Dear donors and supporters,
Thank you for your support of the project. Your trust gave us the strength to move on. Also, Ruta and Beni are joined us in our thanks.
We believe that these workshops of ours that aim to pay more attention to the children’s health will also trigger an different approach towards children who have exaggerated fears.
Although the children are burdened with a large number of school activities, we managed to do a new workshop on fears. We tried to make it as interesting as possible for them, but still a small number of them came. However, Ruta was delighted with that fact, since she had the opportunity to discuss their fears with each child individually. Workshop was held in the Tin Ujevic library, Zagreb. It is already our usual meeting place. The workshop was attended by children from the Elementary School Julija Klovica, Zagreb and this was our fourthworkshop in a row.
During the lecture Ruta also explains that fear is a completely natural emotion like any other, and this time the students tried two self-calming/self-regulation technique. She also describes the technique of talking with one's own fear. Students write down their fear on a piece of paper and hold it in their hand.
"Imagine that Beni is your fear. Let's go talk to him." The technique of talking with fear is carried out by one or two students under the guidance of the leader. It was really interesting to see what fears children have; from being alone at home; from different insects; from failing at school; from bad grades and fear of the dark. After the workshop, everyone confirmed that their fear is much less and that they are no longer afraid.
Also, after the workshop we were happy because the children were extremely satisfied with everything they learned. We continued with informal socializing and we had a discussion on how to involve parents more in the whole project who, due to lack of time and a large number of obligations, are not very cooperative. However, expected results of the workshop were achieved especially in the part: awareness of one's own fears and fear regulation mechanisms, recognizing fears and sharing emotions with others, practicing techniques for dealing with fears and getting to know fears and connecting students and developing empathy towards others and towards dogs.
The realization of project activities in the previous period is in accordance with the set goals of the project, related to the following:
All those activities will help prevent later severe forms of anxiety and at the same time contribute to solving related specific social problems and proactively influence the development of the community as a whole.
The innovativeness of this type of workshop is reflected in the type of service provided to students. Activities with a therapy dog are unique and not yet so frequent and well-established in the educational system, despite numerous worldwide studies that show that the mere presence of a dog raises the mood, motivates activity and prolongs attention and concentration on the task. Considering the relaxing and stimulating role of therapy dogs for children's development, this type of workshop represents an innovative activity for Croatian school students.
Therefore, your support is invaluable for all of us especially for the children from Croatia. We also believe that the pictures in the attachment will cheer you up and that you will see that your donated funds are used for the right purpose.
With love and warmth,
The Libera Team
Links:
Dear donors and supporters,
We are immensely grateful for your support of the project. The fact that you gave us your trust gave us the strength to move on.
Also, Ruta and Beni are joined us in our thanks.
We believe that these workshops of ours that aim to pay more attention to the children’s health will also trigger an different approach towards children who have exaggerated fears.
We hope that they will be treated in a school and in the environment with lots of care, tenderness and compassion.
The therapeutic dog Beni, alongside with the psychologist Ruta, came to the workshop we held at the Library “Tin Ujevic” Zagreb.
The workshop was attended by 5th grade from the Elementary School Julija Klovica Zagreb and this was our third workshop in a row.
With Beni ’ s help, Ruta also explains that fear is a completely natural emotion like any other, shares its own fear and encourages students to write down their 3 fears on the Post-it notes and list below them on a scale of 1 to 10 that is the most difficult for them.
Then the students are asked to draw that fear on paper and give them a one-word name.
After the workshop, everyone confirmed they were looking forward to another meeting with Benny and Ruta.
Also, we continued with informal socializing, and we believe that this year we're going to bring more parents to the workshops, because we want them to react in the right way in situations of excessive fear in a child.
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/we-empower-croatian-children-to-overcome-fears.
The realization of project activities in the previous period is in accordance with the set goals of the project, related to the following:
All those activities will help prevent later severe forms of anxiety and at the same time contribute to solving related specific social problems and proactively influence the development of the community as a whole.
Therefore, your support is invaluable to us. I am sure we will achieve all our goals in New Year and we will continue to build a positive story thanks to your support and support of GlobalGiving.
With love and warmth,
The Libera Team
Links:
LIBERA
Croatian Association for Education, Entrepreneurship and
International Cooperation
PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT FOR „WE EMPOWER CROATIAN CHILDREN TO OVERCOME FEARS“
Dear donors and supporters,
We are immensely grateful for your support of the project in these challenging times. The fact that you gave us your trust gave us the strength to move on.
The Coronavirus pandemic was a great challenge for us and due to the compliance with Covid19 measures we were unable to hold workshops in schools. Although we were aware of the fact that during that time children needed us the most.
