Monthly Report
June - July 2008
Serving the children in the hot summer
I.
Ion Neculce
School Project
II.
Transfrontalier Phare
Project– Republic
of Moldavia
III.
Phare MIS Project– Support for poor gypsy families in Raducaneni
IV.
Opportunities
for gypsy children from Voinesti
I. Active holiday for children in Ion
Neculce school
The month of June brought along the end of
the school year and the recognition of all the efforts made by children while
developing activities supported by the Joseph Foundation in the school year
2007-2008.
We are happy to announce you that a number
of 70 children who attend Ion Neculce school participated in the activities
developed by the Joseph Foundation and they benefited of: support in their
Romanian and math homework, learning the Italian language, drawing inside the
drawing society, learning how to dance in the dancing club, debates on certain
topics of interest for children and adolescents, counseling and, also, visiting
museums and spending a nice time at McDonalds.
The Joseph Foundation wanted to appreciate
the effort and consistency of these children and made special diplomas for them
and, also offered them cakes and juice.
We could see on their faces the joy brought along by
the recognition of their own value and once more we understood that self
confidence is being built from early school age and it is of a major importance
for the future development of children’s and adolescents’ personality.
We believe that the photos we have attached
are the best way in which we can show you the joy and eagerness of these
innocent souls.
Although on the 15th of June
children began their summer holiday the Joseph Foundation created a program
with recreative activities , program that contains visiting a bread factory in
Iasi, factory called “Vel Pitar”, a contest called “3X7”, watching a movie and
discuss about and on it, cleaning a park in Iasi and after that go and eat at
McDonalds, and also have a game of funny basketball.
These activities started on the 26th
of June, when the visit to the bread factory took place.
We were happy to see that approximately 30
children came to each activity organized during June and July.
At “Vel Pitar”- the bread factory- children visited
the bread and biscuits sections and they
had the opportunity to find out all the steps necessary in order to make these
products. Children were presented the history of this factory, the “story” of Vel Pitar –the baker-and the products they
make-the children took an active part in naming the products they already knew. The staff from the factory
received us open armed and offered the children warm and tasty products.
Leaving the factory every child received sweets called “Vel Pitar”.
We want to
thank all those wonderful people from the factory “Vel Pitar” for supporting us
and for offering bakery products to the children.
The “3X7”contest, organized on the 10th of
July 2008, had as goal motivating pupils to think of three important aspects in
life: at family level-obeying parents and having good relationships inside the
family; at social level-obeying the public authorities, relating with persons
around; at educational level-listening to the teachers and be aware of the fact
that school is very important for our future. In consequence, children had to
give us 7 reasons for which a child should love his parents, 7 reasons for
which a child has to be respectful and civilized in society and 7 reasons for
which a child should learn well and take their school responsibilities in a
very serious way.
Children had the possibility to choose
their own way of expressing themselves: they could have written their opinion
on paper, make a drawing or mould out of plasticine.
The contest proved to each of us that, even
if these children come from dysfunctional families, they know how to love,
appreciate and valuable their parents, teachers and the society in which they
live. Once again, they all proved to be pure souls looking for role models.
We, the team of
the Joseph Foundation, are happy to be able to take part in these children’s
developing.
Another activity that took
part in July, on the 17th,
was watching an educational movie with the children and, at its ending,
talk about the things we can learn from its content. The movie was animated,
suitable for children’s age and it kept their attention vivid. Everyone was
relaxed, friendly and along watching the movie there were some very emotional
moments due to its action; sometimes, children identified themselves with the
characters in the movie and this created a beautiful link between them.
At
the end we had a snack together and we talked about the movie. These are some
aspects children said they could see in the movie, aspects they can learn from:
listen to your parents whenever they give you a piece of advice; parents should
trust their children; help the ones in need; be altruistic.
All the children expressed their wish to be
part of the following activity on the 30th of July, activity called
“We love Iasi, too”, activity that consisted in
cleaning a park in Iasi
and, after that, go to eat and have some time together at McDonalds. And that
is exactly what happened. The activity had a double goal: education and
socialization.
We wanted children to appreciate the beauty
of the town they live in and, in the same time, to realize people work in order
to keep it clean and, it is always easier to keep it like that than to come and
clean the garbage left there by different people. We also wanted these children
to spend some wonderful moments together in order to better know one another
and improve their communication and relationship skills.
II. Republic of Moldavia Project
Between December 2007-September 2008, the Joseph
Foundation is developing the project “Transfrontalier partnership for
supporting children in difficulty”, project implemented in partnership with the
organisation Caritas Moldova, , on the financing line Phare CBC 2005-The
Romania-Moldavia Vecinity Program”
As part of the project a comparative study about children
in difficulty Iasi-Chisinau has been done.This study is addressed to
specialists who work in the field
( social workers, psychologists) and presents an instantaneous for
children in difficulty. Comparative aspects are pointed out between Iasi and Chisinau, aspects that
underline the following areas: legislation, social services, problems and
solutions, conclusions and recommendations.The printed material contains
conclusions and recommendations that are going to be very useful in creating
efficient social policies with great impact on children in difficulty.
The study was finished in July and it was
presented in a press conference where parteners and media representatives were
present. It was printed in 1000 copies and it will be distributed towards
governamental and non governamental organisations from Iasi and Chisinau, all of them being
institutions that work in the area of protecting children in difficulty.The
study can be downloaded from the web
page of the Joseph Foundation www.fiosif.ro.
III. Phare MIS Project– Support for poor gypsy
families in Raducaneni
The project stipulates, as we have told you
before, the training of 30 gypsy people in Raducaneni in 2 jobs:builder and
carpenter.Like this, the project’s beneficiaries will be able to support
themselves and become a real support for their families,too.
In June and
July the project’s beneficiaries (poor
gypsy people in Raducaneni) continued the training in building and carpentery.
They attended both theoretical and practical trainings at the construction
firms that develop activities in the area. We visited them and, until now, the
trainings are going very well:the beneficiaries are pleased with what they have
learned and look forward for working in the field. They will have their final
exam on the 8th of August.
For the moment
there are 36 people who benefit of these trainings.In their families there live
70 poor children who will be able to have a better life the moment their
parents will get hired. We pray to have an important impact in the lives of
these poor families in the county
of Iasi.
The following
activities in the project are:life skills seminars, buying tools for the
beneficiaries, monitoring and support.
IV.
Opportunities for gypsy children from Voinesti
Challenges
and successes for gypsy children and their families from Voinesti.
We are already in the 4th
month of the project “Partnership for the inclusion of gypsy people on the
labour market”. There were 4 months that brought along many challenges but, due
to God’s Grace we managed to overpass them.
We want to use this
opportunity in order to thank our partners from Somerset Foundation, who helped
us along the road.
The village of Voinesti is a very poor community with a
majority of gypsy population, families with high abandonment rate and extreme
poverty.Most of the people in Voinesti don’t go to school and the ones who do
that hardly finish 4 classes.
This is the reason why the
Joseph Foundation decided to get involved in activities that aim children in
difficulty, but there were quite many problems as gypsy adults don’t have a
working qualification. Through this project we intend to train 50 gypsy
people ( men and women) who are job
hunting or who work in agriculture and have very small wages.
The direct beneficiares are 50 adults but, indirectly, we
will offer to at least 300 children the possibility of living a better life and
avoid familial or school abandonment.
Once
more the 10% contribution of the Joseph Foundation is a reason to ask for your
help and to invite you to involve yourselves by our side at this project.
May God Bless us all
with His Love and Knowledge!
Thank you for all your
support!
We would have never succeded alone!
... at e-mail address: dcornestean2001@yahoo.com
