field to more easily work together. In 2008, progress towards making CAN a reality was made through establishing a UK sister organization called CAN Britain, as well as with the founding of a fundraising arm in the UK and with the formal registration of CAN as a local charity.

FAST raises awareness and money at Brasov Days NGO Fair This weekend, FAST staff and volunteers participated in the NGO Fair of the eighth annual "Brasov Days" festival, a celebration designed as a sort of birthday for the city of Brasov. Along with the tr...  (more)