Spring smiles
The idea of the project came easily, as we thought that it would be nice to celebrate the beautiful day of March 8th and to bring a smile on the face of the ladies who are working in cold and in hard conditions.
We prepared for the project for almost a week, time during which some of us made beautiful handmade greeting cards, others made flowers. The number of the greeting cards went up to 54, and those of the flowers to 50. Everybody did their best, which brought a wonderful outcome. The beneficiaries of our project were especially those ladies working in hard conditions, in open air, but also elderly ladies with low income.
The reactions were different from person to person. Most of the ladies were glad as they thought it weird and uncommon to receive such kind words and gifts or flowers from teenagers on the street. Some of the ladies gave us hugs and kisses, but others were less enthusiastic and only thanked us.
11 volunteers participated in the project and the tasks were shared at free will, so 4 of us took care of the flowers, the others tried their creativity in order to make many models of greeting cards.
For me the hardest part of the project was directly addressing the beneficiaries as one could never tell how will they react, if they will be happy for the objects we made or if we will be able to get our message through. For example, a curious moment was when I wanted to give a flower to a poor old lady, who did not want to accept my gift telling me she was too old for this. I had to remind her that she was a beautiful lady, and I prepared the gift for her, she smiled at me, giving thanks for everything.
Finally, due to the preparing and the hearty work, the action went swell, and I do not have words to describe how well I felt about it, when smiles and appreciation came from all directions. As a conclusion, I think that our action had a positive effect on the beneficiaries as we managed to remind them that all ladies must be respected regardless of their workplace or of their age, and a small gesture of good will is always welcome.
Diana Beța, volunteer at Petroșani
(translated by Botond Teklesz)