Sharing changes lives: Romanian uses social media to build new homes for the poor

In Moldova, Romania’s poorest region, a man builds houses for the poor, trying to change the children’s fate for the better. He uses social media to connect people for the greater good.

It was late-2014 when Bogdan Tănasă read in the local newspaper an article about a kid who wanted a toy car. A usual toy for most children, which the little boy never had the chance to play with. He was one of six siblings abandoned by their mother, living in very poor conditions, with a father who, although he was trying to provide for them every day, was overwhelmed by the situation. But this was something Bogdan Tănasă discovered when he went to visit them after reading the newspaper article. Wanting to help them with small things such as food, toys or firewood, he went to the address mentioned in the newspaper. What he found there changed his life forever: six children living from day to day, in a tiny house that, above all, had also been recently flooded, with very little food and almost no living conditions. And no toys. That’s when Bogdan Tănasă first thought that maybe he could do more to help, and the first thing that crossed his mind was to try and find other people who would be willing to help as well. Instead of calling his friends and explain each and every one of them his plan, he turned to Facebook. His friends reacted to his message and that is how, before the Christmas of 2014, the six children got the biggest gift: a new house that Bogdan and his friends built for them.