Two new Ashoka Fellows in Romania: Vera Marin and Monica Boța-Moisin join the global network of social entrepreneurs

Architect Vera Marin, initiator of the educational project De-a Arhitectura, and lawyer Monica Boța-Moisin, specialized in intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions, are the new winners from Romania of the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship. They join the other eight Ashoka Fellows from Romania and the community of over 3,800 social entrepreneurs from more than 94 countries, supported by Ashoka for life.

The two social innovators will receive a personalized scholarship for three years, allowing them to fully dedicate themselves to developing their solutions. Additionally, the Ashoka Fellowship will include them in the most important international support network for growing and scaling social impact. Thus, they will be able to collaborate with other innovators in the network and will have access to development opportunities specifically addressed to the Ashoka Fellows community, including financing tools, knowledge, inspiration, partners, and pro bono consultants.

Vera Marin and Monica Moisin were declared winners after a laborious selection process, which had as the main criterion the way their work has brought significant transformations in the power of communities to create a humanity-centered, more inclusive, and emancipated society. The selection was made based on five criteria: idea, entrepreneurial approach, social impact, creativity, and integrity, and involved numerous local and global teams and panels, experts, partners, and volunteers.

“We are proud of Vera and Monica, two social innovators who have managed to inspire, mobilize, and transform entire communities, and we are eager to see the impact they will have in the coming years with the consistent support that an Ashoka Fellow benefits from. It is an achievement that we have reached 10 Ashoka Fellows from Romania in only 7 years of presence in the country, and we are glad to see that our ambitious goals have turned into reality. The selection process (venture) that each Ashoka Fellow goes through is challenging and lengthy, but it ensures a result that is so valuable for society, and now we can proudly say we have a robust community of Ashoka Fellows, inspiring other changemakers to engage in solutions for a better world,” adds Mihaela Vasiloi, Ashoka Fellows Scouter, Ashoka Romania.

Vera Marin, urban architect and university lecturer, founded and leads the De-a Arhitectura program, formed by a community of dedicated professionals and teachers who teach architecture notions to children, while also explaining the importance of civic participation, empathy, and sustainability. Since its establishment in 2013, the program has positively influenced over 30,000 students in Romania, collaborating with over 1150 teachers and 1000 volunteer architects. The innovative partnership model between teachers and architects changes the traditional teaching paradigm, encouraging built environment professionals to invest their valuable experience and knowledge in community education.

“I am very happy with this recognition that confirms not only the impact but also the importance of the mechanisms through which schools can have programs better aligned with such important recent trends, like the orientation towards Sustainable Development Education (SDE) or the role of art and culture in education (for which UNESCO established a global framework in February this year). Built environment education, a priority in all activities we carry out at De-a Arhitectura, organically combines them and ensures an integrated approach that, although present in Romanian education legislation, is difficult to implement,” said Vera Marin, Ashoka Fellow.

Monica Boța-Moisin is a leader in protecting traditional cultural knowledge and expressions through a new approach called cultural intellectual property (CIP). In a world where traditions and crafts are often neglected and exploited, Monica developed and implemented an innovative methodology under the umbrella of the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® (CIPRI), conceived on the rule of the 3Cs: Consent, Credit, Compensation. This allows communities to protect and leverage their cultural heritage fairly, establishing sustainable and ethical collaborations with creative industries. Having a remarkable impact in the global context of sustainability discussions, her initiative ensures that craftsmen and custodians of traditional knowledge are duly recognized and compensated, thus influencing the future of cultural intellectual property through respect and equity.

“I want us to recognize the immense power represented by our local communities and the value of our cultural heritage, practices passed down from generation to generation, specific local rituals, and expressions of the human-nature communion. For this, we need to heal and rebuild our communities around the idea of reciprocity, interdependence, care, and (re)understanding that we are a family. Because together we are a creator of change, and change is profound and durable when we collaborate to eliminate systemic inequity and have access to the tools needed to self-represent,” says Monica Boța-Moisin, Ashoka Fellow.

Since Ashoka’s presence in Romania began in 2017, eight other Romanian social entrepreneurs have joined the ranks of Ashoka Fellows: Paul Radu, Dorica Dan, Florin Stoican, Elena Calistru, Ioana Bauer, Carmen Gheorghe, Iarina Taban, and Eugen Vaida. The impact of their work has been remarkable. On average, an Ashoka Fellow reaches 200,000 people. Impressively, 93% of Ashoka Fellows influence public policies, and in 90% of cases, their ideas are adopted by independent groups.

Founded on the principle that “everyone can be a changemaker,” Ashoka is ranked 2nd among the world’s most impactful NGOs, according to Forbes. Ashoka’s CEO, Bill Drayton, is the global founder of the social entrepreneurship field, credited with popularizing the term social entrepreneur.