Partnership for community development between Saschiz City Hall, the Adept Foundation and PAPI

29.07.2010

„One of these successful initiatives, that has become permanent, is editing a monthly local paper called Vatra Saschizană. Since 2007, the personnel at Electronic Network of the Local Community (RECL) is handling the writing and publishing of the paper, as well as its online page on the City Hall’s website. The Adept Foundation is funding the printing of the newspaper on recycled paper”, Florina Călugăr, RECL manager, says.

Informative sessions organised by PAPI on topics such as structural funds or traditional products had the support of various partners. “We had a lot of help with promoting the local values of the community. The foundation covered the costs to print promotional materials such as flyers or brochures and distribute them at national and international events. As RECL manager, I submitted projects so that the foundation might get funds for cultural events, in those programs were the City Hall was not eligible. The funds received were used to support the local administration in organising the feast of the village”, Călugăr explains.

The next step was creating a tourist info centre. “At the time, we did not have the resources to support such a centre, but there were thousands of visitors each year in Saschiz. The City Hall offered a space and the Adept foundation set it up, buying the necessary equipment and paying the employees during the summer months. The City Hall now has a project to create a info point up to European standards, which will be submitted through the National Rural Development plan this month”, the Saschiz RECL manager says.

Trainings for householders

Adept Transilvania used the PAPI centre to organise food hygiene trainings for householders in the area. Later on, the partnership for utilising local resources focused on creating an authorised centre for processing fruit and vegetables. Products in high demand both on domestic and foreign markets, such as pickles, syrup, jams or appetizers are being produced there. The City Hall helped with the necessary papers and appealed to potential producers to come to the centre and make use of its resources, thus ensuring an extra source of revenue for themselves.

A beneficial partnership

“This partnership has been and still is of great help to all those involves. We’ve done studies about the environment and biodiversity with Romanian universities and English specialists, that were freely published afterwards; we got sponsorships like two computers for the public library or a laptop for the Tax Bureau. Other common projects were marking the path that climbs to the fortress and installing benches, cleaning up the river with the help of volunteers and environmental activities with pupils. Last but not least, the visits of Prince Charles of Great Britain in our commune and the publicity Saschiz received are also partly due to the community projects of the Adept Foundation”, the foundation’s manager Cristi Gherghiceanu says.

Last year, the RECL manager in Saschiz wrote the “Local Development Strategy of the Local Initiative Group <>”, which was granted funds through the National Rural Development Plan. Experts of the Adept foundation are now part of the group.

“The Saschiz City Hall and the Adept foundation are two of the partners submitted by WWF in the Sectorial Operation Programme – Environment, to create a management plan for the Natura 2000 site Sighişoara – Târnava mare. We wish to submit this year a project to revitalise traditional crafts. Tourism, agriculture and biodiversity, historical monuments – these are the keywords encompassing the community’s resources and the potential for growth and development of the area”, Saschiz Mayor Ovidiu Şoaită says.

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