A home
for Simona
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Simona is raising her 4 children all by herself.
Maybe Simona’s life is no different from the life of most women in Romania: appalling poverty, wasted youth on an abusive concubine, endless insane working hours with low income / money.
Maybe. But right now Simona is at a breaking point.
“I’m telling you honestly, that I would send my children to school, but, very often, I don’t even have food for them, let alone clothes and school supplies.”
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From the moment she met her children’s father, her life became a torment. Because the children’s father was an alcoholic and abusive individual, Simona and her children couldn't really find their peace, until she decided to leave him. But her peace came with a price: she had to take full responsibility for raising her four children, who were never acknowledged by their father – meaning no alimony or any kind of help from his side.
She had no education or professional qualification. The years that followed were rough, a continuous fight with unsolvable problems, working where she could, how she could, just fighting for her children.
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Simona’s house is a ruin: it has a hallway and two rooms, one of which is half collapsed.
They have just one bed that all 5 of them share together, no heating, no electricity or water.
Besides the minimal income of 400 lei (approximately 90 Euro), guaranteed by the fact that she is a welfare beneficiary, for which she works community service activities (60 hours per month), Simona is forced to take daily or seasonal jobs to provide a subsistence level of living for herself and her children. Even so, with all her efforts, there are days when she cannot even put bread on the table for her children. Let alone to save money to repair at least some parts of the house. It will be, again, a winter with no windows, a winter through which they will get warm in any way they can manage.
Simona’s case impressed a lot of people living in the Obor – Alesd community, being themselves in a difficult situation, most of them being of Roma ethnicity.
Last year though, with the help of ROMACT program, the citizens from that area organized themselves in a community action group, and the idea of organizing a fundraising campaign to help Simona became a priority very quickly. The members of this group offered themselves to work voluntarily on the construction site, once the necessary resources are gathered.
“A home for Simona” is the title of the campaign that has been initiated to raise funds, which can be directed to the bank account opened at the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR), RON: RO03RNCB00331514040500001 and EUR: RO73RNCB00331514040500002 in the beneficiary’s name: CSONKA SIMONA. You can also donate construction materials or household objects, clothes or food. For more information, the contact person is Laura Țârțiu, ROMACT consultant for Alesd, phone number: 0724721547.
TRANSPARENCY
All the funds and the objects/goods that will be collected through the “A home for Simona” campaign will be used solely by Simona Csonka, the direct beneficiary of this campaign, with the purpose of repairing and equipping her home. Follow us on Facebook, we will post live the progress of the fundraising and the work on Simona’s house. For any other information, contact us on email: robert.matei@romacenter.ro.
This campaign is sustained and supported by the City Hall of Alesd Municipality.
