Romania: Volunteer Journalism Internships and Work-Experience

Romania: Volunteer Journalism Internships and Work-Experience

Welcoming volunteers of all abilities, a placement on our Journalism Internship in Romania gives volunteers huge scope for gaining journalistic experience and a real insight into life in the mountainous Romanian province of Transylvania.

You don't need to speak Romanian to join our Journalism Project. All we ask for is a good standard of written English and the enthusiasm to help put together a magazine that will prove interesting to both locals and visitors wanting to find out more about life in rural Romania. Living in this fascinating country, you'll have no shortage of inspiration for stories to research and write about, greatly enhancing your CV as you do so.

For volunteers who are on a gap-year looking to get onto a related university course, or those looking for employment following graduation, a Projects Abroad Journalism placement can set you on the right track. This Journalism placement is also suitable for working journalists and experienced professionals who wish to take a career-break or broaden their horizons.

Journalism volunteers in Romania will also contribute to Voices of the World, an online weekly newspaper and magazine that allows aspiring young journalists to express their views, engage in dialogue and learn about one another through journalistic exploration of topics that greatly affect our world today and their world tomorrow.

Volunteers who are 25 years old or younger can participate in weekly workshops, undertake assignments for Voices of the World, conduct interviews and write articles. Older volunteers can work as trainers and coordinators for the local young people involved or the volunteers who are also participants. In this capacity, they can hold workshops, proofread or edit articles and discuss ideas for articles.  

Print Journalism Placements in Romania with Projects Abroad

On our Journalism project, based in Brasov, you will work for a magazine called ‘Satul’, which translates as ‘The Village’. The magazine was created by, and is edited by Adrian and Ana Andrei, a young couple with great vision. During their travels through rural Romania, Adrian and Ana were touched by the richness of ancient Romanian traditions that still manage to survive, despite Romania’s increasing globalisation. They decided to create ‘The Village’ in order to help keep alive the spirit of rural identity with its many different manifestations in modern Romanian life.

The magazine is printed every two and a half months. There are plans for it to be translated into French and German in the future. Every issue is comprised of about 70 to 100 pages.

The magazine is distributed nationally through a network of well-known book stores, museums, tourist attractions, town halls, traditional restaurants and rural guesthouses. The magazine is also available at festivals, exhibitions and to subscribers. Some of the magazine’s subscribers are the Romanian Royal House and famous actors, painters and musicians. The magazine is also distributed internationally, to several different embassies. In this way volunteers’ work is helping to make sure that Romanian traditions and customs are known to both local and foreign readers.

Your role as a Journalism Volunteer in Romania

Projects Abroad volunteers working at ‘The Village’ will be responsible for producing the magazine’s English section.

As a Journalism volunteer you will have the opportunity to visit one or more Romanian villages during your placement (depending on your placement duration) in order to get to know rural Romania and report on it. You will interview mayors, teachers, craftsmen, priests and simple peasants; you will research into their way of life and struggles dealing with the modern world, and determine how these ancient traditions have survived in urban life.

There is great scope for getting involved; volunteers can participate in many village events, taste traditional food and write gastronomic reviews, you may meet and interview Romanian minorities and experience a visit to a village church on a Sunday. Previous volunteers have also interviewed institutions responsible for rural development programmes and have written about the role of traditional medicine in rural communities. You will be encouraged to develop your own interests and suggest new ideas and subjects for your articles.

During your time with ‘The Village’, you will gain valuable experience in all the processes involved in putting together a commercial magazine. You will have the opportunity to learn how to research, write, proof-read, edit and analyse an article. Additionally, you can help take photographs to illustrate your own writing and design the pages that will host your work.

We greatly value the skills that you will gain working for ‘The Village’ and we expect you to share them. In order for you to use these skills to the benefit of the local community, we have started weekly Journalism Clubs in two local primary schools. Under the supervision of our Journalism Manager, Alexandra Ichim, you will coordinate 6 to 10 children in each school to create a small monthly school newspaper. The children are selected based on their English level and writing skills, photography, drawing and computer skills. The children then take on all the roles that are involved in the creation of a publication: reporters, editors, proof-readers, photographer and designers.

This project is available for two weeks if you don't have time to join us for a month or more. This project has been selected by our local colleagues as being suitable for short term volunteering for both the host community and the volunteer. Although you will gain a valuable cultural insight and work intensely within the local community please be aware that you may not be able to make the same impact as someone volunteering for a longer period. The magazine is a bi-monthly publication so by joining the project for two weeks you may not be at the placement when the edition is printed.

This placement is also available for 16-19 year olds as a 2-Week Special placement.