History

2001: While working for the Fundatia de Sprijin Comunitar in Bacau, Romania, Peace Corps Volunteer Leslie Hawke together with Soros trained progressive teacher Maria Gheorghiu obtain a USAID grant to start (1) a program for fifteen impoverished mothers based on The Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able welfare-to-work program in New York City and (2) an education program for children who beg on the street. These complimentary programs are called Gata, Dispus si Capabil.

2002: We discover that for every child on the street begging, there are two or three other siblings languishing at home. Education program grows and expands to two additional schools.

2003: Cartiere mai bune – neighborhood improvement projects are implemented in Bacau and Buhusi.

2004: Hawke and Gheorghiu found Asociatia Ovidiu Rom and begin Mothers Program in Bucharest.

2005: Ovidiu Rom introduces the education program to Bucharest at School 141. Ovidiu Rom is accredited by the Ministry of Education to implement its Second Chance school reintegration curriculum.  USAID awards Ovidiu Rom  Citizen Citation for innovative programs.

2006: Ovidiu Rom launches Fiecare Copil in Scoala (“Every Child in School”), a multi-partner initiative to get every child in Romania registered and attending school and on a path to high school graduation by 2020.  Ovidiu Rom begins training municipal teams comprised of representatives of the Local Council and the School Inspectorate to implement its methodology for getting and keeping children in school, which has been honed over five years.

2007: Sixty schools from eight counties implement Ovidiu Rom’s summer School preparation programs.  1700 at-risk children participate in an intensive curriculum to ready them for successful integration in the local public school.

2008: Ovidiu Rom’s Education White Paper entitled Learning from America’s Mistakes: A Proposal for Closing the Education Gap recommends the national implementation of a dozen measures (with estimated cost breakdowns) to ensure that current education legislation is enforced and that proven strategies are expanded country-wide. 4400 children benefit from the summer programs.

2009: Multi-media public awareness campaign Scoala te face mare is launched to encourage early school enrollment and reporting of related problems via the child hotline run by Telefonul Copilului. Project partners: Ministry of Education, National Agency for Child Protection, Saatchi & Saatchi, Carrefour and Pepsi.  Ovidiu Rom initiates the  Adopt-a-School program to bring together Corporate Social Responsibility programs and local community needs.

2010: Ovidiu Rom implements five Adopt-a-School programs and six Summer School Sponsor programs, continuing to help local communities obtain both the skills and the funding necessary to get every child in their jurisdiction attending school, beginning with kindergarten.  Phase II of Scoala te face mare was launched in May, following the five years strategy of the campaign.

2011-2019 Ovidiu Rom will continue to work to get every child in school so that by our goal of 2020, universal education is a reality in Romania.

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