The 16-year-old weightlifter from Unțești, Ungheni district, won the European youth title in the 57 kg category in Kosovo, setting three European youth records and finishing 22 kg ahead of second place.
Ungheni does a lot for young people — and that is good. But a focus group hosted on 16 August by the District Youth Centre brought to light something rarer: the district calls its young people to the table of decisions too, not just to events. Behind it lies an infrastructure built up over time — a Youth Council with 35 members, drawn from at least half of the district's localities, forums, a co-participation conference with the mayors — and a centre that does not wait for young people but goes after them, all the way to the village. What is more, between 2016 and 2017, young people had a fund of their own, run by themselves — in a district where the number of young people has almost halved in a decade.
The weightlifter from the village of Unțești, Ungheni district, won three gold medals at the U17 World Youth Championships in Colombia and set two world records. She lifted her first barbell in her village's gym; the goal she has set herself is the Olympic Games.
