Sus, Inima! An Example for European Civil Society

The European Economic and Social Committee granted in December last year awards to six civil society organizations for remarkable projects

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 10.01.2023, 02:55

The European Economic and Social Committee granted in December last year awards to six civil society organizations for remarkable projects, which are examples of the commitment that civil society has for a better future for youth in Europe, and for easing the suffering faced by Ukrainians after the brutal invasion of their country by Russia. Exceptionally, in 2022 there were two types of winners, in two thematic categories: youth ability and European civil society standing with Ukraine. The Sus, Inima! Association of Romania (Up, the Heart in English) got the grand prize of the 2022 European Civil Society in the category European Civil Society Standing with Ukraine, for its project The Fast Integration of Ukrainian refugees in Romanian Society — Focus in Sibiu.

We talked to development director Lu Knobloch about how they got here:

“The Sus, Inima! Association started in 2015 from the need of oncology patients and their relatives to have access to information, access to therapies that are complementary to traditional, therapeutic ones, and we developed little by little. Each year we opened an additional Sus, Inima!, where oncology patients can live during treatment, because not all large cities have therapy centers. For instance, people from several counties come to Bucharest, or Sibiu, and then they need a place to live, so that they do not have to give up treatment because they cannot afford a hotel or a rental. Then came the pandemic, and we started working with the Sibiu Community Foundation, with the Red Cross, and with all other institutions involved in serving civil society. Then came this war in Ukraine, and within our network we started to develop initiatives for support, integration, and inclusion of Ukrainian refugees in Romanian society.”

We asked Lu Knobloch what this prize means for the association:

“This is an extraordinary honor, precisely because it was fantastic recognition for our work. It is beautiful work, but very hard work. We are a very large team, 48 people, who work on this every day, of which 28 are Ukrainian refugees themselves, because you cant work for them without them. This is recognition for a gigantic effort, and it is a great impulse for moving forward and developing initiatives further.”

So far, this NGO has helped tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. Sus, Inima! Has developed a series of initiatives to help them, from school activities to finding work to psychological treatment and assistance. This allowed Ukrainian families to integrate easier into Romanian society, since it gave them a feeling of belonging and safety, physical and mental. Here with details is Lu Knobloch:

“We started right at the beginning of the war, we got involved on the transfer side, the accommodation side, the access to medical, social, therapy integration services side, absolutely everything. Then we developed an education center, in the spring of last year, so that parents could have access to the labor market. As a result, we realized that what was sorely needed was for these kids to have an education system, access to school in their mother tongue. So we developed a primary school, a gymnasium, a high school, 3 kindergartens, and two nurseries. These allow us to cover this need, without which you cannot have economic and social integration. Because we are talking about refugees, a group of refugees made up of mothers and children. If a mother doesnt have a place to leave her child, she cannot work. So we are trying to tackle the needs we are aware of with common sense, and develop common sense solutions. We didnt try to invent the wheel, or put the stem on a leaf, we just took situations as they came, step by step, and developed solutions.”

The European Civil Society prize is worth 60,000 Euro, and was shared between the six winning projects. The Sus, Inima! Association of Romania got first prize, worth 14,000 Euro. This was precisely one of the reasons they got involved, as Lu Knobloch admitted, as they needed the funds for further projects. He told us about the next one:

“Our next project, which has to do directly with long and medium term inclusion, is one in which Ukrainian and Romanian kids will be able to play together. We will have for them creative workshops, performance art, music, dance, theater, provided by national and international professionals. Our purpose is to prove that culture is a glue, and can unite us in spite of our differences, our backgrounds, and even the language we speak.”

Second place in the category in which Sus, Inima! got first prize went to the Spanish foundation Villavecchia. With its You Are in a Safe Place emergency fund offers care to children with cancer and their parents. Gravely ill Ukrainian children were spared the horrors of war with help from international organizations, and brought to safe places to resume treatment. Third place was taken by the Association of Scouts and Guides of Poland, the biggest non-formal education organization for youth in that country, which mobilized to help Ukrainians as soon as the war started. ASGP volunteers were always standing at the border crossing pints, guiding people to safe places, providing information, collecting and transporting donations, and setting up border patrols with experience in granting first aid.