Over 250 volunteers, local and international, will build 10 homes in just five days in Beius, Bihor County, Romania, this October. The houses will be constructed for orphans, raised in the state orphanages of the communist era, who found themselves out on the street at 18 without decent education or job skills. Building starts on October 5th and will end on October 9th.

For years, these young people have been living in crammed single-room apartments. Some have started their own families, creating an even larger housing need. “I was abandoned by my parents and I grew up in an orphanage in Beius,” says Irina Farkas, who will get one of the new houses. “At the age of 16 was hired at a local clothing factory. Because of my medical problems, I had no money for a room of my own. I dream of having my own family and my own home.”

“I was 12 years old when my mother died and my father left us,” says Teodor Sandra. “My sisters got married, so I was raised by an aunt. Now I live in a two-room apartment in a house together with my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law and his family (wife and their three children). We don't have running water and inside bathroom, just a toilet in the garden. I really want to raise my little boy in better conditions.”

According to the national statistics, around 35%  of the housing stock in Romania needs urgent repairs. Progress towards a stable market economy has been slow and difficult. Real wages for working Romanian families have dropped by about 40%, putting additional pressure of the strained social system. Housing issues are neglected both by central and local authorities.

Big Build will start on October 5th, observed by the UN as annual World Habitat Day. Big Build will be this year’s event for Habitat in Europe and Central Asia. The build started as a way of celebrating 10 years of partnership between Habitat for Humanity Romania and Habitat for Humanity Northern Ireland, which has sent hundreds of volunteers to help Romanians families living in poverty housing.

Big Build volunteers, over 200 of them coming from Northern Ireland, will send a powerful message that providing a solution to poverty housing is a worldwide problem. They will do it by offering a helping hand up to those in need of decent, safe and affordable homes. All 10 homes will be dedicated to people who left orphanages and live on low incomes.

This story is adapted from Building Big in Romania, found on the Habitat for Humanity website. The picture of a volunteer from Northern Ireland working on the build site in Romania also comes from the Habitat website.