Become a Volunteer

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One of the most unique things about FAST's work and our role in the community is the helping hand we receive from local and international volunteers. Our Ziurel Centre contains 20 beds in five comfortable hostel-style rooms, where visitors from abroad can stay while volunteering their time to work on one of our three projects.

Our visitors, whether staying at Ziurel or elsewhere, have the opportunity to volunteer in a variety of ways while at FAST: they can work in construction, building homes and workshops as part of our Better Homes Project; they can work with local first graders on educational activities and games in our Education Project at Centrul Ziurel, and the more musically inclined can even participate in our Music Project, teaching and doing musical activities with local Rroma and Romanian children.

Volunteering at FAST is rewarding for many reasons. First, it is a unique opportunity to support the vital work of educating disadvantaged and impoverished communities, families, and children. For foreigners, it's also a one-of-a-kind vacation experience - spend a week or two at FAST, and not only will you have a chance to make a hands-on difference in someone's life, but you'll also get a personal look at an environment that is largely unseen and forgotten by outsiders, and a chance to experience all that Transylvania and Romania have to offer. Visitors to FAST spend time both in the Rroma communities that we help, and at the popular tourist destinations around central Romania: the city of Brasov, the famous Bran castle, and many breathtaking skiing or hiking areas are all within an hour's drive of our centre in Sacele.

For Brasov locals, volunteering at FAST is a way to see the other side of our community, to take a personal interest in equality and in improving the lives of all Romanians regardless of ethnicity, and even to gain experience that could help later in life or career. We firmly believe that, as Romanians, we cannot stand by while so many live unseen and in poverty along the edges of our society - by volunteering at FAST, you can do your part to improve our country and to address issues of inequality in our communities.

To calculate the cost of volunteering at FAST and to see some photos of our accommodation, taken by our Romanian volunteer photographer Catalin Bujdei, please see the seperate article below 'Calculating the Cost of your Trip

If you are interested in volunteering at FAST, whether you live in Brasov County or abroad, please e-mail our Volunteer Coordinator at volunteer@fastcharity.ro.

Thank you for your interest in our work, and we hope to see you at our base in Sacele, the Ziurel Centre!

Meet Our Amazing Romanian Volunteers! Written by Liz Greenhalgh Last November we did a volunteer recruitment campaign in the Brasov area asking for local people to come and volunteer at FAST on a regular basis. The ...  (more)

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Written by Liz Greenhalgh For the past 8 weeks we have had David Hedges a Photography student from Plymouth University, who is hoping, through his work, to demonstrate what Roma culture is ...  (more)

Calculating the Cost of Your Trip Accommodation and meals We have our own volunteer accommodation with room for 20 people. It is warm and comfortable and at 60lei (approx 14GBP), including breakfast and lunch, it...  (more)

Hard Work and Birthday Surprises! Written by Lauren Hill When I came to FAST I was 14 - but by the time I went home I was 15! I had a wonderful birthday, but I will tell you more about that later. With my grandm...  (more)

Trinity School work week May 29th – June 6th 2009 by Beryl Cowen For another week Trinity Christian school Stalybridge England visited the centre and worked on 2 projects. They laid a cable under the school grounds for lig...  (more)