The 2026 “Education Ambassadors” campaign, organized by Inimă de Copil Foundation, reached 42 communities across eight counties. Donations worth more than RON 106,000 were transformed into backpacks, school supplies and educational materials for children who needed support at the beginning of the school year.
Throughout August and September, the Inimă de Copil Foundation centers looked a little like Santa’s workshop.
Boxes filled with notebooks, pencils, pencil cases, watercolors and school supplies covered tables and filled rooms. Foundation staff and volunteers sorted, packed and prepared backpacks, while our social workers checked lists and then set off for villages, schools and communities where, for many families, preparing a child for the new school year meant an expense they could hardly afford.
When we launched the campaign, our goal was to help 500 children.
But as the first day of school drew closer, more requests began to arrive.
Schools and partner organizations told us about children whose families could not afford the things they needed for school. Urgent requests came from communities including those in Maramureș, Vrancea, Neamț and Ilfov, beyond the areas where we had initially planned our distributions.
Behind every request was a child.
And we could not say no.
So we looked for additional resources, reached out to our partners and donors, and expanded the campaign.
By the end of the 2026 “Education Ambassadors” campaign, we had reached 800 children.
800 children across 42 communities
Our support reached eight counties – Galați, Vrancea, Vaslui, Brăila, Ilfov, Iași, Neamț and Maramureș – and 42 communities, 37 of them in rural areas.
The donations supporting the campaign were worth more than RON 106,000 (approximately €20,000).
The children we supported included children from disadvantaged families in rural communities, refugee children, children with disabilities, and children at risk of dropping out of school or facing difficult family circumstances.
Their needs were not all the same. Some received fully equipped backpacks, while others received the school supplies they were missing.
Among them were also 100 children from seven rural kindergartens, for whom we prepared small backpacks and toys.
But we also wanted some of the support to remain in their classrooms. That is why each kindergarten group received a large box containing notebooks, coloring books, crayons, watercolors, colored pencils and materials for educational and creative activities that the children and their teachers could use throughout the year.
Behind the numbers were people
A campaign of this size was built on much more than donations. It was also built on time, journeys, boxes carried from one place to another, hours spent sorting school supplies, and people who each found their own way to help.
The employees of Cargill Agricultura România did more than donate. They came and worked alongside the Foundation team, helping us prepare and equip the backpacks.
The R Systems Computaris Europe team selected children from the Foundation’s list and prepared 55 personalized backpacks, taking into account each child’s age and preferences.
One backpack even arrived at our office by courier. It had been carefully prepared by someone living far away who wanted to make sure it reached a child in time.
Alongside the Inimă de Copil Foundation staff, our volunteers helped unload boxes, sort supplies, pack backpacks, prepare everything and distribute them. Among those volunteers was an eight-year-old girl who wanted to lend a hand in preparing backpacks for other children. Perhaps this is one of the simplest images that captures the spirit of the entire campaign: one child choosing to do something for another child.
And these are only a few examples. Everyone’s help was invaluable.
“Can I take it home?”
There are moments, however, that no statistic can capture.
At one of the Foundation’s day centers, the children had just received their backpacks.
“It has football on it! Exactly what I wanted!” one child exclaimed.
“I have a unicorn pencil case! I’ve never had anything this beautiful!” said another.
But one little boy did not open his backpack. He held it tightly against his chest. After a while, he asked us: “Can I take it home?”
He wanted to make sure that the backpack really belonged to him.
His mother, who was waiting for him at the door, later explained that it was his first-ever new backpack. Until then, he had always used backpacks handed down from his older siblings.
Another mother sent us a photo of her daughter asleep with her new backpack in her arms. She simply did not want to let it go.
For most of us, a backpack is an ordinary object. But for a child who has never had a new one, it can mean the joy of going to school with something that, for the first time, is truly their own.
Through the forest, to the little school in Lupești
One of the journeys made during the campaign took the Inimă de Copil Foundation team to Lupești, in Mălușteni commune, Vaslui County.
To get there, our colleagues traveled several kilometers along a gravel road winding through hills and past simple clay houses, followed by several hundred meters through the forest and along a path leading to the village’s small school.
The school is more than 100 years old. Its walls show the passing of time, but inside everything was clean, and the children had dressed carefully for their first day of school. There were fewer than 20 children, and their number continues to decrease from year to year.
The children received backpacks and school supplies with the support of the NOARK Electric team.
But this time, among the notebooks, pencils and pencil cases, there was something else: A letter. The company’s employees had written a personal message of encouragement for every child.
The children opened their letters with surprise and curiosity. To them, it was more than a piece of paper. It was proof that somewhere, far from their village, someone they had never met had thought about them and taken the time to write to them.
The notebooks will eventually be filled. The pencils will grow shorter. The backpacks will wear out.
But we hope the message will remain: You matter. Someone believes in you. Keep learning and keep dreaming.
“We hope they will carry with them the confidence that they can”
Andreea Popa, a social worker at Inimă de Copil Foundation, perhaps captured the emotion of one of these encounters with the children best:
“I walked into the classroom and saw them all so beautifully prepared, well-behaved, attentive and a little shy.
Then we started giving them the backpacks and school supplies. What joy! Smiles, wide eyes and eager little hands waiting to discover what was inside.
And as I watched them, I thought… Maybe many years from now, they will remember this first day of school. Maybe they will remember the backpack they received and us, the people who prepared it for them with care.
But we hope they will carry with them something even more important: the confidence that they can, that they are worthy, and that there are people who believe in them.”
A campaign made possible by many “Education Ambassadors”
Standing alongside Inimă de Copil Foundation throughout this campaign were NOARK Electric, Cargill Agricultura România, R Systems Computaris Europe, Aeris Communications, ASBIS România, Fundația Comunitară Theodorus, Alewijnse Marine Galați, the Amazon România team, Mega Image, Heart of a Child UK, Heart of a Child USA, Xavia Solutions, ISTA Romania, Mrs. Diana Șerban, our volunteers, and everyone who donated or helped during the campaign.
Some contributed money or products. Others mobilized their colleagues, prepared backpacks, helped with transportation, offered discounts or simply gave a few hours of their time.
Every contribution mattered – especially when additional requests began to arrive and we had to find the resources that would allow us to say “yes” to as many children as possible.
Where a child is born should not determine their future
For 30 years, Inimă de Copil Foundation has supported children and communities facing difficult circumstances.
Over these three decades, we have met children who started life facing obstacles they did not choose: poverty, long distances to school, disability, family instability, or the experience of fleeing war as refugees.
But none of these circumstances determines how much a child can learn, how big they can dream, or how far they can go.
That is why we believe that a child’s opportunities for education should not depend on where they were born or their family’s circumstances.
A backpack cannot solve poverty. A set of school supplies cannot remove every difficulty a family faces.
But it can remove one barrier.
It can mean a child walking into the classroom with the things they need. A parent with one less worry. A child knowing that someone thought about them. A fresh start without the frustration of going without.
The “Education Ambassadors” campaign was about all these tangible things. But beyond them, it was about a message we wanted every child to receive:
Your education matters. You matter. And there are people who believe in you.
Over the past 30 years, children’s needs have changed. Our mission has remained the same: to stand by children when they need us.
And for 30 years, we have been doing this good work together.
Would you like to support a child’s education? Find out how you can help here. 🧡
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