Halloween Charity Ball raises over 260.000 Euro for 2200 children

This year edition of Halloween Charity Ball held at Palatul Parlamentului celebrating also 10 years of OvidiuRo foundation raised 267,000 Euro to support a program that will help 2,200 children to access education in kindergarten.

2014-10-28 15:25:45

Leslie Hawke, co-founder of OvidiuRo said before the event that that "it is time to celebrate how far the country has come in its awareness and concern about the under-education of poor children, and the resulting lost human potential, especially in the rural half of Romania".

The event aims bringing together business, government, ambassadors, media and civil society to improve educational opportunities for the poorest children in Romania.

Halloween Charity Ball is dedicated to people and companies involved in education. The Halloween Charity Ball has established itself as Romania's premiere fundraising event due to a confluence of attributes: glorious mixture of people from different parts of society; the fact that at least 90 per cent of the ticket price goes to the program, not to the event itself; involvement of Hollywood and Romania n top celebrities; the Costume theme that gives participants a chance to dress as creatively as they dare. This year's costume theme was "The Magic of the Movies" when all event guests have been invited to mirror in their outfit a Hollywood movie celebrity.

Asociatia OvidiuRo co-founders, Romanian teacher Maria Gheorghiu and American volunteer Leslie Hawke, observed first hand that if poor children weren't exposed to early learning opportunities, most never caught up to the other children. Their experience in the field beginning in 2001 made it blatantly clear what international research reveals: early education has the highest return on investment of any poverty intervention.

The body of research on brain development shows that impoverished early experience has severe and long-lasting detrimental effects on later intellectual capabilities. Thus, money spent later in the process is largely futile unless the child has first had the benefit of early mental stimulation.

The mission of OvidiuRo is to make quality early education available to every poor child in Romania-so they have a chance to become active members of society. Leslie Hawke and Maria Gheorghiu initiated the first program in 2001 in Bacau-providing work skills to impoverished women and education to their children. In 2004 Hawke and Gheorghiu founded the Asociatia OvidiuRo NGO and expanded their programs to Bucharest.

The program Fiecare Copil in Gradinita was launched by OvidiuRo and the Ministry of Education in September 2010. It led to a spectacular increase in the number of poor children enrolled in AND attending preschool&kindergarten on a daily basis. Asociatia OvidiuRo long-term goal is to make early education standard public policy in Romania-because an educated workforce is vital to the country economic future.

In 2013-2014 school year, OvidiuRo Fiecare Copil in Gradinita program operates in 40 kindergartens in 22 communities in 11 counties. Over 1300 severely disadvantaged children are attending pre-school on a regular basis as a result of the program, which is largely funded by the Romanian corporate sector. The ultimate goal of Fiecare Copil in Gradinita is to transform it into a national government-supported program available to all children between 3 and 5 who live under the poverty line.