I grew up in the countryside and noticed that there was a lot of potential there, but also a lot of help was needed. There are two totally different Romanias – the one from the countryside and the one from the cities. I think that the opportunity for them to become equal is to invest in the rural environment, to give the people there a voice. Otherwise, nobody pays attention to them; the politicians look at them only when they need votes at the elections.
Since I have supported PACT Foundation I’ve met people who totally changed the future. You need to change a generation, because when you break this chain you transform a vicious circle into a virtuous one.
Education is my favourite subject, I am a social entrepreneur in education and I believe that school is the key to success for any individual. Everyone understands the success in their own way, but it’s important to have as few regrets as possible when looking back. Work is the key for everything you wish and this requires a solid education too.
I donated for the first time when I was a student. An NGO had planned to find some second-hand computers which companies would quash and carry them in some countryside schools. Some students from informatics would teach the children different things. There were between 50 and 70 children involved in the project. There were children who wouldn’t have had any other chance, their parents could barely sign. Someone put in front of them a computer which wasn’t used anymore and it changed their lives. Now, some of them have impressive careers and work for well-known IT companies.
In all my college years I was a volunteer for an organization called Junior Achievement. I went and lectured and picked the most ill reputed schools, because there is where you see the biggest results. It’s important to see that you’re doing something that matters in someone’s life, otherwise what would be the meaning of it all?
A lot of people gave me something, especially their time which is priceless and did things that changed my life for the better. I understood that things could evolve only if you took what you were given and you gave forth in turn.
When you make a donation you get something back. All the donors whom I ever met told me that they received ten times more than what they gave.
You learn things about you and people that surround you and this is very important for me. There are lessons you learn just because. All of them are very important and there are no books you can read to teach you these things. You learn by listening to other people’s stories, from what others have experienced and maybe it can help you better understand some experiences.
Knowing people and hearing their introspective moments, which they share with you, you get to have your own introspective moments. And these moments are very precious. You learn that nothing lasts forever and that no matter how difficult a situation may seem, there’s always a solution. When you see people who went through extremely difficult times and stayed still, you think about your situation in another way. It is a lesson on humility.
I think that you need two partners in philanthropy. On the one hand, you need people to understand that the gesture of donating must be a habit. Just like brushing your teeth or reading a book, it is important for you as a human to donate, to get involved. People need to understand that they can’t be complete beings without doing this.
On the other hand, the causes need to get professionalized, to tell their story better. We choose the causes for donating, because an inside voice tells us which one is suited for us. I think that things move from both sides. The power of example is also very important; when you see that people close to you are involved in something, you also want to do it.
I think that if we get involved we change more generations to come, we don’t change a single human’s trajectory. I see the philanthropy as an entrepreneur, I see the involvement as an investment. If you send a child to school, you don’t change only his life, you change the life of families and generations thanks to this inflection point. This is the key to success for any philanthropic project – managing to interfere in that inflection point and change everything that follows.