Mobile School - Education for Children in Romania

In the last months, we sustained weekly activities as follows: Monday at Ses Bahlui, Wednesday at Ceplenita or Raducaneni, Thursday at Rediu, Friday at Schitu Duca or Scheia. The activities were from the following themes:

- Language – the purpose is to enhance the children’s communication skills and linguistic competence, so they are capable of expressing themselves.

- Mathematics – the purpose of these activities is that children discover that he is capable of learning basic mathematics and of applying it in his daily life. By playing the mathematical games, the children learn to count, add, subtract, multiply and divide, to apply numbers in everyday situations and to solve mathematical problems

- Society – the purpose of these activities is to enhance children’s skills to deal with real life situations by enabling them to talk about personal experiences and emotionally sensitive topics, by increasing their social and communication skills and by creating insights that can lead to a greater awareness of their choices.

- Music - music is always strongly related to the inner world and enables children to express emotions and feelings that have still not been identified. It is an instinctive form of expression and the meaning is not always clear, but it can still be the first stage in the perception of their own emotions. Music can also simply be a joyful way to work together creatively, to stimulate other senses and to have a good time

- Drawing - drawing is a form of non-verbal communication. It has the same function as writing stories, but it is used more by young children. Drawings can represent their thoughts and emotions or imagination and are often based on their own experiences, dreams and desires

- Writing stories - the written word is another method to make the expression of feelings and thoughts less confronting for the child.

27 children from Ses Bahlui who participate in the Mobile School activities come daily to the educational center after school. They benefit from help at homework, a hot meal, educational materials and psycho-social support from our experts.

In December, 40 children received presents from Santa Claus, as well as jackets and boots for winter. On 20 December, the children had a carol-singing celebration and welcomed Santa Claus with smiles and open arms.

Time is passing and we are now in the last months of the projects with European funding in which we cover 5 rural areas in Iasi. Within these projects, we have managed to reach 404 children from disadvantaged areas with Mobile School. We look back with gratitude and sadness because from the beginning of 2024 we will not be able to maintain the frequency of activities in the countryside since we no longer have the financial capacity to continue as we did before.

When we drew the line of all the activities sustained in 2023, we had a total of 161 activities with Mobile School in all of the locations mentioned above, as it follows: Ses Bahlui – 47 activities, Ceplenita – 18 activities, Raducaneni – 18 activities, Rediu – 27 activities, Poieni – 23 activities, Scheia – 28 activities.

We have accomplished many things this year and have reached a large number of children in Iasi and near Iasi. Next, we will continue our activities as usual, at the educational center and Mobile School with children from Ses Bahlui. The activities in rural areas will continue as sustainable, but with a reduced frequency. We also plan to expand our activities in Iasi to a new location.

We'll keep you posted on how things are going for us!

We continued our nonformal activities with Mobile School weekly, in the same six locations: in Ses Bahlui with 40 children, Scheia with 107 children, Schitu Duca with 107 children, Rediu with 107 children, Ceplenita with 35 children and Raducaneni with 48 children between the ages of six and fifteen. The main themes we focused on, were literacy, mathematics, creativity, psychomotor skills, social skills, algorithms, associations, and personal hygiene.

Ses Bahlui is our long-term project and is the location we have been going to for 17 years. At the moment, we collaborate with parents or grandparents who, in the past, were 12 or 15 years old and participated in our activities. The dropout rate for children living in the Ses Bahlui area is very high, that's why we continue to go into the community with Mobile School. The main objective is to help children develop some skills and raise their self-esteem so that they do not drop out of school.

In the educational center, we have an after-school program with 26 children from 1st to 5th grade. The children come daily and in addition to the homework help they receive there, the educators organize non-formal activities on various topics such as creativity, bullying, art, science experiments, self-esteem and children's rights.

Also, during the summer period, we organized a summer kindergarten with 16 children from disadvantaged families from Ses Bahlui, who had never been to kindergarten before. These are some of the themes that were addressed: forming and maintaining routines, geometric shapes, color association, practicing the concepts of length, weight, height, size, human body, motor exercises, means of transport, emotions, and professions. During summer kindergarten, the social worker tries to enroll the children in kindergarten, which starts in Romania in September. This is a long process because we have to convince parents to let their children go to kindergarten. After that, the social worker finds a kindergarten that has places available and helps the parents with the documents. This year, we managed to enroll 5 children to kindergarten.

Thanks to your help, we were able to help 104 children with the educational materials they need at school. The beginning of school is a difficult time for most families who do not have financial resources, because they have to buy the resources needed for school activities every year.

Thank you for being with us!

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