The exemplary story of young Anton Varga

A young man who grew up in several children’s homes in Satu Mare county opened, on Saturday, a center for young people who leave the juvenile protection system and need further support to find a job and integration, transmits Agerpres.

The Eliezer House was opened in the town of Micula, being purchased by the Eliezer Association and modernized with the help of several sponsors. A maximum of 10 boys who have turned 18 and can no longer be kept in the child protection system can be accommodated here for a limited period of time.

The one who founded the Eliezer Association, Anton Varga, was abandoned at the age of 3 months, grew up in several children’s homes, in 2011 he left the system, and for 10 years he was employed, after which he founded the NGO and devoted himself to social activities.

“At 18, the realization that I had to leave the center hit me in a flash, even though I knew it was going to happen. Unfortunately, young people are not taught how to manage in life after they are no longer under the protection of the state. For example, they should also know how to write a CV, a cover letter, ask for support from institutions, orient themselves to find a job, manage their money to ensure a future. I came out of the state’s tutelage, together with my brother, and because we liked the work we managed to get a job, and the few pennies we had we managed to pay our rent and have the bare necessities. I only had a spoon and a fork when I left the center”, said Anton Varga.

He confessed that he understood that he had to get involved in supporting other young people after he had a dream.

“The cruel moments I went through did not bring me down. I somehow found the strength to welcome God into my life, especially in adolescence, when I understood that He is truly the father of orphans and widows. He was my father in moments of balance when I didn’t feel supported and understood. He helped me become a man and build everything from nothing. This is how the Eliezer Association, then the Eliezer House, was born, from feelings, from suffering, from the desire to do good in the community. The Eliezer Association was born in a night dream. Near a field of wheat, on the side of a road, there were many children without hands and feet, and a white angel sat down next to me and told me that I had to put hands and feet on them, then I had to put them in the wheat field wheat, where they had to gather their food. On the field of wheat, Eliezer wrote, My God is my help,” said Anton Varga.

In August 2021, he founded the association, and later started the activity.

“What followed is incredible because things connected very nicely and in a very short time we found a great openness of the community towards the activity of our association. Probably because people were sensitive to the story of my life, but also because the people of Satmărăni are good people at heart and when they saw that we are a serious association they joined us and supported us, from institutions to large companies and small ones from the county, up to schools and kindergartens, individuals. Through many actions, Casa Eliezer was the dream waiting to be fulfilled. There were whole days when I walked around the county looking for a house, I called real estate companies to look for a house, but the doors were being closed to me because the money was very little. Until, one day, a very special person gave me the version of the house in Micula. In June 2022, I entered the yard of the owner, who is a widow, and I left a little sad because of the price, which far exceeded the savings. I searched again, but nothing matched. Then I received God’s news about the house in Micula. I couldn’t imagine how this dream could come true. In October 2022, I concluded the contract, managing over time to pay the full amount gradually, it being the guarantee without which the owner would not have given us the house”, he said.

Practically, in the Eliezer House, young people will not only find a home, but they will be counseled, taught to be self-sufficient and manage their money.

“Gradually, the Eliezer House began to take shape, a center intended for young people who leave the social protection system, young people whom we want to teach, advise and guide to be in control of their lives, providing them with the resources necessary to train them as wholesome people , to become a model for other institutionalized young people. Casa Eliezer can host a maximum of 10 young boys who will be actively involved, be hardworking, find and keep their job, learn to manage themselves, work the land, and then integrate into society and lead a decent life, to start a family. We have 32 acres behind us, Casa Eliezer does not support stinky people, Casa Eliezer transforms people, and let the garden here bear fruit for us and for the community, so that we can teach the young people who are here”, said Anton Lace.

The President of the Satu Mare County Council, Pataki Csaba, declared that Anton Varga’s example should be multiplied and thanked the companies that made donations.

“Congratulations on your perseverance. Some know Anton very well. You take him out the door, enter through the window and don’t give up. He is a fighter for a noble cause, which should be a common cause for us countrymen. The most valuable asset that this county has are the young generations, no matter in what form and where they are. They are the future. We, if we help them, can create values. And Anton was created by a state system, but he was trained in a good direction and tends to train many other young people, let’s not look at them as a burden. We, society, should teach these children to fly, not throw them from the floor, teach them from the shadows, as we do with our system and from partnerships with several NGOs”, said Pataki Csaba.

The director of the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection, Mariana Dragoş, showed that she is at the inauguration primarily as Anton’s “mother”.

“I am here, I could say, as Anton’s mother, because I have always considered him as my own child. He was one of the children I was very fond of as a child. Since then I felt that he will do something very good in life. I used to go to Anton’s and many times I told myself that I might be wrong that there are 50 other children there, but I always went on his birthday. I know he was very happy. There were many of us in the Directorate who sympathized with him very much. Anton has always been an ambitious child, he wanted to show that it is possible even if the conditions and fate were not so favorable. He grew up without parents, there were times when it was difficult for us to tell him his past, when he had to digest certain places with difficulty, but he had a strength and an inner spring that many of us, as adults, do not have they have”, said Mariana Dragoş.

She emphasized the fact that this is not a simple center, but one where young people will be taught to be self-sufficient, and there are already four young people who will benefit from these services.

“Lack of a roof, lack of parental love, lack of emotional support speak for themselves. At the moment, 80% of the children are cared for in families and I have great respect for these families, the children remain in those families even after 18 years and they take care to integrate socio-professionally. Instead, those children who did not grow up in the alternative system need support. When Anton started this project, we were a little reluctant. We thought first of all about the financial resources that need to be invested. I was thinking how he was going to make it. This center is different because, in addition to a house, it offers young people the opportunity to work, to be self-sufficient, to acquire independent life skills. Many times at the age of majority, they don’t even know the value of a penny, although we work and there are initiatives. I had projects in which I involved Anton as a mentor, to be an example for other young people. I have already seen the first four beneficiaries and I wish them success”, Mariana Dragoş pointed out.

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