Empowering a Rural Community in Romania
The Association for Social Infrastructure and Reconstruction (ARRIS) is a small nonprofit organization in a rural area in Iasi County, one of the poorest Romanian and EU regions. They are a group of volunteers who work in the benefit of their community in Ciurea village.
They offer donations for children who are studying in schools in rural areas. In one of their charity actions, they donated bicycles, laptops, or sport equipment to underprivileged children. ARRIS also helps farmers from their village to gain knowledge and access different developmental governmental funds.
Because they offer donations and support for vulnerable groups, being able to access affordable technology with the help of TechSoup Romania made a difference within the organization.
"First of all, our management team and our volunteers understood the value and the quality of a licensed software" says Iulian Basu, the president of the organization. Moreover, he says that nowadays an organization couldn't function without having access to software. "For some of us is was the first time when we have installed a licensed software and for the first time we had no problem using them."
If were not for TechSoup donation program, the organization could not afford to access the licensed software products. "This help allowed us to use quality software products, work with less interruptions and focus more energy and funds on projects we aim to achieve," concludes Basu.
