Bianca Harea is an active and enthusiastic young girl from Grătiești commune, Chișinău municipality. She has been a volunteer at the community-based Youth Center for more than a year, being inspired to make this choice by her mother, who used to be one of the volunteers that helped found this Center. Volunteering helps Bianca test her capacities through work, as well as feel empathy and generosity — qualities that will help her in life.

”I was not aware that I needed such qualities, but they developed along the way, and Youth Center was the institution that helped me in this regard’” this is how the young girl describes her experience in a post on a social network.

Bianca is 15 years old and is studying in the 9th grade at ‘Mihail Kogălniceanu’ Theoretical High School of Chișinău. Besides studying and volunteering, she also finds time for dancing, painting, or embroidery. In all her activities she is supported by her family, which invests in her development.

‘I also attended a course at the Chișinău Municipal Youth Center, focused on public speaking, leadership and financial education. I want to become more sociable and I am still working on this. I am also studying several foreign languages. I learn German, as well as English and Russian. I have also started studying Latin, and I would like to learn French, as well.’

Bianca has been a registered volunteer at the Grătiești Youth Center, with a volunteer ID card, since September 2021. Since then she managed to participate in the design and development of a civic community-based initiative, carried out by and for young people of the community as part of the YouCreate program. Under this initiative, the ‘Youth Square’ was built in Grătiești, which has become a place where young people gather, network and spend their time.

‘We helped prepare and arrange the land, paint elements of decor and furniture. I am glad that this initiative gave us the opportunity to visit other Youth Centers in the country, to meet other young volunteers and find out about their local initiatives, as well as present ours ", says Bianca.

The YouCreate program has reached its third edition this year and empowers young people in the country, both members and non-members of Youth Centers, to engage in creative activities that generate changes in their communities.

”Volunteering offers many opportunities for our own and the community’s future. Anyone can become a volunteer — this is so simple, but still an essential element for tapping the full potential of today’s young people”, adds Bianca Harea.

Bianca is one of the thousands of young people who have the opportunity to harness their potential and participate actively in the community’s life, through the Network of Youth Centers, developed by the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Moldova together with Swiss Cooperation Office and UNFPA.

In 2021, the participation of rural youth in volunteering grew - 55%, compared to 35% in 2020, with young people aged 15-19 being the most active volunteers in their communities, accounting for more than 74% of the total number of Youth Centers’ volunteers, as showed in the 2021 Statistical Report on the Activity of Youth Centers.

‘2022 will be even more productive. I look forward to embarking on new projects and accepting new challenges. I encourage all young people to come to the Youth Centers in their communities and engage in volunteering activities ", says Bianca enthusiastically.

She would also like to thank the director of Grătiești Youth Center, Maria Boico, who was by her side from the very beginning. She is also grateful to her parents, colleagues and friends from the Youth Center: ‘Everyone encouraged me and listened to my ideas and opinions, I think we made a good team together.’