BACKPACKS FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN Many clubs around Europe have ongoing service projects that were affected by the Coronavirus. Some of these clubs came up with creative ways to keep their projects going despite the restricted possibilities to meet in-person. Excellent examples of this resilience are the Rotaract clubs in Romania and Lithuania that provided backpacks and school material to children in their communities. Even though the projects are similar, each club operates independently and comes up with a different solution. Rotaract Jimbolia (Romania) has several primary school teachers in their club. They usually hand out free lemonade in the city center in the summer while asking people to donate school supplies and backpacks in boxes set up around town. They switched to money donations to their bank account to minimize contact and then sent handmade lemon keychains and a detailed receipt of the purchased supplies to the donors. They found that the receipt created more awareness of the project's impact and planned to continue doing it. This year, they fully equipped ten children and left sufficient extra supplies for all classrooms. Rotaract Turda (Romania) collects and distributes around 150 fully equipped backpacks to 5 local schools at the beginning of each school year. To achieve this, they have built an extensive local support network through press releases, social media posts, and word of mouth, asking for fullyequipped backpacks based on a list they get from teachers. Since many people in their network were hesitant to donate material in-person this year, they set up a site for monetary donations, which covered half of the total.
Vilnius, Lithuania
Rotaract Oradea (Romania) was counting on a local bookstore for their donations so far. This year, they involved the local community instead. Backpacks and school material could be dropped at six different coffee shops and pubs in the city center during a one-week campaign. They shared a map of the locations and a list of supplies through their network and social media. After buying additional material where needed, 51 backpacks were donated to the local association "Smile," which works with impoverished children. Rotaract Sighetu Marmatiei (Romania) organizes a fundraiser every year. This year, they decided to bring together the local photography community for a night of picture sales. They presented the pictures in the outdoor spaces of restaurants while a local band was playing. With the proceeds, 20 backpacks were bought and donated to a local organization in contact with low-income families. This project brought the photography community closer together as a positive side-effect. Rotaract Vilnius International (Lithuania) provides "starting packs" including school uniforms, sportswear, and exercise books to firstgraders from regions in Lithuania they choose based on various statistics. Money is raised through large media campaigns, including national television, radio, newspapers, the Rotary community, and collaborating companies. This year, the focus of most fundraising and media campaigns nationwide was on Coronavirusrelated fundraising. The club decided to limit fundraising efforts to online platforms and direct donations of their existing network, and narrow the packs to equipped backpacks. Since 2016, around 500 Lithuanian children have been prepared for first grade through this project.
Oradea, Romania
By Kristina Mataityte, RAC Vilnius International, Lithuania & Esther Gellings, RAC Barcelona '92, Spain
Turda, Romania
E.R..I.C. MAGAZINE
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