Romania looks different depending on where you look at the map. In major cities, the pace of economic growth has kept up with the European average, but in many communes in South-Muntenia, North-East, South-East, or South-West Oltenia, the pace is much slower, sometimes almost stagnant. According to EU reports, these regions are among the poorest in the European Union, with a chronic deficit of administrative resources and communes that barely cover their operating costs from one month to the next.
Beyond official figures, which often mask the lack of jobs through migration or unpaid household work, the reality on the ground shows deep fragmentation. In many communes, economic options are almost entirely missing, and vulnerable communities feel this isolation the hardest.
What does this concretely mean for someone growing up in such a village? Most of the time, it is a choice that repeats with every generation: either you leave, toward the city or abroad, or you stay, with not many options around you. A decision that many young people end up asking themselves right from school benches.
The Amfiteatru Foundation has been working for years precisely in this gray area, where the gap between regions is felt most directly in people’s daily lives. The organization’s presence has evolved from year to year, following roughly the same stages that a young person’s life goes through: first school, then the first job, then the need to remain relevant on the labor market.
This logic is visible in the four directions that the Foundation currently runs. In the Center and South-Muntenia regions, five projects are underway targeting the labor market integration of NEETs youth (those participating in neither school nor work), through qualification programs in the Horeca and Retail sectors. Beyond professional integration, an equally important part of the intervention begins much earlier, right in school: another five projects work on preventing school dropout in well-defined Roma communities from the Center, South-Muntenia, and South-West Oltenia regions through non-formal educational activities, mentoring, and material support.
However, the intervention does not stop only at youth. The third axis targets the continuous training of already employed adults through the “Keep Up” program: four projects, each with 601 employees as a target group, through which people from public and private enterprises update their skills in fields such as commerce, human resources, strategic management, or digital skills. In addition to these already consolidated axes, the Foundation is constantly expanding its activity: the most recent direction takes the organization into a completely new area, vocational and technical education, through a package of three projects implemented in the North-East and South-East of the country.
Both in locations where the Foundation has been welcomed with trust over the years and in communities where it is just beginning its activity, the pillar of this intervention is the conviction that sustainable development is always built directly in the village, alongside the people. Whether we are talking about the labor market, education, or continuous training, people in a community must gain real access to skills, qualifications, and integration support. When this happens, the positive effect is felt throughout the community, not just at the level of the person directly participating in a course.
Source: FINA, Ștefan, HEIDER, Bastian, RAȚ, Cristina, România inegală. Disparitățile socio-economice regionale din România, FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies, pp. 2-6.
MITRICĂ, Bianca, et. al., „Social Development and Regional Disparities in the Rural Areas of Romania: Focus on the Social Disadvantaged Areas”, Social Indicators Research 152, nr.1, 2020, pp. 67-89.