Vodafone Foundation celebrates 16 years in Romania with award gala

The Vodafone Foundation awarded 13 prizes during its gala 16 Years of Good Deeds which gathered NGOs, donors and volunteers of the foundation, business clients of Vodafone Romania, members of the Vodafone board as well as well-known public figures such as film critic Irina Margareta Nistor and His Excellency Paul Brummel, honorific president of the Vodafone Foundation.

The Vodafone Foundation celebrates 16 years of existence, which saw the light of day in 1998, being the first corporate foundation in Romania.

“Sixteen years mean for us more than 600,000 beneficiaries, more than 768 financed projects and over EUR 17 million invested. (…) With our programs, we try to come to the aid of as many beneficiaries as possible not only in large cities but also rural areas from isolated communities,” said Florina Tanase, director Legal & External Affairs, Vodafone Romania and member of the administration board of the Vodafone Foundation.

During the Gala, the Vodafone Foundation awarded five different prizes to 13 organizations or people who teamed up with the foundation on important projects.

The Prize for Pioneering, Courage and Perseverance went to Maria Culescu, president of M.A.M.E. Association and Voluntar de Profesie in 2013, who will inaugurate this year the Association’s own center that will provide support for children diagnosed with severe illnesses.

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The other prize in this category went to Dr. Violeta Necula, otorhinolaryngologist at Cluj Emergency Hospital, who developed the Ottoscreen project in four maternity hospitals, which allows to test the hearing of newborn babies.

The prize for Originality and Impact into the Community went to the Motivation Foundation, who teamed up with Vodafone for the program The Mobility Caravan which came to the aid of 150 people with locomotion disabilities.

The prize for Excellence in Collaboration between institutions and NGOs went to Dr. Catalin Cirstoveanu, head of the intensive care unit for newborns at the Marie Curie Hospital in Bucharest, who implemented a unique tele-medicine solution which helps doctors monitor the patients’ vital signs from a distance.

The same prize went to Alex Popa, president of the Inima Copiilor Association, who managed the construction of the new intensive care unit at the Marie Curie hospital in Bucharest, currently being the most modern such unit in South-Eastern Europe.

The prize for Volunteering went this year to seven organizations: React Association, Hospice Casa Sperantei Foundation, Special Olympics Foundation, Little People Association, Ateliere fara Frontiere Asociation, Diaconia Ajutor International Association, Hercules Association.

The prize Mobile for Good was awarded to the Caritas Association in Alba Iulia- Medical and Social Assistance, who benefited 520 old people who need home care.
Otilia Haraga