Students from Carpineni village encourage villagers to donate for better roads

“I am coming each day to school from Topor sector of the village. The roads are very bad here and it is difficult to get to school every morning. I was glad to take part in a drawing contest that gave me the opportunity to share my ideas regarding road maintenance, as well as to urge villagers to donate for a tractor that could be used to maintain roads during all seasons”, noted Magdalena Stratu, a 7th grade student of the “Stefan Holban” high school.

These events were organized by local schools in partnership with “Carpen Terra” Villagers’ Association and Carpineni mayoralty to inform t villagers who had left about the importance of their involvement in the development of the community. Thus, donations for the purchase of the road-grader needed to maintain the village roads were encouraged.

“Our children are small engineers who have great ideas. The concepts presented in their drawings show that we have a lot to learn from them. Through this initiative, we hope to urge the inhabitants to contribute to local development. Also, we want to thank those who have already donated more than EUR 2,000 via the online platform for the purchase of a road-grader for snow clearing, profiling and road maintenance that is much needed in Carpineni. Apart from these funds, the Swiss Government offered us a USD 20,000 grant and the village hall contributed USD 3,500. This is the first experience of villagers’ involvement in local development. It proves that together we are a force and that we can make life better for the community”, said Ion Carpineanu, Mayor of Carpineni.

A jury comprised of representatives of schools, Carpineni village hall and Villagers’ Association selected the best drawings and awarded the contest winners in a ceremony held at the high school. The event was followed by a training session for children about traffic safety, presented by the National Patrol Inspectorate representatives.

The president of the “Carpen Terra” Villagers’ Association thanked the children who took part in the drawing contest and the flash mob. “As a former migrant, I remember well those times when I was working abroad I wanted to be informed about the village life, I wanted to take part in different events. For this particular reason, we will share photos, video recordings from this beautiful event on various social media channels, for them to keep track of village life”, said Sergiu Mandis, the president of „Carpen Terra”.

The drawings were displayed on the biggest village wall in order to inform and to raise awareness about the first experience of involving all Carpineni natives from all over the world in a project that benefits their native village.

People who left the country may find more information about the projects for which they can donate on the first fundraising online platform recently launched in Moldova.

Carpineni village is one of 23 localities from Moldova that have villagers’ associations working alongside active inhabitants to inform and convince approx. 40 thousand natives who had left those villages to contribute to the development of their native localities by financing local projects, prioritized transparently and voted for by the diaspora as well.

The “Migration and Local Development” project is carried out by the UNDP Moldova, in partnership with the State Chancellery, with financial assistance from the Swiss Government.