Romanian non-profit organisation Ateliere Fără Frontiere (AFF) champions both social justice and the circular economy. It gives a chance to marginalised people, such as refugees, Roma or the homeless, to get into the world of work and it does so in an environmentally responsible way.  Its longest standing project ‘educlick’ has been employing vulnerable people since 2008, by having them refurbish used computers and other electronic devices, which are then donated to underfunded schools. In 2021, educlick won them the EESC Civil Society Prize.

In the past four years, AFF has not stood still – educlick went on to expand and the organisation has launched three more integration workshops. AFF’s managing director, Cristina Bîcîilă, told us more about her outstanding organisation.

Your project, educlick, earned you the EESC’s Civil Society Prize on climate action in 2021. Could you tell us more about the project and how it has evolved since?

educlick is the first workshop Ateliere Fara Frontiere set up back in 2008 to integrate vulnerable people into society by providing them with the professional and emotional support they need to access the labour market. Here they are part of a circular economy model that collects waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), which is then sorted and directed towards either recycling or refurbishment. The reused devices are then donated to educational institutions in disadvantaged areas. 

Winning such a prestigious award has played a big role in our growth, as the EESC’s Civil Society Prize stood as a sign of recognition and value for our partners in the private and public sectors.

Since receiving the award in 2021, we have welcomed 56 new colleagues into our work-integration programme, with 26 of them already securing employment in the open labour market or enrolling in educational pathways aligned with their goals. In terms of environmental impact, we estimate that we prevented 720 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions in 2024 alone, thanks to the 4000 refurbished computers we donated to underfunded schools.

As for challenges, the war in Ukraine forced us to adapt quickly. We welcomed vulnerable Ukrainian men and women into our workshops, many of whom faced language barriers. To support them, we brought in Russian and Ukrainian-speaking counsellors to provide tailored assistance.

In your workshops, you employ marginalised people. How many have been given a chance to work with you so far? How do you find them? Do you follow up with them after the project ends? Do you have information on whether working with you has helped them to better integrate into the labour market and society?

So far, more than 300 marginalised people have found support at educlick, most of whom were referred to us by partners offering social services in both the public and private sectors.

At educlick, our colleagues join a multi-step social integration programme: starting with a needs assessment interview, we design a personalised pathway that includes accommodation, stabilisation, professional development and, ultimately, employment in the open market.

After this two-year process, we continue to monitor their progress for at least six months to support their integration. Our goal is to help them become independent and confident in their abilities, ready to enter the job market or pursue education aligned with their long-term goals.

Apart from educlick, what are your other projects through which you employ people from marginalised communities, including refugees? Could you describe one you are especially proud of?

educlick is only one of our four work integration workshops, all of which are designed to offer the best available support for the employment of our vulnerable colleagues:

• ‘remesh’ collects meshes from advertising campaigns and repurposes them into clothing and home products. It is an upcycling model in a workshop that best suits women who are single mothers or victims of domestic violence searching for stability.
• ‘bio&co’ is a farm outside Bucharest where we grow organic vegetables and deliver them weekly to our urban customers to create healthy alternatives to the fast-paced life of the city (‘farm-to-fork’ model). Here our colleagues are mostly people from the local rural community where access to the job market is limited.
• ‘logitetic’ is our latest workshop where we respond to the increasing need companies have for logistics and packing. Here we hire people with disabilities, as the overall workplace is best suited to their needs,

Beyond our daily work in the four workshops, we are particularly proud of the projects we designed specifically for Ukrainian refugees. This was a new experience for us, and being able to act and adapt so quickly is something we're proud of, even though the very context of war goes against everything we stand for. Still, the stories and heroes we’ve met along the way have left a lasting mark on us and revealed the deeper role we can play in our community.

You are a grassroots organisation working to help vulnerable communities integrate into the labour market in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way. Given the current political climate – especially the rise of right-wing parties and declining concern for the environment – do you observe less solidarity and growing prejudice towards these communities? Has there been any impact on your work? As an organisation working on the ground, what do you think would be a successful recipe for lasting inclusion?

To put it mildly, it’s a tough time for empathy. Unfortunately, we have also observed that the most vulnerable tend to be blamed for most of contemporary society’s problems.

However, our very foundation was based on acting in times of need: to be a model of coexistence between people who come from different backgrounds, despite all the animosity communities might have towards each other.

Therefore, we continue to do what we have always done: we see ourselves simply as a launchpad helping our colleagues in difficult situations regain their self-confidence and combat the stigmatisation they face by challenging themselves and taking responsibility for their future, choosing not the easiest path, but the most fulfilling one.

Cristina Bîcîilă is managing director at Ateliere Fără Frontiere, a Romanian non-profit and social enterprise dedicated to the socio-professional integration of vulnerable people through four social businesses that combine inclusion with circular economy solutions. She is also vice-president of the European Network of Social Integration Enterprises (ENSIE).