Also, we believe that these small steps of ours that aim to pay more attention to the mental health of children in these challenging times, will also trigger an approach towards children who have exaggerated fears. And that they will be treated with lots of care, tenderness and compassion.
I am sure we will achieve our goals and we will continue to build a positive story thanks to your support.
The therapeutic dog Beni, alongside with the psychologist Ruta, came to the workshop we held at the Library “Tin Ujevic” Zagreb. The workshop was attended by the Elementary School Julije Klovic, Zagreb 5th graders, with the presence of their teacher.
And with Beni’s help, Ruta also encouraged them to think about their emotions, whether they were positive or negative. The workshop passed in a cheerful mood and the children learned, through socializing with the therapeutic dog, how to recognize negative emotions such as fear and how to overcome them in a painless way.
After the workshop, everyone confirmed they were looking forward to another meeting with Beni and Ruta.
After the workhop program, we continued with informal socializing.
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/we-empower-croatian-children-to-overcome-fears.
The realization of project activities in the previous period is in accordance with the set goals of the project, related to the following:
All those activities will help prevent later severe forms of anxiety and at the same time contribute to solving related specific social problems and proactively influence the development of the community as a whole. Therefore, your support is invaluable to us. We also believe that the pictures in the attachment will cheer you up and that you will see that your donated funds are used for the right purpose.
With love and warmth,
The Libera Team
LIBERA
Croatian Association for Education, Entrepreneurship and
International Cooperation
PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT FOR „WE EMPOWER CROATIAN CHILDREN TO OVERCOME FEARS“
Dear donors and supporters,
We are immensely grateful for your support of the project in these challenging times. The fact that you gave us your trust gave us the strength to move on.
The Coronavirus pandemic was a great challenge for us and due to the compliance with Covid19 measures we were unable to hold workshops in schools. Although we were aware of the fact that at those moments children needed us the most, the measures were necessary because of the large number of infected persons and we had to adhere to them.
According to data from the Croatian Institute of public Health (web portal Dnevnik.hr of May 12th 2022), since the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic, there has been a 25% increase in mental disorders in children, and unfortunately we can conclude that there has been an epidemic of mental illness in young people.
We are aware of the entire frustrating situation, but despite such unfavorable circumstances we will not give up and we will continue to build a positive story thanks to your support.
The therapeutic dog Beni, alongside with the psychologist Ruta, came to the workshop we held at the Jarun Equestrian Club since it is easier to follow the Covid19 guidelines where all activities are taking place outdoors.
The smile on the children's faces when they spotted the therapeutic dog was priceless. And their happiness was immense when Beni had followed their orders. A dozen children and parents attended the workshop. They met a psychologist who presented them with ways of working with a therapeutic dog. Children were particularly happy that Beni was able to wait for the order and eat the sweets after waiting 5 minutes.
After the mandatory work program, we continued with informal socializing.
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/we-empower-croatian-children-to-overcome-fears.
The realization of project activities in the previous period is in accordance with the set goals of the project, related to the following:
All those activities will help prevent later severe forms of anxiety and at the same time contribute to solving related specific social problems and proactively influence the development of the community as a whole.Therefore, your support is invaluable to us.We also believe that the pictures in the attachment will cheer you up and that you will see that your donated funds are used for the right purpose.
With love and warmth,
The Libera team
Links:
LIBERA
Croatian Association for Education, Entrepreneurship and
International Cooperation
PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT FOR „WE EMPOWER CROATIAN CHILDREN TO OVERCOME FEARS“
Dear donors,
at the Libera Association, we believe that the most important thing for children in these challenging times is to socialize, play and be in contact with other children and animals as much as possible.
Whether it is dogs, cats, horses or other small and large pets and all for the purpose of easily overcoming unexpected stressful situations in this case, with the special emphasis on the fear of Covid 19.
The warm weather in Zagreb still allows us outdoor activities, so this time we hurried to the Equestrian club Jarun and in cooperation with our partner decided to cheer up the children attending an initial riding course.
Besides horseback riding, the kids from the club prefer photography and filming, so we took the opportunity to make a new video of the project. You can view it via the link:
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/we-empower-croatian-children-to-overcome-fears.
Also, near the club there is a beautiful Lake Jarun in Zagreb, so we went to the shore of the lake with the children and released paper toy boats into the water. The task was to imagine the greatest fear and let it sail away. The children accepted this task with great interest.
The realization of project activities in the previous period is in accordance with the set goals of the project, related to the following:
All those activities will help prevent later severe forms of anxiety and at the same time contribute to solving related specific social problems and proactively influence the development of the community as a whole.
Therefore, your support is invaluable to us.
We also believe that the pictures in the attachment will cheer you up and that you will see that your donated funds are used for the right purpose.
With love and warmth,
Libera’s team
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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