Did you ever think if you were a free person or which kind of responsibilities you had when you were 13-14 years old? When I was 14 years old, I could say that I was free as much as my parents allowed me and I had as much responsibilities as my parents gave me. But I was lucky. My parents always let me make my own choices and to be responsible for my choices. Now I am 24  years old, I can say I am a free person, because I chose my own way in my life and I feel myself responsible for my choices.                                                                    

Roxana is 14 years old. She learns in the gymnasium in Rovinari and she wants to be a successful person in the future. “I think I am a free person”, she said. “For me freedom is when I can do what I want without hurting anyone”. Roxana is one of the participants in the meeting which has been organised by the volunteers of Euro House Centre Rovinari in cooperation with the Cathedral of Rovinari. More than 30 youngsters came together to discuss and to understand what means freedom and responsibility for them. The volunteers divided them into three groups. Two groups made discussions reacting on photoes and statements, the third group painted pictures trying to express on a paper what is freedom and responsibility for them.                                                              

“For me responsibility is to respect all the members of the society”, told a 15 years old girl. “There is no totally freedom, because people never can do what they want. They always live in the frames”, said a boy of 15 years old painting a picture. “Only the birds are free enough, because they can fly. For me freedom is equal with flying”, said one girl. “When I say freedom, first of all I think about discoes”, told another boy. “For me freedom is identified with butterflies” mentioned a girl. “For me freedom is identified with the ocean because you never can see where it starts and where it finishes”, said Roxana.

When I was 14 I thought that freedom was like the sky. It always seems so near and in the same time so far. Now I am 24, and I can say that freedom for me is like the air. You don’t see it, but you can’t live without it.

In the section "Extra" you can see the paintings of the youngsters.

Arevik Badalyan (Armenia)

                                          Passport: 

                                                             Name: Inge

                                                            Age: 42

                                                            Education: MAVO (SAM)

                                                            Profession: x

                                                            Nationality: Dutch

Once upon a time… 

There was a Dutch lady. The Dutch lady didn’t like her country so much. It was too capitalistic and materialistic.What she did like was going on holiday. At one of her holidays she visited Romania and she was immediately charmed by this country. It was the opposite of her home country: no structure, no capitalism and a lot of space. At her next holiday she made her plan: she wanted to live in Romania.So she moved from the save, rich Holland to a little Romanian place called Tismana. Now she lives happily together with her Romanian man, horse, goats (all named like the Flintstones), cats and dog. But it took quite some time to get this far..

Let’s take a good time, during a few days in one of the most famous Romanian cities. After sleeping some hours in the bus, you can start to open your eyes and to discover Sibiu. At first, it seems to be like all the big cities, the periphery is full with factories, car shops and shopping malls, which precede the suburbs. But when you have arrived at the “autogara”, you just have to look in front of you, walking straight to enter in the beautiful old city. The houses start to have more life and more character. Coming to this point, you can’t avoid to look like a stranger or a tourist, because even if you don’t wear a cap with a camera around your blow, your look stays scotched on the multicolored houses.