Bucharest, 21 May 2020: The Alexandrion Foundation is honouring 5 young people, outstanding through their projects with a strong impact on the communities they are part of, at the Matei Brâncoveanu Awards Gala 2020. Now in its fifth edition, the Matei Brâncoveanu Awards Gala has a new, unique format this year. Both the gala and the entire voting process will take place online, with the general public directly involved in choosing the winner of the grand prize worth 12,000 euro, as well as of the other 4 awards worth 1,500 euro each, offered by the Alexandrion Foundation. The Matei Brâncoveanu Awards Gala will be broadcast live on 14 June on the Facebook page of the Alexandrion Foundation, starting at 19:00.
In this new format of the Matei Brâncoveanu Awards Gala, the Alexandrion Foundation has been joined by 5 professionals well known to the public, with rich experience in their fields of activity – Tudor Giurgiu, Sandra Ecobescu, Marius Constantinescu, Victoria Asanache and Irina Păcurariu. They nominated 15 young people who actively contribute, through their projects, to the development of the communities they belong to. The finalists were chosen by secret ballot by the five professionals, together with Marinela Ardelean – Global Brand Ambassador of Vinars Brâncoveanu, representing the Mentoring Generations community.
From 21 May, starting at 19:00, until 14 June 2020, the Alexandrion Foundation invites the public to join the event in as great numbers as possible and to take part in the voting process on the dedicated platform www.fundatia-alexandrion.ro. The closing of the voting system will be announced during the gala, broadcast live on Facebook Alexandrion Foundation on Sunday, 14 June, and the ranking of the winners will be announced immediately afterwards.
The grand prize worth 12,000 euro will be awarded by the Alexandrion Foundation to the finalist with the highest number of votes. The prize will cover part of the resources needed to pay for professional development courses or to fund a project in the field of activity for which the finalist was recognised.
The 5 finalists of the Matei Brâncoveanu Awards Gala 2020 are:
Tudor Baciu (32) has been involved in numerous volunteering actions since his student years, and since 2015 he has been screening films in villages and towns without a cinema in 36 counties of the country, through his project: the Cinemobilul caravan. In 2019, Cinemobilul reached more than 44,000 viewers, becoming the most extensive film caravan in the country, bringing the joy of film to those places and communities where people have no access to such experiences.
Carmen Chindriș (35) founded the Sus Inima Association, which supports oncology patients by offering them psychological counselling, guidance, accommodation during therapy, food and nutrition counselling. The Sus Inima Association provides free services to patients in difficult financial circumstances who could not normally afford these conditions of treatment and care.
Ana Maria Ciobanu (32) has been a reporter for DOR magazine since 2011. In 2015 she started the narrative podcast “Satul Mădălinei” (“Mădălina’s Village”), the story of an 18-year-old mother who begs on the metro with her baby in her arms, a project that led listeners to donate towards building a house for Mădălina and her family. She is the host of the podcast “mame” (“mothers”), together with Oana Sandu, in which they discuss the balance between motherhood and work.
Edmond Niculușcă (30), at only 19, founded ARCEN (the Romanian Association for Culture, Education and Normality), through which he promotes Bucharest’s heritage and proposes solutions for improving quality of life in the capital. In just one year he managed to prepare 6,000 people to cope safely with a possible major earthquake, that is, the entire community of a central Bucharest district that is vulnerable in the event of a quake. His project, Antiseismic District, is the first of its kind in Romania.
Raluca Selejan (32) opened, in 2016, together with her best friend, the independent bookshop La Două Bufnițe in Timișoara, starting from the idea of creating a community built around books and cultural events, through which to stimulate the appetite of future generations for reading. The two young women bring children closer to books and bookshops through activities that help them develop a taste for reading. The bookshop was admitted to the European and International Booksellers Federation from its opening.
