Education for 50 disadvantaged Romanian children

Dear friends of the Centre Pinocchio,

we’re writing you because we want to share with you what happened in the last months...very difficult months, but full of good news!

At the beginning of March, the Romanian government’s provisions for facing COVID-19 emergency caused a sudden interruption of the centre’s activities. After six months of closure, starting from September, we decided to do everything possible for the re-opening, always respecting limitations and provisions in force in this particularly complex period.

A first important step to support families and children in view of the beginning of the new school year has been the distribution of various material: back-papers, notebooks, colours and clothes. A first, little sign of closeness.

We then submitted a financing request for accessing to local public funds to sustain the Centre Pinocchio, with the hope of strengthening local contribution to our project. We cross our fingers to receive support also from local authorities!

At the same time, we started looking for new people to involve in local staff. The desire and the will to take off again with socio-educational activities became even stronger and more pressing as families and children started knocking at the centre’s door, asking for the possibility to come back to live the centre, to meet new volunteers, to find again their spaces and landmarks. It seems that, throughout the pandemic period, the relation between families, children and the Centre Pinocchio has become stronger; probably because, for the first time in so many years, they’ve concretely felt the lack of a welcoming place, where they can feel at home, a place made to measure for children, This situation, then, allowed children and families to rediscover, once again, the value of the centre.

A month ago, the Centre started to live again thanks to the arrival of four young volunteers from Italy, France, Spain and Germany. Then arrived Minh, a Russian-vietnamese volunteers responsible for the tutoring of other volunteers, with experience in the field of psycho-pedagogy and social pedagogy. A nice intercultural air came back in Panciu!

Since the beginning of November, new colleagues joined local staff: Mihai, coordinator and future social worker, and Oana, educator and kindergarten teacher. By their side, they found Mihaela, cook and responsible for the centre’s cleaning, Any Mary, collaborator for the social services’ sector; and Alina, accountant. Finally, a new team ready to start! A precious recourse is also Benedetta, a young ex-volunteer, who decided to collaborate with IBO Italia in this particularly challenging period and move to Panciu for some onths in order to contribute, with her enthusiasm and energies, to the re-opening of the centre.

In support to this valuable team and to the re-opening of the Centre, we luckily receive unexpected donations: Validsoftware, an organization that collects ICT material for the benefit of disadvantaged children, gave us 8 computers; the association PACT, a vocational training centre for minors and adults, brought us provisions of food for the canteen, clothes, games and educational material, detergents, electronic devices for equipping computers for children’s distance learning. A real godsend gift!

After a first period of training for the local staff and after having got back in touch with children and families, we accepted the challenge of re-opening the Centre Pinocchio, with the aim of fostering scholastic online attendance. For these disadvantaged children, to attend online lessons at home is almost impossible for the lack of basic conditions like internet connection and ICT devices.

Thus, we can happily tell you that, since three weeks, the Centre Pinocchio is again open and active: every day, promptly on time at 8 am, a first group of 10 children runs to the centre for attending online lessons with the support of volunteers and staff; in the afternoon, a second group of 10 children animates the centre. The canteen is working again and daily provides children with a hot and genuine lunch, in order to contribute to their healthy growth.

It goes without saying that the year 2020 has been difficult and painful. For those ones that lost loved ones, for those ones who had to face loneliness, for those ones that dealt with working and economic challenges. As it often unfortunately happens in difficult periods, who pays the hardest consequences are the "last ones": those who previously had disadvantaged conditions at social, economical, educational and cultural level, that already prevented them from living a serene life. Among the “last ones”, there the children and families beneficiaries of the Centre Pinocchio. 2020 has highlighted to what extent the work of the centre is precious and fundamental in order to break the vicious circle of discrimination and to contribute building a better future for them.

The new provisions on contagion’s prevention impose a series of restrictions that inevitably cause new efforts, in terms of human and economic resources. We strongly hope that we can count on many people’s affection, who are following the Centre Pinocchio’s adventures and will continue supporting its activities for the benefit of the most vulnerable children and families of Panciu.

Thanks from the bottom of the Centre Pinocchio's heart for supporting this special project!! We wish you all a Meery Christmas!

Dear friends,
September has come, a September of a very difficult year for everybody and everywhere.
In Panciu, life is trying to go on as always, even if the new context born out of the recent COVID-19 pandemic has further aggravated inequalities and economic problems. The number of vulnerable families is increasing and the fear for the future is constantly growing.

