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The Consiliul Local al Copiilor - Lupeni (Children Local Council of Lupeni, or CLC Lupeni) is a 22-member city-wide council that is elected by the fifth and sixth grade students of Lupeni schools to represent all the children in the community below high-school age (after the 8th grade). They were elected through a similar process to the official one that establishes the adult City Council (also composed by 22 members). Each councilor serves for a two year term, the duration of this term determined by the grade; after the 8th grade the students attend another school, the one constraint of organizing the elections for the students of 5th and 6th grades. The children councilors run their campaigns based on certain pledges of performance to their electorate constituents. Not surprisingly, this younger generation often has different perspectives than their adults. As one of the child mayor counterparts said in an electoral speech, "The way the grown people lead the town is too sober." Here were some of the electoral promises: The CLC represents the children of Lupeni, a community in the heart of Romania's Jiu Valley coal mining region in the Transylvanian Alps/Western Carpathian Mountains. Lupeni has an overall population of 31,191 (as of June 1, 1999), evenly divided into 15,546 females and 15, 654 males. The city has six general schools (before high school), with several recently jointly administered. The ratio of students who voted in the first CLC school election to the number of overall students in each school is as follows:
* Age as of 5/1/01
PAL-TIN and CLC History | Top The CLC Lupeni is created in April 2000 as a DEEP/Renaissance initiative and developed in conjunction with the PAL-TIN Project of the Bucharest-based MASTER Forum Association. The Foundation for Development through Economic Education and Partnership (DEEP) is a Romanian Non-Government Organization developing the Renaissance program for the Jiu Valley. The mission of the Renaissance Program is to "prepare and equip young Romanians with the means and confidence to proactively innovate and implement solutions to issues facing them, their communities and Romania." Following the popular uprising and overthrow of the country's communist dictatorship in 1989, a number of civic organizations were developed that focused on the promotion of democracy and the popular spread and implementation of democratic ideals. A number of these organizations banded together in the creation of an association called MASTER Forum focused on supporting the trends of building a civil society, initiatives of youth and youth associations. Out of this forum came the PAL-TIN Project, which was created1 to develop local youth councils in Romania along the lines of youth council charter adopted by the European Union2. The youth council framework was designed to serve as: Since 1994, PAL-TIN has helped created some 48 youth councils in a half of the Romanian departments. By 1999 there were 129,471 children involved in the elections process, which included 6,436 candidates for the 1100 places of councilors and 775 young volunteers involved in the trainings of the electors and candidates. The PAL-TIN Project is able to support the individual youth councils through:
The main objective of the PAL-TIN Project is to promote youth participation to public decision in the matters that concern them. PAL-TIN is a network of Children and Youth Council spread throughout Romania. Through the MASTER Forum Association the CLC Lupeni is founder member of Youth PLANET - the European network of children and youth councils and parliaments. In December 1999 DEEP/Renaissance proposed to the PAL-TIN Project that it work together to establish a local youth council in the city of Lupeni, the first such democratic youth organization in the Jiu Valley, in order to give the local youth an opportunity, forum and vehicle for articulating and representing their constituent interests and contributing to their community. During the first stage, the DEEP volunteers introduced the idea of such of an initiative to the local government authorities and then to the directors of the schools. The two key facilitators in this process were Simonel Bucur and Ion Cotescu (ex-members of the City Council of Lupeni). Because the officials had committed themselves to organizing the elections, the next stage consisted in presenting the project to the teachers and the students of each school. This included explaining the purpose of such of initiative, the role of vote, the role and functions of an elected body, rules of an electoral campaign, criteria for candidacy, The Electoral Law of the Children Councils, the constituency functions of the Electoral Commission, etc. After the project presentation the electoral campaign began. The prospective children candidates raised the necessary numbers of signatures and began preparing and running the actual electoral campaign (some of the children organized small interest groups, other offered candies and desserts along with their presentation leaflets). The Electoral Commissions for each constituency and a Central Electoral Commission were established during that time. In the day of the elections, most of the schools helped build realistic-looking polling stations with voting cabins, ballots, voting bulletins, voting stamps and electoral lists. The children were very excited about the whole process and were happy to vote for their very first time. The eventual percentage of voter turn-out among eligible fifth and sixth grade children was approximately 60%. This number was somewhat lower than expected because the voting date and hours coincided with the same time that many children went with their parents to the weekly market in the nearby town of Vulcan to purchase Easter clothes (after their parents received their salaries at the mine). There is an old traditional saying in Romania that everybody should welcome Easter with new clothes. During the second stage the volunteers organized the elections for the Children Mayor of Lupeni. This time the mayor was elected from among the new Councilors by the members themselves. The CLC is coordinated by volunteers. The first coordinator of the Children Council was Ms. Stela Iacob (a primary school teacher). She played this role till February 2001 when the supervision of the CLC was taken over by a group of eight volunteers coordinated by Alin Bunescu.
