Alumni Corner

Recently she worked on community center restoration, the effort being celebrated with the opening ceremony on October 27, and later mediated on National TV "Moldova 1" as the best example in the country.

Recently she worked on community center restoration, the effort being celebrated with the opening ceremony on October 27, and later mediated on National TV "Moldova 1" as the best example in the country. The mayor of Lunga was making a lot of effort to convince the mayor house representatives and the regional district council on importance of the community center renovation that today is endowed with 2 rooms for festivities, a club for young people, and 2 offices with cabinets for the managing team. Now - the community center can provide all kinds of events, festivities and concerts to the Lunga village and its neighbors as well as welcome guests from abroad. The mayor house offered in-kind input that consisted of furniture and inventory - 61 thousand lei (5520.36USD) and the District Council did the same thing, helping with 470 thousand lei (4086.96 USD)

Among other Successes of Open World Alumna Galina Burduja dates from January 26, 2009 with the opening of the "Guguta" day care in Lunga village of Floresti region. The daycare was selected by the International Women Club of Moldova (IWCM) Grants committee to receive funds for their immediate needs. The majority of Lunga's female population is composed of single mothers who could not work since there was no childcare center. The IWCM club's representatives Natalya Kuzmina, Letty Beyer, Rosa Brunn, Davorka Whiteside, Inga Milosavljevic and President Marcie Lambsdorff participated in the festive entertainment program organized by the Mayor of Lunga village, Galina Burduja, as well as by regional official representatives, villagers, parents and day care staff.

The only renovated daycare in the village opened its doors for the first group of 23 children with ages 2 to 4. The daycare also has spacious rooms for one more group of older kids. In November 2008 the day care was in a state of disrepair, but today there are almost ideal conditions for children. It is important to note a mountain of efforts by parents and the daycare staff, working seven days a week for the last six months to make this daycare ready by January for Lunga's little citizens. A touching performance of the first little "inhabitants" of Guguta day care was a real gift both for the parents and the guests. Smiling teachers, happy mothers and adorable kids were the most palpable proof to the significance of charity. Lunga's Guguta day care was evaluated by the regional official commission as the second best such institution in the entire Floresti region.

Prior to the daycare project, 2 host organization representatives from North Carolina visited Open World Delegates in Moldova. Suzanne Stafford and Maurine Jameson, as well as Olesea Fortuna - Open World Moldova Country Coordinator held a meeting with the International Women Club of Moldova in the "Codru" hotel about the experience of Open World Delegates in the USA and the importance of Program Sustainability, situation in Moldova and future prospects. Surprisingly, Galina Burduja, not knowing English, accessed the computer where she found call for applications within IWCM. Ever since, she believes that language is not a barrier, and that it is always important to have the goal and will to motivate the need of community.

Today, Mrs. Burduja is targeted on aqueduct construction. For more than 70 years, the inhabitants of the village Lunga, the district Floresti, continue to confront the grave problem of drinking water. After the groundwater has been polluted, the people get kerosene from their wells instead of water.

The concentration of kerosene in some wells from Lunga is so big that the inhabitants use buckets of this liquid to light the fire in their stoves. The inspector in chief of the Ecological Department from Floresti, Tamara Gutu, told that the ground water was polluted many years ago as a result of leakage. The pipe transported kerosene to the ex-air base from Marculesti. "It will take around one hundred years for the water to become clean in a natural way," Tamara Gutu added.

The local authorities say that the inhabitants of the village are seriously affected by the deficiency of drinking water. According to the mayor of the locality, Galina Burduja, they need more than two million lei (180 995 USD) in order to build an aqueduct that would provide drinking water for the village. There are no funds in the local budget for this. It should be mentioned that the massive pollution of the water lead to the growth of infectious diseases.

Galina Burduja has been also invited as a guest speaker in front of 10 groups of Open World Delegates during their orientation session in Chisinau on the 23rd of September 2009. There she talked about USA experience, the projects she worked on and the partnerships she started with North Carolina. She confessed that it is important to keep all the business cards "alive" and communicate with host organization - a potential success to project development.

Among people she met in North Carolina, was Ray Smith - the mayor representative of Kernersville for Human Resources. She regretted to say that she lost his contacts and she desperately looks to find them later. She stated that the family she stayed with was eager and easy to communicate with. They could find different topics to discuss and could do this forever.

Another acquaintance in North Carolina was John Wolf - the city attorney who promised to make a relationship between schools of North Carolina and the school of Lunga.

To improve the knowledge of Lunga Community about American Culture, Mrs. Burduja is planning to invite a Peace Corps Volunteer to stay in the village for 2 years, as recommended by the Director of American Councils, David Jeese who had previously served as Peace Corps Volunteer in Moldova.

With a smile and enthusiasm, Mrs. Burduja said: "I am happy and honored to have such an award. I appreciate the U.S. Embassy attention towards the result of my work. This will motivate me to do even more for my community."

7 of 36 people were selected in the same USA Program Exchange Alumni Congress as candidates to replace functions in the Board of Alumni American Council during the academic year 2009-2010. Among them, Open World Facilitator and Muskie Alumna Daniela Munca, was elected as the President of the Board, being also awarded with the best alumna of the year prize.

3,300 Moldovan students have traveled by now to America within the USA exchange programs.