June 2019

FCASEC

            The association named “Forumul Cetatenesc pentru Actiune Sociala si Educatie Civica” (“The Citizen’s Forum for Social Action and Civic Education”) was established in 2003 and, along the years, had numerous local, national and international projects.

The association’s goal is promoting the young ones in Romania, giving financial support and stimulating activities in the area. The following activities are taken into consideration: programme-making in the social area, volunteering activities, rural development, organising foreign language classes, making activities that support arts and culture, developing transnational partnership relations between institutions involves in the area.

In 2007, together with Romania’s entrance in the European Union, when the opportunity of creating projects which promote European youngster’s mobility, learning through non-formal methods, intercultural dialogue and the inclusion of young people appeared, FCASEC was one of the first organisations which initiated these kinds of European projects. Thus, European projects addressed to youngsters – both youth exchanges and EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteering projects – were implemented within Youth in Action (2007-2014) and Erasmus+ (2014-2021) programmes, continuing in the present programme – ESC (European Solidarity Corps, 2021-2028). Until the present, only the ones who benefited from the European projects (EVS volunteers and youth exchange) were over a thousand young people, Europeans and from other continents. As a whole, through these projects, the development of the citizen, solidarity and tolerance between nations are pursued, the young ones being involved and taking part in these changes.

Balkans Hotspot Project

            Balkans Hotspot is a youth European project, on Erasmus+ programme, European Voluntary Service and its activities are to be implemented by 8 youngsters from Turkey, North Macedonia, Spain and France, during 12 months. The purpose of the project is to promote the development of social, civic and intercultural competencies and also to promote critical thinking in social and economically disadvantaged communities in Vâlcea county.   During the project, through the activities they will make with youngsters with fewer opportunities, the volunteers will gain social, civic and critical thinking competences. Moreover, they will gain and develop intercultural competences and a fighting attitude towards poverty, discrimination and violence among youngsters.  The project will be developed in several stages, until the end, we will have worked with over 450 youngsters, some of them NEETs, the activities being implemented in at least 6 villages. Among the activities, we will have Treasure Hunt, interviews in communities with NEET youngsters and authorities, World Café, communication workshops, public speaking sessions, creative debates and workshops which should develop participants’ creativity and entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship workshops, social economy workshops, financial education workshops, film projection, realisation of videos with social impact session in order to present different opportunities for personal development, alternative training and involvement in the life of the local community of young people with fewer opportunities and NEET young people, workshops on intercultural education and foreign language courses. Moreover, the activities will also include helping the NEET young people to write a CV and a motivation letter and look for volunteering opportunities in Europe, helping young people join European Solidarity Corps. During the whole project, there will be sections regarding the promotion of Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes among young people from the 6 communities mentioned above. In the final part of the project, a brochure which will include a methodology of social inclusion through volunteering activities and a social inclusion event using the World Café method will also be made.  We believe that our involvement and our motivation to participate in this project will have impact in the communities we will work in, returning in our countries with more information regarding social inclusion and NEETs.

This is who we are and what we did in our first month

Hello! We are the volunteer team of Balkans Hotspot project and we are going to be in Romania for one year. We are seven volunteers from three countries: Macedonia de Nord (Gjorgji), Spain (Pablo) and Turkey (Ayșegül, Eda, Menekșe, Murat, Safyie), each of us having our own experiences, feelings and emotions.  But first we would like to share with you our feelings. Because we had some difficulties… For example, we had to adapt to a new life style, to live “alone”, without our family and friends. Also, we did not know many things about Romania, about the environment from here, about the project colleagues. He had mixed, but constructive feelings and we all enjoyed the new experiences.  The first weeks were constructive because we met the project team, the persons we are going to work with, the mentors. All the same, aspects regarding Cigna, the objectives and activities of the project were explained to us, we met volunteers from the other projects of the organisation. The non-formal getting-to-know and team building games encouraged us in knowing the project colleagues, we all shared our expectations and the motivation that made us say “Yes” to this one year experience in a country whose people, culture, touristic objectives, history and language we want to discover. When it comes to Romanian language, we have already started the courses and we already managed to learn the first words. During this first month, we had also our first visits to the most important institutions in Rm. Vâlcea: “Antim Ivireanul” County Library, The City Hall, the County Council, the National Touristic Promoting and Information Centre in Vâlcea County (CNIPT Vâlcea). We were very excited and curious about the city and country. We had great times. After the activities mentioned above, came the time when we had to prepare our own activities for youngsters. We had the opportunity to help with different tasks such as searching for activities to be done with children and preparing materials for these activities. It was fun work!

Brezoi Summer School

            After the period in which we adapted with our new home, got to know each other and found out what we will do, came the time to meet the first children and youngsters. The meeting took place during our first Summer School – Brezoi Summer School, event held at Brezoi Parish, our host organisation accepting the invitation.  Most of the prepared activities were outdoor ones, with a diverse thematic. We prepared games to develop children’s creativity and to reveal the spirit of leadership for them, such as name game (after telling your name, create a movement and others should try to do that movement), Robot Game for bullying (the group is split and each group should create a part of the body, followed by a discussion about bullying), introducing your community/country (kids present their community with drawings and writing), Mission Impossible (we prepared some tasks and kids tried to complete all of them in a limited time) etc. In the last day, invited by the two priests of the parish and by the children’s parents, we went together on Băiaşu River’s Valley, in Racovița village, to have a picnic. There, while the parents prepared food for all of us, we made sports activities and rock paintings together with the children.  The week was tiring, but fascinating and memorable. It was the first time for us to work with children, of different ages, the smallest one being three years old and the oldest – seventeen. The number of children varied, as every day we worked with a number between 55 and 75 children and youngsters. We don’t know who had more fun – the children, or us. It was an amazing first experience for us.