Education Romania Project #22268

Education for 50 disadvantaged Romanian children

by IBO ITALIA

Project Report | Aug 9, 2021
A better future - a journey after the post Covid-19

By Federica Gruppioni | Project manager

We grow together

Landing finished, the wheels roll quickly and the speed decreases. Here we are. Hurray!

I love to fly but that anxiety of the first flight never leaves me.

Here we are: Otopeni International Henri Coanda, Arrivals.

After a couple of hours I'm on the bus on my way from Bucharest to Panciu. From the window the road runs fast, the landscape returns to being familiar to me as if I were here the day before. And it is nice to see the Romanian countryside. In summer it is decorated by large coloured sunflower’s fields.

After 3 and a half hours of travel, on time, we arrive in Panciu. I take my big suitcase plenty of different things that people gave me knowing I was going to Panciu: carnival costumes, sweets and Italian coffee for the staff and volunteers.

I get off at the so called "Notar" (Notary) bus stop, because it is just opposite the notary's office. The statue of Ioan Slavici with the serious look is in its place in front of the school and on the other side of the street I see the "Piata", the market and shopping area, with benches crowded with Roma families who frequent the Pinocchio Center.

The children are the first to crank their necks with curiosity. Someone came from outside. Then the mothers, aunts, grandmothers, brothers and cousins, and the other indefinite relatives turn and talk to each other with their eyes turned towards me. A few hands rise and say hello. I greet too.

Someone gets up and starts crossing the street to come and see more closely, always the children are the first.

The questions begin: who are you? Your name is… Linda? And another suddenly intervenes "ba nu este Federica".

And I am amazed to see how much the children have grown up. Fernandito (little Fernando) is now taller than the elder Fernando. So, now I realize that a year and a half has passed and in between there has been, and unfortunately there still is, a pandemic.

And while other questions follow one another “How long are you staying? Why were you away? Do you remember of this person and the other one? ", the volunteers of the Lumea lui Pinocchio association arrived. The kindly came to welcome me at the stop.

Right now the Romanian staff is helped by a nice team of 7 volunteers from different countries: Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and even Bangladesh! Some of them arrived in October 2020 others more recently in March 2021.

Every day the volunteers help to serve lunch and snacks, they invent games and workers every day.

During the school period they supported the children in distance learning. Many children who attend the Pinocchio Center have no computer or internet at home, and they are not supported by their parents. For them, the Pinocchio Center was the only chance to not lose the school.

Jade, a French volunteer who arrived in Panciu last October 2020, saying that: "In June we prepared a show with them, with dances, theatre. They presented to their parents. Everyday we propose different activities to help the children to learn new things, based on a thematic: on Monday it's creative, we do origami, paintings; on Tuesday, we organize workshops about different important topics (bullying, violences, body consent, team work). Sometimes we use short movies to start to talk about a subject that the movie is about. Wednesday it's sport, we play games all together in the garden, we try to create a new game each time, where they have to run, use a ball, and cooperate. Thursday its strategic games. They played treasure hunt, labyrinth. And on Friday we do life-skills activities like gardening, sewing, cooking. We also try to promote healthy food and we cook different fruit-based recipes. "

My 10 days in Panciu run very fast into an atmosphere of reborn serenity, meeting the children at the Pinocchio Center, playing with them and with the smiling, generous and welcoming volunteers and staff. I came back to Italy together with a young volunteer who finished her 11 months of Voluntary Civil Service, she arrived in Panciu at the end of September 2020.

In her final report she wrote: “I'm Gabi, I'm 27. Thanks to IBO I was able to realize one of my dream: to have an experience abroad like the one just ended in Panciu. At the Pinocchio Center I worked with Roma children (approx. 4-13 years) with disadvantages, unfortunately. Illiteracy is widespread. Even more serious, however, is the lack of care.

Among the families of the children that attend the Pinocchio Center, we often face another important social problem: the alcoholism. And when this problem occurs, children are left behind, and even without food, due to economic difficulties or negligence.

Me together with the other volunteers and the staff of the Pinocchio Center have worked and are working, to help those children have a better future and at the same time to break down the rooted thought of prejudice towards them.

In these months I have had the opportunity to carry out many different recreational / educational recreational activities with children with the team of volunteers, the educator Oana and Mihai the coordinator, but also didactic activities to try to fill the serious basic gaps: knowing counting, doing simple math operations, learning letters and reading. Each activity is designed to develop a specific area; example: sensory-motor area: movement, outdoor sports activities; sensory area: develop the 5 senses; emotional area: knowing one's emotions and then becoming familiar with them, through the theatre.

