December 2019

Mara Centre

In December, we accepted a new challenge – working in a school with children having severe and light physical and mental disabilities, within Băbeni School Centre for Inclusive Education – Copăcelu location or, as the majority knows it, Mara Social Centre. We got to work in this school thanks to the collaboration of one the mentors with psychologist Alina Muja.  We spent a week with them at this school. Even though were told about them and how we should behave around them, how to react to their sudden moves or to certain behaviours that they manifested, gradually we adapted and we were looking forward to return to them.  The activities and working methods were totally different from the ones used in the other activities we had. During the activities, we used mixed methods, but mostly visual, auditive and motrical ones. Thus, we danced together, we sang to them, let them touch musical instruments and play a few chords, we painted or created decorations in order to be given to other children. Sometimes, also the parents of these children participated in creative activities, as they were daily present in the school, sometimes intervening and helping their children continue the activities. We drew pictures, felt the Christmas spirit and enjoyed it a lot. On the last day of our event, we made tiny lanterns resembling a mushroom house with the materials obtained from rock salt and dough. Using our imagination, we built doors and windows for these tiny houses, this activity improving the students’ hand and eye coordination.  Some of our creations were put on panels on the school’s walls and it was a very nice Christmas gift from us.  We believe that we will always support our young friends who try to hold on to life in difficult ways. We also learnt that there is nothing more beautiful than pure love in our life.

Gura Văii Secondary School

For a few days, we had a new experience working at Gura Văii Secondary School in Bujoreni, where the majority of students were from the Roma community. During the discussion with Principal Adriana Trușcă we found out that in this village there are communities of Rudari and in the school they have a school mediator. He is the one that facilitates the communication between the school, parents and students, helping the Roma ethnic students integrate in the school schedule. If necessary, the school mediator can intervene in order to handle conflicts, at the same time maintaining the respect and neutrality towards the ones involved.  The activities held were concentrated on communication; team building; self-awareness and discovery; interculturality. They were active and they really enjoyed the intercultural activities, especially those regarding traditional dances.  As a result of our presence in this school, as well as of the activities held on behalf of the Day of Minorities, we received the invitation to participate in an event regarding Roma traditions, organised by the Roma County Organisation. It this month, we also went to Etalon TV (a local television centre) to promote our work and talk about ourselves (feelings, personal development etc.). We reached new grounds, managing to work with students from different ethnic categories and we are prepared to grow as we discover more and more Romania’s culture.

Take Ionescu School

            For one week, we were present at “Take Ionescu” Secondary School in Rm. Vâlcea, working with its students. In general, we made activities with the secondary classes, but we also accepted the proposal of 2^nd grade students to make activities together. The non-formal activities implemented in this school during English lessons were focused on bullying, discrimination, team building and interculturality. It was pretty easy to work with them, the communication in English, even with the small ones, being achieved without problems, the students having a high level of this language. We had a very good collaboration and a very good communication with the English teachers of this school, as the invitation to come here to make activities belonged to them.  The students in the school are from Rm. Vâlcea and the neighbouring areas, as well as from the rural areas. From the talks we had with the teachers here, we could acknowledge that it is a school with a high level of learning and at the end of the week we convinced ourselves of this fact, observing, discussing and debating with the students in some of the activities. Thus, we could feel for ourselves and were able to understand that the activities with the students need to be all the time adapted, as the difficulty level needs to be varied according to the ages of the students and the school they study in (urban and rural). All the same, we believe that the level of knowledge depends also on the resources available to the youngsters, both in school and at home, varying according to the financial and social status of each family and also according to the environment in which they grow up in: urban or rural.  We hope that, until the end of the project, we are able to return in this school and make activities with the classes we didn’t have the chance to be in until now. We very much enjoyed working here and we would also like to thank the teachers for the invitation.

Cozia Hike

            The last activity before the winter holidays was a hike in Cozia Massif together with volunteers from other projects. We started from Păușa village, on a forest road, towards Stănișoara Monastery. It was not a long one, lasting a little more than one hour, and, at the end, the view of the main part of the mountain was spectacular. We ate above the monastery and then we visited it, as we were welcomed by the superior priest, who was very friendly and wanted to know where are we from.  The next stop was Gardului Waterfall, near the monastery. We went along the small river and we really enjoyed the climb to the main waterfall, as we found other small ones on our way. Gardului Waterfall (or Stănișoara Waterfall) is rather small, but beautiful and it is worth hiking the final part, kind of hard, of the path marked with the “red dot”. We went down the mountain on a different road, towards Turnu Monastery, and, on the way, we stopped to admire the view from a belvedere point. From those cliffs we could see a small part of Călimănești-Căciulata resort and the weather station situated on one Cozia’s main peaks.  It was a very interesting experience, as we were able to see a part of the mountain area of Râmnicu-Vâlcea and we also enjoyed the fresh air. Vâlcea has very beautiful landscapes and we hope to have other experiences like this in the future.