School is going to re-open after many months. Since 9th March 2020 - since the state of emergency was imposed - the school and the daily centre Pinocchio have been closed due to governmental provisions to limit contagion and teaching has turned into distance learning. As a consequence, children with huge scholastic difficulties found themselves completely deprived of their right to learn, because in the majority of their homes no computer, no tablet and neither any internet connection is available. Furthermore, most of their families are illiterate and, thus, cannot follow the rhythms of distance learning or provide support for homework.

The role the Centre Pinocchio is called to carry out is thus even more important in this particular context. The Centre is still closed and we are re-organizing spaces, resources and daily programmes in order to guarantee safe and healthy conditions for the staff and the children. Re-opening means also to respect a series of special measures (hygienic-sanitary devices, limited number of accesses, the reorganization of work and personnel, etc.) aimed at limiting the danger of contagion. These provisions lead to an increase in costs for the Centre Pinocchio, which, combined with an extremely difficult economic situation, cause serious concerns.
The Centre, now more than ever, needs the help of friends and donors in order to be again a point of reference for disadvantaged children, to offer them socio-educational support and to guarantee a daily meal for the poorest ones.

Here below, we want to share with you all the words of the Centre Pinocchio’s educator.

“When, some years ago, we thought about changing the name of the association from “Rom pentru Rom” (“Roma people for Roma people”) into “Lumea Lui Pinocchio” (“Pinocchio’s world”), we did not imagine that the change itself will be something positive and it will achieve results in short time. Now I only can imagine that every child is a Pinocchio. Their life has changed since the moment when they stepped from the center gates. As I am working here for 15 years, I met many generations of children, of volunteers, and of colleagues. Each of them had left something behind, and you can find their mark in every corner of the Centre Pinocchio. Between us and the children, the exchange was reciprocal teaching. I learned that we should be happy about every simple thing which life had given us, about every smile those wonderful children had shown. Speaking about changes and results, there is much to say and maybe words can not show reality. I am not able to make you understand how much it matters for this center to continue working and how important is this reality for children of Panciu. At the Centre they are children, here they live their childhood, here they receive love and affection which they do not find home, here they can smile.
Center Pinocchio is “home” for these children. Imagine that when this project started, only 6-7 children were going to school. Now all children who are attending the center are also enrolled in school, that is 54 children. Their attendance to school is a good result. Thanks to after-school programs, scholastic drop-out decreased, school results increased and the rejection rate has decreased. Relations with the institutions are much closer than in the past. School respects now what we are doing; they realized that thanks to the Centre these children are cleaner and healthier,also thanks to to the canteen program that provides food necessary for good growth of their age. They are more respectful and they have improved school conduct. I realize how much this center is important for these disadvantaged children and families, just thinking about their individual stories...Just to give you some examples:
-M., a child abandoned at 2 months by his mother, left under the care of his grandparents, lived in a single room with many more family members. It was difficult to register him to school, and when he came to the center he was very dirty and neglected. Now he goes to school, but without his grandparents encouraging him, which makes his frequency not very good, but it is a good start. At the center he receives hot water, soup, a toothbrush, warm food, help with the homework, educational activities, and most importantly warmth and affection. It is not easy, he grew up and vices are easy to be taken. He started smoking, he started to skip school, we were with him with advice and rebuke. Here there would be need for a special help such as a counselor or a psychologist, which the center lacks. It is important that M. is healthy, happy when he comes to the center, where he does the homework, eats healthy and plays football with the volunteers. He likes playing football a lot like other boys from the center.

Another boy who likes playing football is F. He come from a very poor and disaggregated family. His father had never agreed to let him goes to school, but he went in spite of this. He is now grown up, continues going to school and enjoys coming to the center. He is a kind and intelligent child. I like to underline that his older sister Dorina has never been to school and she learned to write and read with us, with Pinocchio. Now she is attending “second chance” program for children who exceeded the school age and can no longer be register at the normal school program.

Another child about whom we can speak is N., a girl who is now no longer a girl, she has grown up. She is at fifth grade which is a good result as she continues to go to school in spite of the fact that she came from a big family with big financial problems. Her courage exceeds the difficult situation, and makes her go forward with her grandmother and sister M. who is at first grade this year. She really needs a lot of support with her homework but she’s ambitious.

There are many other children, each one of them with a complex story and with little daily achievements. I hope these words make you realize how much it matters that this center continues working and how much we appreciate your support. It would be extraordinary to keep in touch and to be able to offer those wonderful children a chance of serene life, our support, and the education that a child needs to grow up and become a beautiful adult.

The Centre Pinocchio thanks you for all your supports and hopes that you will keep standing by our side, even in this particularly difficult moment!”