Objectives

"Takeover Day " celebrates the right of all children and young people to participate in society and takes place every year around the International Day of the Rights of the Child (20th of  November).

The concept  is simple: under the guidance of a coordinator, children and young people, aged 12-18,  choose the jobs they want to take over, and then they are connected by teacher-coordinators or by Terre des hommes with mentors from their community or from a series of well-known public figures . Children then spend a ”work day” with their mentor. The child’s safety at the ’work’ place is ensured by an attendant (parent, guardian, teacher, friend, etc.).

The first edition of our Takeover Day project took place in 2012 and was inspired by the "Takeover Day" model from Great Britain. The initiative is being implemented by the Terre des hommes Romania (Tdh) together with its public and private sector partners, who recognize the great potential of young people.

The general objectives are:

- Recognizing the right to participation of children and young people in Romania;

- Introducing a modern educational model, implemented across the country;

- Creating a framework where children and young people can explore their vocation, express themselves and develop their potential;

- Facilitating the social inclusion of vulnerable children and young people and respecting their rights. Takeover Day values ​​the participation of all children and young people.

"It was an extraordinary day for us, and I don't think we would have had this opportunity otherwise. It helped us become more aware of the steps we have to follow in our diplomatic career. It seems simple, but it is a great responsibility to represent a state in another country, to try to understand the culture, the political structure, and to adapt so that the people you represent are completely safe, " said Andreea and Ștefan.

Another component of the initiative represents the meetings that Terre des hommes directly mediates with different personalities from Romania,  to offer children access to an otherwise relatively distant world.

Chronology

2022 edition

Between November and December, 53 Romanian and Ukrainian children were connected with mentors from various professions in Brasov, Bucharest and Constanta.  Meetings took place face to face, at the workplace of the mentor, as in the original &pre-pandemic concept. As part of our efforts to integrate the refugee children, there was also an event bringing them all together just before Christmas.

2021 edition

Another online edition who showed how internet can help increase our reach. We brought together mentors with hundreds of children from various areas in the country. 

2020 edition

The ninth edition took place exclusively online in 2020 and consisted of meetings between about 500 children and 50 local mentors, organized throughout the country by teachers, under our coordination. The Terre des hommes Foundation also mediated online meetings between children and no fewer than ten Romanian and foreign personalities from different fields, who answered the children's questions about their profession. Here is the news about the 2020 Takeover Day.

2019 edition

For the eighth edition organized in 2019, almost 7,000 children took over jobs from a mentor and over 600 coordinators facilitated this process. The most coveted jobs were: police officer (16%), doctor (15%), teacher (15%), and IT programmer (7%). The children most interested in this program were 14-year-olds (22%), followed by 17-year-olds (17%) and 13-year-olds (16%). The children enrolled children came from Bucharest (8.5%), Bistrița Năsăud (7.8%), Bacău (7.4%) and Iași (7.2%).