With the support of the Swiss Re Foundation and of PAID Romania (Pool for Insurance against Natural Disasters), the Lindenfeld Association, by means of the "Ajungem Mari" Educational Programme, initiated the "Conectati la educatie" Project, through which more than 180 children from foster care centers and deprived families received electronic devices to be used for attending online educational and school-related activities.

Irina Taban, Chairperson and Founder of the "Ajungem MARI" Educational Programme, stated:

"In many of these families there are multiple children who will be able to access - from now on - online schooling and other educational activities. This kind of support means a great deal to them and we truly hope that it shall contribute to a mitigation of the school drop-out rate, given that without such devices and Internet connection they cannot attend online classes. Furthermore, at this time, our volunteers will be able to host online meetings, workshops and trainings for children. Both children and volunteers were thrilled when the tablets were offered, because this way the volunteers will be able to resume contact with the children whom they had no other way of reaching out to. We thank Swiss Re and PAID Romania for making all this possible!"

Nicoleta Radu, CEO of PAID Romania, stated:

"We are currently living times when we all find ourselves in need of adjusting to the new reality. However, one thing does not change - the importance of education and the need to facilitate all children's access to education, regardless of the environment where they come from. We were happy when our Swiss Re partners brought this proposal before us and we were honored that we were able to bring our own contribution to the completion of such a beautiful project".

For this project, 14 laptops were purchased and donated to residential structures (foster care centers and foster homes) from several counties: Arges, Buzau, Bacau, Galati, Mures and Iasi. These 14 laptops will support 142 children aged 8 to 19 and will facilitate their access to online schooling and also to online vocational training, educational workshops or interactive lessons.

At the same time, 33 tablets fitted with one-year-Internet connection subscription were donated to 33 families in 5 counties. In Timis County, said devices reached: 6 families of children in a privately-owned day-care facility from Timisoara, in Botosani County 10 families of children in a day-care facility, in Prahova and Giurgiu counties 3 families from deprived environments and in Gorj County 10 families of children in a day-care facility in Targu Jiu and a family in a day-care facility in Novaci.

Christian Kreutzer, Market Head ACEE & Transaction Lead NCEE Swiss Re Europe, stated:

"We take pride in the support we provided to Ajungem Mari, an organization that our partners from PAID Romania referenced. We are happy to see that by means of our donation children from deprived families have received laptops and tablets that will allow them to carry on studying, especially in the given context of the Covid-19 pandemic."