Retrospectiva anului 2021

Despite a difficult, challenging 2021, in which we had to adapt quickly to many changes coming our way, we ended ROMPRO's sixth year with very good results. A year in which we evolved together. Below you can see some of our activities.

The financial reports for each year can be found on the about us.

Interconnections Online School

2021 was a full year at Interconnections Online School. We organised 29 Dutch language courses, 14 Romanian language courses, 1 English language course and had around 250 participants in our lessons.

The Dutch language courses were again very popular and many students took several modules in a row with us. Our student S.M. sent us this message: "I wanted to express my gratitude for all your and the Rompro Foundation's efforts. With your help, I was able to pass all the Inburgering exams on the first try. Slowly, in order to practice the language, I started to speak Dutch also with colleagues at work (conversational level). I received congratulations for how well I am doing for a beginner.r". We are always happy when we get good news from our students and know that our work is appreciated and useful.

In Romanian we continued the courses at different levels, from beginners from 0 to module 12. We have loyal students who have taken many lessons with us and can write and speak fluent Romanian. We are very happy that they can now communicate more easily with their families and friends in Romania. Our student C. van R. (from module 12) wrote to us: "Thank you very much for the course. I enjoyed it (again) very much." She is a Dutch teacher at the University of Bucharest and can converse easily in Romanian with her students and colleagues.

Without our wonderful students, our small but enthusiastic team at Interconnections Online School and colleagues at the RomPro Foundation, all these achievements would not be possible. A heartfelt thank you to all of you and we'll see you in 2022 in the classroom!

Romanian School Amsterdam

Online, in the park or face-to-face, the Romanian School Amsterdam ran non-stop workshops from 9 January to 18 December 2021. Despite the lockdown in the first three months of the year, we kept around us the beautiful community that had formed in previous years.

In the early months of the year, marked by lockdowns and restrictions, we gathered on Zoom and talked about winter and snowmen, cooked and experimented, grew potted plants and learned all about cartoons, theater and film. We even celebrated the 1st and 8th of March together, also online.

The arrival of spring still caught us on Zoom, but on 27 March we went back to school where we spent Easter together and ran around the park on the child's birthday. Also in the park we marked the end of the school year with picnics, presents and games, adults and children together.

After a well-deserved summer break, we were excited and happy to meet again in a new, modern and spacious office on 11 September. There we welcomed autumn, danced the Romanian Day hora, we penciled in Santa Claus, and on 18 December we welcomed Santa Claus, who came, just in time, just before a new lockdown, and the Amsterdam Romanian School resounded with carols and was filled with the smiles of children happy with the gifts they received.

At the same time, in November 2021, we marked 5 years of existence of the Romanian School Amsterdam: "Exactly 5 years ago, a handful of enthusiastic people organized the Open Day for the Romanian School Amsterdam. I remember with great emotion the event, how impressed I was by the generosity of the volunteers, how we were able to organize such a beautiful event with zero budget! 5 years later and the school is a constant presence, week after week! Many children have grown up with us, transforming from cute and shy dwarves to teenagers or almost teenagers! Thank you to all the teachers who during these 5 years gave part of their weekends to guide the children towards the Romanian language and Romanian traditions! Thank you to the parents for the effort to bring their children and for their kindness and kind words transmitted along the way!"

Social Team - Welfare cases in the Netherlands

One of the many activities of ROMPRO Foundation is providing support in urgent social cases. This is done within the limits of volunteers' availability and using their own resources and the help of the community, without funding or subsidies. In the 6 years we have been active we have solved dozens of social aid cases, uniting around us those who wanted to help for each case...

How was 2021 for BiebRO - Biblioteca Românească Netherlands

2021 was another "different" year with too few physical meetings for our liking, but that didn't stop us from organising a number of online meetings and events...

Children's Book Week

Become what you want to be/ Worden wat je wil! With such an exhortation we couldn't help but join in this year's Kinderboekenweek - Children's Book Week.

The fourth year we have embarked on this adventure together!

And because the restrictions have been relaxed, but not everywhere and not for everyone, we have chosen to stay online this time. We celebrated Children's Book Week with Romanian authors, illustrators, books and publishers that deserve to be in every child's library.

Biebro - Library on Roți

Books from the collection of the Romanian Library of the Netherlands try to get closer to readers eager to discover titles in Romanian. We have already sent packages of books to 7 cities in the Netherlands: The Hague, Maastricht, Sint Odenrode, Bunnik, Utrecht, Valkenburg and Diemen. Each pack contains 10 titles.

Easter Egg Dyeing Workshop

We had the pleasure of hosting the Easter Egg Painting Workshop

Under the guidance of Nicoleta's skilful hands from Licuriciu in Teleorman we learned new techniques for dyeing Easter eggs using only natural ingredients.

So, using environmentally friendly methods, accessible tools and simple, fun and easy-to-follow methods even for children, we were all captivated by what was presented:

- the method of dyeing with natural colours: red cabbage, turmeric, onion skins, blueberries and red beetroot

- decorating eggs with leaves and flowers in the stocking to obtain printed patterns

Preparing Easter meringues can be fun too, so please watch the event recording and post the results on the ROMPRO friends group. The results are definitely worth sharing. And don't forget, decorating eggs with natural ingredients takes a bit more time, but it's well worth it!

Unwrapping the Dutch political landscape and the election process

A webcast event about the political landscape and the main topics of discussion in Dutch society ahead of the Dutch Parliamentary Elections on 15-17 March.

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Looking back at 2021