Mobile School - Education for Children in Romania

The Mobile School is educational tool for non-formal education that can be used in a multiple of outdoor sets, due to its construction. However, snow and cold are not part of these sets. In our region winter often begins mid-October or the beginning of November, which forces us to move our activities of non-formal education in the Education Center exclusively, until the winter passes (which, usually, happens in April). This being said, it’s not necessarily a bad change. Here children have access to a variety of activities: educational recovery activities, plying, watching cartoons, and counseling.

Just having a warm space where they can spend quality time, and not being in the street, would be for us a step forward for most of the children attending the Center. This way, they avoid a lot of risks and exposure to negative behaviors and marginalization that have a bad impact on their development and self-esteem. Furthermore, during their staying in the Center they have the opportunity to improve their independent life skills and work on their social and communication abilities. Sometimes, they even choose to spend their time on the Center to watch cartoons, since most of them don’t have a TV at home and some of them don’t even have electricity. For several hours a day, the children that we work with have the chance to feel like normal children: respected, cared for, challenged in a positive environment, appreciated, valued for what they can be and not for where they live or how they look.

Every day from Monday to Friday around 100 children visit our two educational centers where they also receive a snack, but most importantly for them, they receive love and attention. Sometimes, the educational recovery happens on its own, just by creating the proper environment for these children to be able to be curios and to explore their talents.

All these are indicators that motivate us to continue the work we are doing in the Educational Center and with the Mobile School (during the warm time of the year) and to try to improve as much as possible the situation of the children in need in our region.

After a rainy summer, the autumn is here. At least from the calendar point of view. Since the last report the weather was a lot friendlier with us so we could be more present in both communities where we work with children.

During this period there have been around 20 activities made in each community, to the delight of the young ones. When the wind was still we also brought with us an inflatable slider which brought another level to the amusement we can bring in the field.

Autumn also means the start of school in Romania. Our presence in both communities helped to boost the interest for education. Also we tried to identify the children that were in risk of dropping out of school or that were not enrolled in school yet and helped with their (re)integration. This is actually part of the constant work we do in the communities where we are present.

We identify children that are in the situations mentioned above in the communities. We work with the children in their own environment to empower them and to raise their self-esteem. When they feel confident enough, we invite them to attend educational activities on our educational center to further recover their gaps and to work on their skills. When they feel again empowered enough we challenge them to (re)start going to school. This is not an easy step to take and it is not definitive. Some of them still need support to continue their educational process. This support comes in the form of activities on the educational center and activities with the mobile school in the community.