Break Poverty Cycle of Roma Children in Romania

Step by step all starts to get back on track, but it was a windy road to get to it. In October we faced another lockdown in Romania, where schools closed totally and the usual school teaching was done online. During these weeks the activities of all organizations where children could physically meet and learn were seized. Fortunately it didn't last long and we could start working on our After School Program. Soon after the school closure the number of infections started to stagnate and the government was more open to allow small gatherings; this made it possible for us to work with a smaller number of kids and volunteers and organize After School Club activities. 4 foreing volunteers were able to work with 6 to 10 kids during weekdays in the surrounding villages of our town. These activities involved pupils between 6 and 15 years old, most of them from the local Roma communities. The activities involved helping the kids to do their English homework, playing games that enhance their English vocabulary and verbal skills and also programs that influenced their social skills.

Special activities included short camp-like days of longer competitive team games during the bank holidays when kids had no school; focusing on festive handcraft sessions during Halloween, Saint Nicholas day and Christmas; creating and sharing presents; Snowman building and competitive snowball fights on snowy days and translating, teaching, rehearsing of Christmas carols. 

For the activities, volunteers were transported by the Care2Travel car into villages in the 30 km radius of Miercurea Ciuc. Our programs from all villages involved altogether 35 kids and the activities of volunteers were always supervised by one of our staff members.

It was great to see how the kids became slowly more open and communicative after their constant meeting with our volunteers. The activities are very beneficial for these children not just on an English learning level but it also makes them understand that without being able to use the language they won't be able to communicate and no matter how poor their English is, it is still worth trying to use it because this is how learning happens.

With the approaching of the long awaited second semester, when kids can go back to school normally, we are expecting that we can expand our activities into more After School Clubs and by the government easing its restrictions we can include more kids too. We are extremely grateful to our donors who made it possible for us to organize such activities in these very hard times, when not just face to face teaching, but also social interaction for kids is crucial.

After months and months of quarantine and restrictions, Care2Travel was able to organize 5 camps at the end of the summer vacation. Our very last camp and the highlight of the summer was our camp for the children in Csikszentdomokos village and the kids at the Szent Ferenc After School Club for Disadvantaged Children. In Hargita the majority of after school clubs are run by the Saint Franciscan Foundation and are located in small villages around the county. These clubs offer shelter and 1 hot meal for school kids from disadvantaged backgrounds after they finish school. There is usually 1 carer who prepares the food and helps the children with their homework and studies. Children are usually aged between 7-15 years old (1st to 8th grade). The children that attend this club are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Alcoholism is often the main problem as is a lack of education in the parents and also single-parent families with 1 parent often working abroad. The children can be mischievous but this is mainly because they do not receive much discipline and attention at home. Ultimately they are just like any child that when given attention and praise they thrive.

In this camp 4 international volunteers, Joy and Meggie from Germany, and Maude and Nell from Belgium worked together with 4 local volunteers to develop and facilitate exiting and fun activities for the children. We sincerely hope that we thought them more than just English.

We taught them teamwork by separating the big group of kids into smaller teams, then letting them choose a team name and making a group flag. We gave them responsibilities by letting them take the flag home and insuring they bring it back to the camp the next day.

Most days we started with a fun warm-up that ended with a fitness challenge. After that, we had an English writing quiz that had words that they learned from the previous day. The quizzes were scored in a way that was fair towards all kids, so spelling mistakes didn’t count, the word just had to be recognizable. We also taught them fair play by making sure each team had an equal chance of winning at the end of the week.

That being said we also taught them kindness by giving all the kids prizes at the end of the week. However, all we can really wish that we taught them is how to have fun and in doing so, they can learn so much more.