Education for 50 disadvantaged Romanian children

"January 20th, 11 pm. Everything is silent and sleepy in Panciu, still snowy and cold despite the shy sun that in these days has come to warm us, as if it just wanted to say: “Hi... see you in a couple of months”. In the volunteers' house there is a big silence, too; you only hear the crackling and trembling fire of the “sobe” (local wood stoves), our unique form of home heating; it is a pleasant sound, it became almost a friend, a daily companion with which I've learned to live since October, when I arrived here for my year of voluntary service.

It's a bright fire, the same I find in the eyes of the Romanian and Roma children of my second home, the Centre Pinocchio. This is a world where people try to answer to contradictions and social needs offering education to children. Because children are the only seeds who, with time and patience, can bloom. This is a place where every day, every hour, every minute I observe, learn, help, play, think, wonder, and the answers to the deepest questions haven't arrived yet – if ever will come.

A centre based on non formal education, the only reference point in Panciu for building bridges and connections among families, school and public institutions. Here children return, in order to live their rights: to eat, to do homework, to play. Thus, they became again children without feeling any discrimination, and then they go outside Pinocchio's world and restart living as adults.

I still look at this fire and I think that, being so lively and vivacious, it is not different from what I see in the eyes of F. when, whispering with a bit of shame, he asks me to write his name on a piece of paper so that he could copy it. Like the majority of the children attending the Centre Pinocchio, F. is a Roma child and this prevents him from accessing school as a real opportunity to learn and grow. He's 9 years old and still doesn't know how to write his name.

I see the same flame in the eyes of C. who, full of energy and hope, asks me to help him doing homework in Romanian language; thanks to this request, we start laughing about my “flawed” Romanian. He laughs at me... at least he's not the only one facing difficulties!

I recognize the same fire in the eyes of V., too. I first met him an evening, he was begging in the street. He was having great fun looking at a cigarette butt, that was still burning on the ground. Despite cars passing by, it didn't want to die out. V. was laughing with the eyes of a child who wanted to be a child, looking at a cigarette which was fizzling out in the middle of the street.

I discover once again this flame in the eyes of S., who is hospitalized and holds back tears of joy just seeing an orange, some milk and biscuits we bring him. He would like to scream to the world the feeling of being loved, even though love comes from these unknown volunteers; his eyes shout this silent expression.

In the eyes of the Centre Pinocchio's children, there's this trembling fire; a fire that the majority of them does not know to have. Several times it seems to fade away, but in the end it resists. Every day it's lightened up by a hot meal, some play and homework together.

It's a fire which I consider it is worth spending a year of my life for.

It's a fire which I do really hope will never fade."

Dear Donors and Friends of the Centre Pinocchio,

this time we decided to share with you the touching words of Ilaria, a long-term volunteer at the Centre Pinocchio. We hope we made you feel closer to the atmosphere we daily live at our centre, to the commitment in making education accessible for all, to the efforts in keeping alive the fire of every single child. Your support and your kind generosity are of vital importance for these disadvantaged children in order to provide them with proper nutrition, scholastic support and recreational activities. That's why we would like to ask you a small additional effort: during the week of April 3rd to 7th, GlobalGiving will be matching donations up to $50 at 50% -  Little by Little Campaign.

So, save the date and begin April with a small donation to our project! Your generosity will be multiplied for the beenfit of 50 Romanian children!

Thank you in advance!

„Panciu, 7 am, the alarm clock is ringing.

The coffee maker is ready and the backpaper, too. 30 apples, 30 glasses, 3 litres of juice and a great sleepiness.

Five minutes walk, just the time to open my eyes, to prepare my ears to listen, to warm up during the winter and enjoy the first summer in spring. Five minutes that are filled up, every signle day, with faces, customs and habits, greetings and sleepy smiles. The street's intersection, the white dog barking behind the car. Every morning repeats itself, every morning gets filled up.

At the intersection of the two main streets, there's the statue of Ioan Slavici and a little wall where you can sit and wait. That's our place, the meeting point of those who are leaving and those who are arriving; of children, workers, dogs, cars and other dogs chasing other cars.

A couple of children are waiting and a couple of children maybe will let us wait for them. Some of them stay until the school bell rings, only to talk a little or to receive one more biscuit. Some prefer to smile at us from afar.

Panciu spins around us. Some people look and make questions; some people already know, because in Panciu everybody knows everything.

It's been 5 months since we started bringing breakfast to the children attending the Centre Pinocchio. It's an idea, which was born in order to encourage children to go to school and to start the day with energy and on a full stomach. Children without alarm clock, who decide to go to school even if there's nobody at home to wake them up, to prepare and encourage them.

I recall when I was little, my school years. My mother's vocal alarm, the removed blankets and, in the worst case, the open window. I recall I often refused breakfast, so that I had more time under the blanket. I recall my scarce track of time and responsibility.

The breakfast at the statue has become an opportunity to meet, a constant presence, with rain, with cold, with sun, with dogs. In the morning we are people of few words, but of gentle words.”

These are the words of Alice, IBO's volunteer at the Centre Pinocchio in 2016. Thanks to the active involvement of volunteers, we have started providing this new service for the benefit of the 50 disadvantaged children attending the Centre Pinocchio. Thanks to the kind support of Global Giving's donors we can guarantee this new and smiling start of the day to those children that unfortunately do not have the same opportunities as their peers. The „Breakfast at the statue” started at the beginning of 2016 and is still running; it started as a pilot initiative with small hopes of being useful or welcome. It was a bet. Instead, it revealed to be succesfull and today, at the beginning of 2017, children do know they can count on a smile and a genuine brakfast at the beginning of every day. And they do also know that breakfast means school, school means education and education means building a better future for themselves.