The work of the Center is very important for these children as they need a safe place suitable for them, where they can find the support they need, care, attention, and at least one meal a day.

I think in this way they can have a future - in the future. "

I return home thinking that generosity really can change the world. I really THANK YOU because you believe in this project and support it.

Thank you for being part of this wonderful team which, despite the efforts, the fear of uncertainty about tomorrow, we believe that by helping children we can build a better future.

Water game

Gabi

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Apr 13, 2021
The best language course: Learning with children

By Letizia sabba | Project Leader

The year 2021 has started in the best way in the Center Pinocchio! Lights on, doors open, the smell of freshly baked cake populated by faces and stories from many different countries: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Vietnam! In the office, the new coordinator and social worker, Mihai, is committed to promoting and supporting the activities of the center in the best possible way, to create a network on the territory, to strengthen relations with the families of the beneficiaries. In the kitchen every day Mihaela prepares hot and always different meals with her mother's hands, to feed the children who have just come out of school and the volunteers who are waiting for them to spend the afternoon together. After lunch, divided into groups, our volunteers together with Oana give support in carrying out the tasks and propose non-formal education activities to develop the creative potential of all the children present. Given the gaps accumulated during this year of pandemic for children who were unable to follow school consistently, it was decided to build a "special" program to recover the basics necessary for attendance and understanding of the lessons, made up of games and engaging activities to train the basics of writing, reading and math, cultivating the motivation to learn.
One of the volunteers present through the European Solidarity Corps program, Elena, decided to tell us about her experience of these first months of service, made up of surprises, great challenges, learning and new friends!

Buna ziua!

My name is Elena, I am from Berlin and four months ago I went to Romania to do a social voluntary project with children in Panciu, a small city in the eastern part of the country. Many people have been asking me „Why Romania?“ and I always thought to myself „Why not?“. The world is big and I want to see as much of it as possible! And it is true - ever since I left my country, I got to know a whole other world that I never could have imagined before. Being part of a project in an unknown context really made me get the feeling than I am more than a tourist and I want to share with you here what i mean!

The Center Pinocchio is a daily Center for children, most of them are part of the Roma community. After school, they come here and we have lunch together and help them with their homework. After this, we do creative activities or games outside, at one point we also did a treasure haunt through Panciu. For this, we hid small notes in different places, starting at the supermarket, and then proceeding at the pharmacy and the local Cafe – and in the end they recieved a price. So you see – we are trying to be creative!

On the one hand, we sure want them to have fun and be happy, but on the other hand, we also try to support their education. Many of them lack essential bases, like reading, writing and calculating with bigger numbers. But not because they are stupid or simply don‘t want to learn but because their school system does not provide enough help for them. Besides this, their family sitautions are often complicated, dealing with violence or alcohol problems – shortly: they often lack the needed support.

This is why we started with a special afternoon program where we seek to expand their bases. We try to keep everything non-formal in order for them to have fun and stay motivated. Even if this is not always easy - with the right methods we have already done a lot - and with the time I have become really creative! Once for example we did a game where they had to write letters using their butts or a big maths game where we hid the results for the different tasks all over in the room – so it stays exciting!

It is clear that the childrens‘ life will not change just because of an afternoon program done by volunteers but it is essential to ensure the basis in order to be able to do the fist step to break the circle. With some children that I have been doing plus and minus tasks regularly during the last weeks, I could already notice some progress and seeing the children so happy and proud was unbelievable and one of the most beautiful things I have experienced here so far.

For what concerns the language I have made the experience that there is no better way of learning than learning with children! As almost none of them speak english we have no other choice than doing everything in Romanian and by doing this, the progress comes very quickly. The most popular sentences are: „Nu vreau“ (I don‘t want to), „Nu mai vorbesc cu tine“ (I don’t talk to you any more“) but also „Te iubesc“ (I love you).

Of course, it is not always easy. Many things I imagined differently and sometimes I really feel the need to express myself better than I am able to. But I am so happy to be part of this project and I can feel myself growing from day to day. The love and affection you can give to the children and the amount of love they give back to you is incredible and provides you with the needed motivation - I will stay blessed!

I will go on hiding maths results and I am happy about new ideas for non-formal ways of leraning and teaching, so feel free to hit me up!

Until then, o zi frumoasa and la revedere! Have a nice day and see you soon!

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Dec 15, 2020
2020: a difficult but precious year

By Letizia Sabba | Project Leader

distance learning at the Centre Pinocchio

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!

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