Builds the self-image of young village girls

Friends Bianca and Loreana are building a network that will make young girls more aware of how valuable they are. The nineteen-year-olds themselves know how tough it is to grow up in a poor village in Romania.

TEXT AND PHOTO: MAGNE REIGSTAD

Drop out. Romanian girls can get married - or get married off when they are 16 years old, and in some environments when the girls are even younger. Once the marriage is established, it usually means the end of schooling for the girls. Then there are completely different duties that await them in line with family traditions and demands from their new environment in the village. As many as 50 percent of girls who marry early drop out of school, recent figures show.

Heavy pressure. Bianca Baloi knows a lot about the sometimes intense pressure young girls are subjected to from the village boys, and sweet music can arise. - We use role play in the courses and explain to the girls that they can be both friendly and determined, and at the same time be liked and respected in the village, Bianca says.

Well worded. She herself has embarked on preparatory language studies. - The goal is to become a translator, Bianca says in well-formulated English. After finishing school, her friend Loreana Tuca got a job at a pizza bakery in Craiova. Loreana has become a financially independent young woman who thrives at work. In this way, the nineteen-year-olds become role models for both younger and peer sisters.

Simple conditions. The staff of the Adina Foundation in Craiova took their friends on a basic course in Bucharest. Bianca and Loreana have been part of our program since they went to SFO in Goiesti, and both come from hard-working families who live in simple conditions. Their parents believe that schooling is crucial to getting out of poverty.

Refuses. So far, 21 girls have participated in the Adina courses, but it is not always easy to get girls to join the courses. Sometimes it is due to the family's situation, other reasons are that the young girls feel so poor that they do not want to show their poverty to strangers.

Runs off. Loreana and Bianca are also in contact with the course participants' families to explain to them why it is so important that girls do not get married until they finish school.

- If the marriage ends, or the husband runs away, then the girl and her family are left with children and no school papers, little social assistance and zero job opportunities. In such a situation, it is easy for a girl to fall victim to stupid solutions. If, on the other hand, you have completed schooling, it is entirely possible to get a job, says Bianca, who in her spare time works as a volunteer for the Adina Foundation, just like her mother.