In Romania, in 2013, there were 709,216 people living with disabilities, according to official governmental statistics. Only few of these people have access to proper education and equal opportunities. One of them named Delia decided to get involved and help others like her. Together with a friend, they launched D'Apetresii Association and started helping people form a community. Their mission is to help people with disabilities get better access to social, cultural, educational, and professional services.
One of their most important projects is to offer university scholarships for students with disabilities in the city of Oradea. The year they launched the program, two students with excellent school results were rewarded with merit scholarships. Ionut will continue his master's in Economic Sciences, and Mircea will study at the Medicine and Pharmacology University in Oradea.
"With these scholarships we give them a reason to perform in a society that does not offer equal opportunities for people with disabilities. Nevertheless, many of them will be tomorrow's citizens, and we need them to be involved in our society very much," says Florin Rojan, the association's program director.
Nowadays, the organization manages to offer help for 32 people with disabilities with only two full-time employees and the help of 20 volunteers.
With the help of TechSoup Romania, the organization gained access to affordable Microsoft technology, which helped them better run their daily activities and save money for their fellowship program.
"The technology has an essential role for us because is very hard to run your activities without it," says Rojan.