It was a busy and full week but this made us all enter into the  Changemakers’ spirit. Our conference is about to take place so we thought you might be asking what is going to happen there. Well, we think it is time to write some things about our speakers – some extraordinary people, with a lot of experience in social entrepreneurship. What are they doing? They are concerned with change in some way or another, as you shall see from below.

Laura Sgarcitu is Public Affairs & Communication Specialist for Coca-Cola HBC Romania. Her work includes being involved in many Community Programs. The company is oriented especially in the direction of conserving and protection of the water, the main substance for their products. Projects like “Verde 003” (Green 003), “Fiecare picatura conteaza” (Every drop counts), “Cartea Dunarii Albastre” (The Book of the Blue Danube) are the most recent ones, but Laura Sgarcitu says that “Verde 003” is the closest to her heart. “Verde 003” is a project that has been directed to the Dorna River for 3 years and which tries to follow 2 lines: education in volunteering spirit and the greening of the river bank.

Mircea Mocanu is the Head of Socio-Economic Section at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP addresses five critical issues: human and economic development, nation building, sustainable resources and the environment, infectious diseases, conflicts and natural disasters. Often these challenges are interlinked, reinforcing each other. UNDP designs programs and partnerships in response to this interdependence.

Leslie Hawke is the Co-Founder of Ovidiu Rom Association. She was a manager for over 20 years in the USA. In 2000 she came for the first time in Romania, in Bacau, like a volunteer for Peace Corps. In 2004 Leslie Hawke and Maria Gheorghiu founded the Ovidiu Rom Asociation in order to offer equal opportunities to under-privileged people in Romania, especially helping poor children to go to school. Ovidiu Rom helps schools and communities successfully integrate impoverished children into the education system at the appropriate age. The goal of Ovidiu Rom’s national initiative Fiecare Copil în Școală (Every Child in School) is to eradicate illiteracy and primary school abandonment in Romania – and to provide at-risk children with an adequate skill-set to move on to high school and succeed there too.