It has a period of 11 days (including 2 travel days and 9 activity days)
between 19 - 29 April, 2024.

The location for activities is Vatra Dornei, a small picturesque mountain resort
in the Carpathian Mountains of Northern Romania. 

The group present at activities will consist of 42 young people, 18-30 years old, and 6 group leaders, 18+ years old; 48 participants in total.

The purpose of the "Involve to Solve" project is to stimulate attitudes of active citizenship, to motivate involvement in democratic processes, and promote responsible behaviors, having the following objectives:

- To develop the civic and social competencies required to take an active civic role, perpetuating these attitudes in our home communities.

- To enhance confidence and courage to express our civic attitudes by creating and promoting online content.

- To stimulate proactive spirit and initiative by identifying and engaging in volunteering activities in each country.

Throughout the project, we will address relevant topics, such as human rights, democratic values and institutions, equitable access to resources, and environmental issues. 

For the learning process we will use non-formal methods of getting to know each other and team-building; methods for interactive presentation; analysis and integration methods; methods of discussions; visual illustration methods; idea generation methods; learning by doing; experiential learning; teamwork; public speaking; cultural learning.

Travel

You will arrive to Cluj-Napoca (or simply Cluj, as most Romanians prefer to call it) at the Avram Iancu Airport (CLJ). It is the only airport in the city and the biggest one in Transylvania: http://airportcluj.ro/

Getting to city center by public transport: Bus line 5 runs between the airport and the city of Cluj-Napoca. The trolleybus departs approximately every 10 minutes between 05:00 a.m. and 22:00 p.m., on weekends and evenings every 15 to 20 minutes. 

The airport bus stop is located 200 meters away from the terminal, along the ‘Strada Traian Vuia’. It is a short walk from the terminal, you first have to go to the main road and then to the right. 

In the center of Cluj-Napoca, you can get off at the stops Constanta (Regionale CFR), Sora and Central. The bus ride to one of these bus stops takes an average of 25 minutes. The first and final stop of bus line 5 is known as Fierul and can be found in the street ‘Strada Cuza Voda’. 

Tickets are available at vending machines and service counters near the bus stops. Keep in mind, it is not possible to buy a ticket from the bus driver. The price is 3.00 RON for a single ride and 6.00 RON for two journeys. 

As well, you can take bus line 8 for travelling between the airport and downtown Cluj-Napoca, the bus runs about every 20 minutes and only from Monday till Friday.

Schedule for line 5: http://ctpcj.ro/index.php/en/timetables/urban-lines/linia-5 

Schedule for line 8: http://ctpcj.ro/index.php/en/timetables/urban-lines/line8

Advice: Don’t change too much money at the airport because of the bad rates compared to the exchange offices downtown (we recommend 5-10 euro maximum).

The Romanian currency is Leu (RON): 1 Euro = 4.97 RON  (February 2024).
If you choose to take a taxi, it will be your own expense since taxi fares are not refunded according to Erasmus+ rules, having available public transport.

Arrival: The arrival day to Cluj-Napoca is 19th of April, max. at 18:00 in the evening.
If for some reasons you cannot find tickets with arrival hours in the morning or in the
afternoon, please email us and we will find a solution for you.
The arrival hour is set this way because we need to leave for Vatra Dornei in the evening of 19th, by bus, possibly arriving after midnight on 20th of April.

You can also arrive 1 or 2 days earlier to visit Cluj-Napoca, on your own expense.

The meeting point in Cluj-Napoca for the departure to Vatra Dornei will be at an accessible location and communicated after all trip details are settled.

Departure: The departure to Cluj-Napoca will be on 28th of April around midnight, so make sure you have flights that leave on 29th of April at 6:00 a.m. the earliest, because we will travel through the night to reach Cluj-Napoca early on 29th of April. 

You can also stay in Cluj-Napoca 1-2 days after the project and visit it on your own expense.

Here are some online resources to guide you if you wish to spend some additional time
in Cluj-Napoca before/after the project:

 https://www.romanianfriend.com/attractions/cluj-napoca-what-to-do-guide 

 http://www.visitclujnapoca.ro/en/

 https://wikitravel.org/en/Cluj-Napoca 

For more general details about Romania you can check out the following links:

https://www.facebook.com/romaniatravel.ro/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania 

http://www.romaniatourism.com/

The location

We chose a guesthouse in the outskirts of Vatra Dornei town that is close to nature,

but also benefits fully from the comfort of modern life.

Here are links to the website and Facebook page of the guesthouse:

https://www.facebook.com/siady.pensiunea

https://hotelguru.ro/casa-siady-vatra-dornei

We will accommodate 2-3 persons in one room, maybe some rooms will host a max. of 4 persons. Each room has its own bathroom and toiletries. 

Some rooms are designed as matrimonial, thus two persons might share one bed, but rest assured that the beds are big enough and each of you will have his/ her own blanket.

There is mobile signal and wi-fi connection throughout the establishment.

We will have our meals at the guesthouse restaurant, serving fresh eco products from country side.

If you wish to learn more about the town and the region you can check the following links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatra_Dornei - town of Vatra Dornei 

https://taradornelor.ro/en/ - the region

Friend’s Society is part of D.G.T. (Do Great Things) Network and its main targets are high-school and university students, young entrepreneurs and disadvantaged young people from Romania. 

We are a non-governmental organization that was born from the passion of a few youngsters who wanted to take action and make a change in the society they were living into.  Our founding members have the desire to give back all the things they have learned and experienced during previous years of volunteering. 

Our mission focuses on national and international networking among young people, students, trainers and teachers of different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds. It tackles topics such as inter-cultural exchange, non-formal education, ecology, climate change, sustainable development, European citizenship and international politics. All these are added to facilitate the accumulation of experience by young people, through voluntary activities, allowing them to put into practice the theory learned in school.

You can find us at: https://www.facebook.com/DoGreatThingsNetwork/