David Popovici becomes the voice of the most vulnerable children and young people, those who still live in orphanages in Romania or are in danger of being institutionalized.
Along with Amalia Enache, Alexandru Tomescu, Marius Manole and Mihai Morar, David is the fifth Ambassador for children who, without roots, without a family environment in which to develop and without support, have no chance of becoming the responsible adults that the society expects. For them, people who can make a difference, say #I’mHere.
“Vulnerable children need to know that they can too.”
David Popovici: “I believe that performance and success come and go, and that what really matters is what you can build around yourself, starting from them. I had the chance to have my work encouraged and supported, only to be rewarded later. Life is a championship and we all deserve to win it, especially these kids. And I don’t want to imagine what it would have been like if my parents weren’t there every morning, preparing my breakfast at 5 am; or if they hadn’t been there, at my first competitions, with signs on which they wrote: ”David, the dolphin boy”! And I wonder how is it for a child to grow up in an institution, I think he just feels rootless. But these children need to know that they can succeed, too. That’s why I chose to join Hope and Homes for Children, I want us to be, together, the ones who tell them: you can!”
David told us #I’mHere since last summer
In August 2022, the world champion donated the equipment with which he won the world championships in Budapest to help Florentina Filipovici, former world vice-champion in junior rowing, and her 3 children. In just a few months, together with David and a community of almost 3,000 donors, we built a warm and welcoming house, in Suceava county, for a mother who is struggling with a serious illness and major shortages. In less than 30 days, David’s champion helmet and glasses collected donations on the galantom.ro platform worth 40,000 euros. David then proved, once again, that he is a champion – this time, a champion of Good – being the one who managed to collect the largest amount of donations in 2022, through the fundraising platform.
You can see Florentina’s new house, HERE.
“We fulfill as much as possible of the vulnerable children’s potential”
Robert Ion, General Director of the Hope and Homes for Children Romania Foundation: “Today, together with David and the other ambassadors, we are talking about potential. In David, in the children of our own families, it is natural to see fulfilled potential. With over 2,800 children still institutionalized in around 100 placement centers, with 1 in 3 children in Romania living below the poverty level, we also need to talk about unfulfilled potential. The role of the Ambassadors, of the supporters, of our team is to fulfill as much as possible of the vulnerable children’s potential. We build resilience – of the children, of the Romania we live in – by working every day. We thank David for making room, on his way to performance, for the performance of children who are still ours, even if we are not their parents.”
