The Poiana Teiului community in the county of Neamț, Romania, recently had reasons to celebrate. The occasion was the completion of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) project, “A Digital School in the Country.” 

Through this project, ADRA Romania contributed to improving the educational conditions for the 372 children enrolled in the Iustin Pârvu Gymnasium School in Poiana Teiului.

ADRA Romania purchased information technology equipment for an innovative approach in the field of education. They sought to expand the use of information and communications technology in teaching-learning-assessment activities. The new equipment for classrooms paves the way for digital learning as an alternative, becoming an interactive and attractive means of study.

The project “A Digital School in the Country” was launched in October 2021, and the official inauguration took place earlier in 2022. The goal of the 7,560-euro project was to improve the conditions of sustainable education by digitizing the educational process to advance school performance among children, coordinators of the initiative said. “All of this was achieved through multiple means: by purchasing IT equipment to provide high-quality education to rural students and by modernizing and equipping the school with IT equipment necessary for the learning process, in accordance with the new conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” they explained.

ADRA Romania, with the support of a single sponsor, has proposed and successfully achieved the improvement of living conditions for local children and residents, the organization leaders reported. The implementation of the ADRA project was coordinated by Willy Cotruță, Bogdan Stănică, and Gabriela Istrate.

“I am extremely happy because this project comes from the field of education,” Georgel Pîrlitu, vice president of ADRA Romania and executive secretary of the Romanian Union Conference, said. “I am happy because the Seventh-day Adventist Church places great emphasis on education. Worldwide, the Adventist Church currently has more than 3,000 educational institutions, where hundreds of thousands of children study, and I am pleased that ADRA is following this line,” Pîrlitu said.

In recent years, ADRA Romania has experienced an unexpected development through dozens of projects implemented for different categories of people, Pîrlitu said. “All of this was done because the team is made up of people with vision, [who are] generous and empathetic.”

ADRA Romania executive director Robert Georgescu agreed.

“We believe that by investing in education, we can change the society in which we live,” Georgescu said. “We believe that by standing side by side with the Territorial Administrative Unit, the Education Unit, the Adventist Church, NGOs, volunteers, sponsors, and various institutions that have understood their role, we can do beautiful things in Romania.”

Ancuța Vasilica, director of the Iustin Pîrvu Gymnasium School in Poiana Teiului, said that when the project was launched, she had high hopes that students in rural areas would also have high-level technological tools. “Being in a continuous process of digitization, we have reached high standards with the help of ADRA,” Vasilica said. “We thank them from the bottom of our hearts for the initiative, involvement, dedication, seriousness, and effort!”

The original version of this story was posted by ADRA Romania.