Education for 50 disadvantaged Romanian children

In the last period we are hosting many nice volunteers: Davide, Sofia and Alberto arrive from Italy for their Universal Civil Service project. They will remain a whole year. Giulia and Gabriele always come from Italy but for an ERASMUS+ project that lasts six months. It is the same project as Anthi, she came from Greece but remained only two months. There were already two other volunteers. Fanni, from Germany, and Maxime, from France. In June, other three Italian volunteers, Chiara, Giorgio and Giulia arrived, and they will stay for a month and others will arrive during the summer.

A children of the Center tells us about the volunteers:
"Hi, I'm David. I am four years old and I am part of the association Lumea lui Pinocchio. How many new faces at the Center in this last period! I also struggle to remember all their names. I am happy. Many volunteers means lots of games, lots of activities and lots of fun.
Sometimes the volunteers are a bit crafty Through games they make us do things that we usually wouldn't do.
For example, they invented a competition to clean up the garden of the Center. Those who collected more papers won the first prize. I collected so many because I wanted to win. I also found my snack bags! Doamna Monica [the theacher] tells me that snacks are unhealthy nut I would like to eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
At the Center Pinocchio we eat many other things: meat, pasta, ciorba (soup), fruit. I eat everything but I don't like the salad very much.
The volunteers helps us with homework in the afternoon. Actually I don't have a lot of homework but they teach me how to write letters and geometric shapes.
A few mornings the volunteers also came to visit me at the kindergarten. In reality they are not alone with me, even if I would like to. They do activities with all the children in the class. Games, songs and manual activities: we can't get bored. Every day they go to a different class, so I don't always see them.
They also designed a beautiful mural along the wall of our school and make us very happy”

Alberto one of the Italian volunteers tells us about his activities at the Center Pinocchio, expecially his crouwfounding campaign he actively promote with the aim to buy the shoes for the children.

“Easter makes me in a good mood. At the Center we ate boiled eggs and cozonac. Do you know “cozonac”? It's a typical Romanian dessert and I'm crazy about it.
Spring has also arrived with Easter. Usually in this period the season changes because the days start to get warmer. The children do not have a lot of stuff, especially shoes. They always use the same, old and shabby. That why we organized a fundraising campaign and at the end we were able to go with all the children to the store to buy new ones.
In the last period we also organized some special days:
On 9th May, the Day of Europe, we divided the children into teams and we did different races. Obstacle course, relay race, soccer.
On 1st June, the Day of Children, and we organized facepainting for all the children of Panciu: we transformed the children in clowns, dogs, cats and little monsters. They were all very funny.
In May, as every year, there was the Open Door at the Center: anyone can come to see how many beautiful things we do. Everyone really came! The police, the firemen, the nursery and the teachers of the school and many other people. For the occasion we had a great picnic in the garden. The days are becoming more beautiful and the sun is coming out. The snow a few months ago is just a bad memory and the school is running out. I look forward to live the summer in Panciu!"

Links:

• Facebook page of the Center Pinocchio
• Fundraising campaign for the shoes of the children

In my hands I have my plane ticket that will take me home after a few months spent volunteering in Panciu.
We often experience this image at Pinocchio Center where for 16 years many volunteers from different countries have been coming for a few weeks or for several months.
And while Andres, a Peruvian volunteer in Panciu for 6 months, is preparing to return to Lima,
on the other side of the Earth, Alexandru, is returning back to Romania after 6 months of volunteering in Lima.
Parallel lives, destinies that intersect in a great dream of helping others.

Each volunteer makes his or her piece, gives his or her special help, adds a small piece of a big puzzle.
I arrived in Panciu at the end of January. All around was white, snow-white. I approached the Pinocchio Center and I was struck by the colorful murals designed by Andres who is part of a group of artists of muralists in Peru. The drawings are more beautiful in reality than in photography, they are brilliant and give joy just by looking at them.

There are other volunteers at the Pinocchio Center in this period: Fanni and Maxime, Germany and France.
It almost seems to me like we are soccer teams of the world championships. But in Panciu the team is one with many players from all over the world. And it's very beautiful.
In the kitchen the menu is varied: from French crepes to Italian pasta, from rice to Romanian tocitura.

The children in the Center Pinocchio are used to the presence of volunteers who speak Romanian with strange accents and with gross grammatical errors. Moreover, Romanian has many rules
and it takes a few months before we can speak this language. The children laugh at the mistakes we make when we talk and we laugh with them. I think it's important to learn to laugh at mistakes.

Children who have more difficulties at school, the last of the class, are finally proud to be able to teach us
how words should be pronounced. It is good for anyone to be able to get out of the classroom and be in the role of a teacher sometimes. Children learn that there are many languages in the world, many different peoples. You can travel with the mind. Away from problems, privations and injustices.
I wonder if one day even these children will be volunteers in Panciu or in any country in the world.

Anyway, for everybody I wish a good jorney!