DEEP/Renaissance Support Staff
COUNCIL PROJECTS | Top Over the past year the CLC Lupeni undertook a number of community and other projects. The main projects are listed below: "PrOAcTiV" - the ex-"Valea Jiului" Newsletter | TopFollowing elections, the members of the Council decided to publish the results of the elections and to produce a bi-monthly CLC newsletter. Since that time the CLC has produced five issues. See the section CLC in the News to access these issues. In April 2001, the Chief Editor of "Matinal" - the most widely read and respected daily publication of the Jiu Valley - offered to produce "Valea Jiului" by including the content proposed by the children on a supplement of "Matinal". In this way, starting in May 2001 the newsletter of the Children Council will become a real newspaper with a wider coverage. Commnity Service Project | TopIn May 2000, the CLC decided to undertake a project to identify and assist a needy family in Lupeni. Through their investigation they found a family with eight children and the two parents living together in a one-room apartment. Both parents were unemployed. The members of the Council started raising donations (e.g., clothes, food and toys) from their constituents and began to assist this family. June 1st - International Day of the Child | TopOn June 1, 2000 the CLC Lupeni partnered with the Lupeni's association of teachers in organizing events to celebrate the International Day of Child. Their mission was to organize the Carnival and to help with the painting exhibition and sport tournaments. Hosting the US Ambassador | TopDuring the first meeting of the CLC Lupeni the new councilors expressed concern that their potential actions would not be able to make any difference. And they gave an example: "For instance, how we could convince the Ambassador of the United States to come in Jiu Valley?" (Catalin - ex-member of the CLC Lupeni). The DEEP volunteers replied that they would never know unless they tried, and suggested that they write a letter of invitation to the Ambassador. They took the suggestion and wrote the letter. Subsequently, in June 2000, the U.S. Ambassador, Mr. James Rosapepe, visited the Jiu Valley and the CLC Lupeni, where the CLC Mayor offered him the honorary mayoral sash. "22 Santa Clauses" | TopOn 22nd December 2000, the 22 members of Lupeni Children Council offered gifts to 350 children living in very poor families (without income). Everything started in Campina where a delegate of CLC Lupeni was invited to participate as an observer to the elections for a new CLC. After the CLC Mayor was elected and appointed by the adult Mayor of Campina, the organizers invited the participants to a workshop about partnership in PAL-TIN network. The representative of CLC Lupeni proposed a partnership between the CLC Lupeni and other child and youth councils with the purpose of helping the very poor children of Lupeni. As a result, on December 22, 2000, a caravan (consisting of three vans sponsored by the Romanian Government) started from Campina and passed through the cities of Bucuresti, Pitesti, Ramnicu Valcea and Tirgu Jiu picking up gifts (clothes, candies, toys, books, school supplies) from the Children and Youth Councils of Campina and Bucuresti. The gifts were escorted by the representatives of these councils plus a representative of the Prime Minister's Office that sponsored the action with 30,000,000 lei (approximately $1,100). "Mineriada Curateniei" | TopDuring the weekend of March 24-25, 2001 the CLC Lupeni organized a friendship service project, termed "Mineriada Curateniei", with the Children and Youth Councils of Bucharest Sector 5 and MASTER Forum Association. The project was conceived as way of thanking the people of Bucharest and the Romanian Government for their assistance during their Christmas "22 Santa Clauses" project. Literally meaning "miner uprising clean-up", the project's title is a word play on the Romanian term "mineriada" used to describe the protest strikes of the Jiu Valley coal miners and their demonstrations in Bucharest. The project brought children and volunteers from Lupeni to work side-by-side with youth council members and other volunteers from Bucharest to clean and restore Bucharest's Herastrau Park. The event consisted of cleaning a playground and Herastrau Lake. The park is an old and beautiful area in the middle of Bucharest that has a few areas that fall between the geographic responsibilities of different government and private organizations. While