May, a month full of achievements under the project ”We Form the Future!”
In May, dozens of children and young people, social workers, psychologists, teachers, town hall representatives, medical staff, local police and priests from Bacău and Neamț counties have participated in a multitude of activities organized under the project “We form the future!”, activities dedicated to the children and young people at risk of school dropout.
For the children and young people benefiting from the project, May meant participating in many extracurricular activities (environmental education, personal care and promoting a healthy lifestyle, sports activities and introduction to computer use), aimed at developing personal and social abilities and skills. At the same, they received support in preparing the homework for school, and the children and young people with disabilities were involved in specific therapeutic activities.
During the activity “My courtyard”, carried out by Yana Foundation at Aurora Centre in Luncani village (Mărgineni Commune, Bacău County), the children from 5th – 8th grades were encouraged to express their opinions on environmental protection, putting into practice what they have learned, by planting flowers in the courtyard of the centre. The activity was completed by developing a plan for taking care of the green space. In their turn, the children from Casa Yana (Nicolae Bălcescu Commune, Bacău County) were taught to make personalized pots, in which they planted “mysterious” seeds (not receiving information on what they planted), anf they will follow the evolution and take care of the plants that will grow.
St. John Calabria Răcăciuni Foundation used art as a tool for civic education in the field of environment, organizing a painting workshop on recycled objects for the children in Roman Day Centre, thus opening the world of imagination and, why not, maybe the path for future successful artists.
During the activity “My beautiful village” (carried put by Favor Association), the children from Rainbow Centre in Mărăști Village (Filipeni Commune, Bacău County) discovered the importance of the seeds, learning about the development stages of a plant and how it should be cared for, being surprised with a “homework” in which they were asked to plant symbolic seeds – love, kindness, empathy – and to monitor their development over the time.
The activities carried out by Casa Heidi team from Valea Seacă Village (Nicolae Bălcescu Commune, Bacău County) focused on reducing the effects generated by the restrictions imposed by the pandemic situation, which made it difficult for the children to interact with colleagues, friends, teachers and even with some family members. In this respect, self-awareness exercises were used as a reflection tool that allowed children to freely express their emotions. At the same time, during the activity “A new day at Casa Heidi”, the children learned about the benefitsthat their body receives from the nature and how it should be cared for, while the teenagers received theoretical informationand learned how to use the makeup correctly. The dialogue in this context also aimed to develop a critical and sound judgement regarding relations.
Therapeutical activities involving translation of classic stories into 3D moving constructions – animals in this case, were organized for children with disabilities (fluent speaking difficulties). The animals became characters of the stories created by the children, the dialogue with the therapists developing the children’s communication skills.
All the children who participated in the daily activities in the seven day centres (where activities are carried out under the project) received a hot meal and dessert, for some of them this representing the only meal in the respective day.
At the same time, parents of children and young people as well as other members of local communities (mayors, local councilors, school principals, medical staff, representatives of other organizations or businesses) have participated in debates on issues related to the consequences of alchool and other harmful substances consumption, relating to children’s needs and styles of parental education, ways of self-awareness or the value of saving money in the family economy.
The project “We form the future!” is carried out between November 2020 – April 2023 by YANA Foundation in partnership with FAVOR Association and St. John Calabria Răcăciuni Foundation, and addresses a number of 945 children and young people from Nicolae Bălcescu, Răcăciuni, Filipeni and Mărgineni communes (Bacău County) and from Roman Municipality (Neamț County), at risk of school dropout. The project benefits from a financing in the amount of 1,365,854 Euros provided by the Norwegian Grants 2014-2021, under the “Local Development” Programme implemented by the Romanian Social Development Fund.