Education for 50 disadvantaged Romanian children

At the end of these first 3 months of project implementation, we could say that the Socio-Educational Centre Pinocchio is really a place where education makes the difference. The Centre daily hosts the children (3-16 years old), who mainly belong to the most disadvantaged brackets of the local population and to the local Roma minority. Children usually arrive at the centre after school and are provided with a genuine hot lunch in the canteen. Then, in the afternoon, they begin the afterschool activities (homeworks and basic literacy), divided in age groups; the afternoon continues with non formal education activities, such as creative handicraft workshops, sport, painting, cooperation games, education to hygiene, etc. A snack is prepared by our cook and, before going home, the children wash their hands and teeth, in order to get used to good personal care practices. In these first 3 months of project, it is worth underlining some recreative and educational activites that resulted particularly successful and appealing for the children: on the 15th January, a special day for the Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu has been organized and the Centre was full of colours and poetry. On the 29th January we celebrated the Non-Violence day, with discussions and confrontations on how violence has a negative impact on people. Children had the opportunity to express their opinions and feeling on such a theme, thanks to a drawing competition. Finally the group aged 3-6 years old asked to talk about the invention of the car and the group aged 7-16 years old asked to discover the solar system.

Apart from these socio-educational activities, the staff of the Centre Pinocchio is strongly committed in fostering school attendance among the little beneficiaries: every child is monitored daily in its attendace at school and the staff works for a mediation school-family-child. The main aim of such a commitment is to better know every single child's needs and to be a bridge between child, teacher and family. In order to achieve this objective, the local staff makes regular home visits, drafts  an "individual observation journal" with relevant information abouth every child's development, has contacts both with families and local instituions. The scholastic support for these disadvantaged minors is fundamental in order to sustain children's growth and to open new future possibilities for them.

We say that all this work makes the difference because the Centre Pinocchio is the only reality in Panciu, which is active for social inclusion, education for all and fight against any form of discrimination. Over a population of about 8.000 inhabitants, at least 11,5% belong to the Roma minority and live in degraded areas of the town. They indeed in live in outskirts that lack public services; the poor living conditions do not allow to maintain sufficient quality standards of life. Education, among Roma families, is not considered as a qualifying factor for one's life. There are high rates of unemployment, illiteracy, alcoholism, domestic violence, scholastic dropout, juvenile delinquency and vagrancy. In such a context it's not easy for a child to live a serene childhood. Motivation toward school and education is scarce. The situation becomes even more complicated due to the strong discriminations at school and in town. 

The Centre Pinocchio is born out of the will to intervene in such a context, believing that education is the only possible weapon useful for these children. And every child has his/her own story, the story of people for whom the Centre is not only a place where you make homeworks or entertaining activities. For many of them, the Centre is also a place where they can feel safe, where they can express their will to be children and to build realtionships. The Centre is an importnat place for those children like S. She is 11 years old and before Christmas she decided to run away from home. She couldn't afford anymore domestic violences and the alcoholism problems of her parents; she couldn't bear anymore the fact that nobody understand her desire to learn, to go to school like all her peers. When she runs away, the police immediately finds her and brings her to temporary centre for minors at risk. The Centre Pinocchio's social worker and educators strongly committed themselves in getting contacts with this centre, the local social services and the family, in order to find a common solution for S. She was released from the temporary centre and sent back home provided that she attends daily the centre Pinocchio. Since her coming back in Panciu, S. daily comes to centre; even if she is not enrolled at school, she is willing to learn, to read and write like all other children.

This is right the mission of the Centre Pinocchio: a point of reference for disadvantaged children and families, but also a promoter of inter-instituional dialogue for the benefit of the most vulnerable minors.

The funds raised thatnks to GlobalGiving have been used in order to sustain the following costs:

- food for the children's canteen;

- organization/realization of educational and recreational activities.