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.