the rest of the park (i.e., within the boundaries of assigned responsibilities) was taken care of, the area between those boundaries (e.g., the lake shore) was full of widely strewn garbage. Community survey | TopThe project began in march 2001, and it is going to end at the beginning of the next year, getting involved all the members of the council. The project is part of the CLC strategy and it wants as result to facilitate for the councilors the understanding of the role of the citizen in the community, by involving them in activities linked to a better knowledge of the local community. Moreover, another objective of the project is to increase the responsibility of the decisional factors in town. To accomplish the proposed objectives, it is necessary a good collaboration between the community leaders and the little councilors. People, especially leaders and opinion formers must express their opinion about the existent problems in the community, so that there can be found the most efficient solutions for them. June 1'st 2001-A park full of children | TopAn event that brought together 500 children from Lupeni in one of the Children's Parks, children that participated at the contests organized by their representatives. In the same day, the vice-mayor, Paula Radulescu represented with success the council at the most popular TV-show in Romania, broadcasted at an hour of maximum audience. Party for American visitors | TopIn July 2001, CLC organized a manifestation at which they took part 11 American citizens. The councilors presented their activity, they prepared a small show, and in the end they organized a selling exhibition, with objects with Romanian specific, made by the councilors and their parents. Youth training, the antidote of indifference | TopAt the International Youth Camp from Soveja, the CSPD organization (Center For Studies and Programs for Development) initiated a projects auction in the framework of the project The first step of the auction was to write an intention letter. CLC Lupeni was the first in doing this first step, being followed by other 4 children and youth councils in the country. The CLC Lupeni project is addressed to children and youth between 11 and 25 years and it has 4 stages of training and information on 4 general themes:
On December the 1st 2001, CLC Lupeni organized a cultural artistic manifestation in partnership with CVTL(Youth Volunteer Center formed after the first stages of the project Youth training, the antidote of indifference ), PetroAqua(an environment NGO), and the local authorities. They organized a painting exhibition, on several themes: December the 1st-Romanian National Day, The environment and the winter holidays. Three paintings from each section were awarded. The exhibition was followed by a show at which they took part singers and music and dance bands from all Jiu Valley. In mission on Saint Nicholas' Day | TopThe money obtained by selling tickets for the manifestation of December the 1st were used for buying presents for the orphan children from Children's Home from Lupeni, which were visited by the CLC in the evening of December the 5th, when Saint Nicholas was supposed to come, and the rest of the money were donated to a which nourishes daily 40 pour children. TRAINING AND SEMINARS | TopIn addition to the projects, the CLC attended workshops, seminars and trainings:
FUTURE | Top The CLC has designed and is now beginning the implementation of its Council Strategy for the next year. The strategy has three phases: 1) community survey, 2) implementing the promises made by them during their electoral campaigns, and 3) preparing the ground for the next generation of children councilors of Lupeni community. The main objective of the community survey is educate the CLC members about their role as representatives of the community, and to contribute to a community wide understanding of the needs and problems confronting the community of Jiu Valley and its children. After the CLC records the issues identified by the community, the CLC members plan to ask the mayors of the other Jiu Valley towns as to the solutions to these issues they would recommend to the mayor of Lupeni. In the last phases of their project the CLC plan to publicly ask the mayor of Lupeni to offer solutions and a deadline for the implementation of these solutions.
During all this time the children will also develop small projects they consider necessary for community. |
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