For the first time, in 2018, the World Bank dedicated all its The World Development Report to education, at an extremely well-chosen time. We are living in times of rapid growth, society is in a profound transformation, so education is vital, more than ever.
 
We have chosen, for many years now, to support the local community, through actions in many directions, believing that the good done must go towards the education and the support of children. Our financial support and involvement go to the Orphanage in Slobozia, Mihai Viteazul High School, for the participation of the French-speaking theatre troupe in various international competitions, and to the Capital Filles Association, which, in collaboration with the French Embassy, the Ministry of Education and Research, the French Institute and multiple companies with French shareholding, supports high school female students from a modest family environment, in their future professional orientation.
 
The Capital Filles mentoring program, in which our female employees are voluntarily involved, started in 2014, when this public-private initiative entered Romania, signing a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Education. Through us, the program was expanded throughout Ialomița County in 2016, bringing with us other partner companies. Ialomița County is the third region in Romania benefiting from this program, after Bucharest and Timișoara, with 3 high schools that benefit – Cuza-Slobozia Technological High School, Căzănești Technological High School and Fetești Technological High School. These institutions are selected by the School Inspectorates, according to the criteria of the association – the students have a modest social and economic condition and are enrolled in peripheral or rural high schools.
 
This year, we have a team of 9 mentor ladies involved in the program, guiding (together with other mentors from Slobozia) 27 female students in professional orientation and training, in discovering the business environment and certain fields and trades, but also in understanding how they can overcome their condition. Specifically, our volunteer colleagues in the program have regular meetings with the high school students, help them discover their potential and direction, support them in understanding the field of activity and how they can take the first steps towards internships and training necessary for their first job, and facilitate them meetings with experts in the field. Collective workshops are organised to present different trades and sectors of activity, in which the mentors come with their own inspiration and tell about their career paths, but also visits to the company premises. In the case of students in the 12th grade, the involvement is even deeper, the role of the mentor being to accompany the student throughout the school year in order to give her full support in choosing higher education and professional orientation.
 
In the last 3 years, in which we have been involved in the training and support of the female students from the high schools in the County, 37 young women (out of a total of 67 supported by other companies) have benefited from information, moral and professional support of the mentoring team of the company, having thus access to an evolution that should be normal for any child in Romania.