Education for 50 disadvantaged Romanian children

Sorin^* is born in 1992 in Panciu, in a family that cannot offer him what he desires and dreams, in a small house halfway between the Centre Pinocchio and the volunteers' home. A strategic position for being immediately involved in the creative workshops, in the afterschool activities and in the international atmosphere you breathe at the Centre.

Sorin is a young boy, shy and sometimes insecure; nonetheless at the Centre Pinocchio, little by little, he finds out that he can count on his sport skills and on his talent for theatre, that confrontation is an interesting way to discover oneself and other people.

Like a lot of young boys, he dreams to become a football player. Even though he's selected for a sports' school, he has to deal with his first huge disillusion: his family cannot afford the school expenses. The same happens with the end-of-the-school year party.

However, one surrender after another, Sorin also finds some open doors in his way. The Centre Pinocchio offers him the opportunity to take part in two youth exchange experiences: he flies in Italy for short periods, gets in touch with a lot of youngsters, learns chunks of a foreign language, watches his first football match in a real stadium. He continues attending the Centre, always having in mind how would it be to live far from Panciu. A thought blocks him: he has a little brother, Tibi^*, that he takes care of since he was a baby. From diaper change to meals, from lullabies to the first day at the Centre Pinocchio. For Tibi, Sorin is half a brother, half a father.

Among the international volunteers in Panciu, one is special for Sorin. Three years ago they moved to Bucharest together, where he had the opportunity (and the capacity) to get a diploma in floor tiling. Today he works within a team of professional tilers. But he's used to say that this is only the beginning. The will to build up new things and the thirst of discovering can bring you everywhere.

Now its' Tibi's turn. He's 8 years old, lives in a small house halfway between the Centre Pinocchio and the volunteers' home. An older brother living in Bucharest, the staff and the volunteers of the Centre to speak with. The creative workshops, the afterschool activities, the games, the numbers and the letters. And a new story to write!

^{*The names are invented for privacy reasons.}

The last two months at the Centre Pinocchio have been an occasion to stop, take a breath, look back at all the activities realized in 2016 -2017 and reflect upon achieved results. Of course, also about next steps and new projects!

For what concerns the socio-educational services offered by the Centre Pinocchio, these are the major results of our work:

• enrollment of all beneficiary children in the scholastic year 2016-2017: everyone was ready to start, clean, well-dressed and with his/her backpack. Now that we are almost at the end of the year, we're looking forward to celebrate with the children and to discover final evaluations;
• weekly monitoring of school attendance, constant dialogue with teachers and families, educators' interventions whenever needed (long absence from school, scarce learning results, sanitary/health problems);
• realization of workshops on education to hygiene and on the discover of human body, also providing children with toothpaste and toothbrushes, anti-lice treatments (when needed), soaps. Main objective of this action is to sensitize beneficiaries about the importance of taking care of themselves, of preventing health problems;
• daily service of canteen, offering a medium of 30 lunchs and snacks per day;
• daily service of “breakfast at the statue” for the children attending the school;
• cooking workshops (fruit salad, pizza, typical Romanian dishes) with the children for fostering education to a healthy nutrition and lifestyle;
• weekly home visits to the Roma families of the children attending the centre, realized by the social worker together with the sanitary mediator (dialogue with parents, monitoring of socio-educational situations, etc.);
• participation in 2 European mobility projects for teenagers, allowing disadvantaged youngsters to take part in youth exchnages experiences in Romania and abroad;
• 2 donations of didactic material to 40 children needing support to be enrolled and to attend school: watercolors, glue sticks, markers, pencils, pens, notebooks, sketchbooks, scissors, ruler, pencil sharpener, etc.;
• weekly donations of clothes for the children, in order to facilitate their regular attendance at school;
• 2 donations of food to the beneficiary families of the centre. On the occasion of Easter and Christmas, we managed to donate a “food box” to the 24 families containing flour, chicken, oil, eggs, rice, tomato sauce, sweets;
• 1 excursion in the sorroundings of Panciu, attended by 24 children, the local staff and a group of 10 international volunteers. Dynamic games, a bath in the river, a pic-nic all together: just some simple ingredients for a special day;
• 3 meetings with parents about the importance of education and school, about rules and positive behaviours with children, about individual and group counselling sessions, prevention of scholastic drop-out, vagrancy and youth delinquency;
• 2 “Open Lunch” events for mothers, offering children and mums the possibility to stay together for a serene day, to talk and play, to show children's learning achievements;
• opening of a “Social Laundry Space”, where the families of the Centre Pinocchio can come to wash and dry their clothes and home linen. This new service has been conceived as another further instrument for the prevention of scholastic dropout. Too often, indeed, Roma children don't go to school because they have dirty clothes or because they washed their clothes but they didn't dry them off in time for lessons. Up to now, it's still a pilot project, taht needs to be further promoted, but a couple of families already started benefitting from it.

A lot of the mentioned achievements have been possibile thanks to the kind and trustful support of GlobalGiving's donors. We are pleased and happy to have donors interested in fostering the right to education and to a better future for everybody. We'll continue walking on this route, with the hope of being continuously supported by hearty people!

We would like to add that the Centre Pinocchio is also strongly committed in promoting volunteering: in the last year more than 100 volunteers form Romania, Italy, Spain, Germany have been involved in socio-educational activities for the benefit of the children. This constitutes an added value for the children's future, for opening their minds to new cultures and people. As one of ours long-term volunteers, Elisa form Italy, wrote: “I understood that I didn't need a lot of words because with the children is always simple to know each other. When they hold you hand, they have already choosen to trust you (Valvirdis). The Centre Pinocchio is a second family not only for the children, but also for volunteers. When you are away from home, for a long time, you need to find someone who fills in the love that you temporarily lost. I found it here, with the local staff and the copii (children). They fill every piece of void inside me. To take care of someone who needs your help is a magnificient experience, among the most fulfilling that can happen in your life; in addittion, it is even more beautiful if you are repaid with hugs and smiles”.