Adriana Darasteanu | September 2010

Ms. Adriana Darasteanu from Y-PEER Romania has been selected as the Peer of the Month for September 2010.  Adriana currently serves as a peer educator for the NGO, Youth for Youth Foundation (Y4Y), and is a leading Y-PEER Romania member. Her peer education experience began three years ago when she joined Y4Y.

As an active member of the network, she has organized numerous peer education activities and enjoys outreach with young people.  Adriana has found through her experience that outreach can be an effective way to communicate information about reproductive health issues such as HIV prevention, contraception and safe behavior.  In particular, she finds that young people are often more open to discuss such matters outside of school walls. As part of the program, Education for Family Life, she managed to reach out to 600 young people in her home city of Drobeta-Turnu.  

Aside from her work with young people in schools, she has conducted awareness sessions with young people in the Roma communities, which are vulnerable to a number of issues relating to HIV and STIs. While she finds being a peer educator to be very challenging sometimes, she admits, “I like to know that my involvement in the lives of teenagers has a positive impact concerning their responsible behavior and their decisions in life. I am an active person. I like to get involved in different activities and I’m doing this to put a smile on people’s faces.”

While Adriana is an independent person, she also recognizes the importance of team spirit to successfully execute any project.  Working with such a great team in Y-PEER Romania has taught her to make responsible decisions for herself and for her peers.

In addition to her educational activities, she also tries to recruit her friends to volunteer in the community.  Helping people overcome their challenges, she has said, contributes to personal growth and acquiring new skills.  Adriana is currently a graduate student at the Pedagigic St. Odobleja School. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching documentaries, taking walks with friends in the city park and singing karaoke.  Oh, and we almost forgot, she loves to volunteer.  She hopes you will too!