PAPI Ştefan cel Mare, a home for underprivileged children

05.08.2010

It’s a story that begins like a thriller: the mayor of Ştefan cel Mare answers his phone on the first day of the summer school holiday. On the line, someone from the 9th Police Department in Bucharest, announcing him that four children from his commune were found wandering around the capital by themselves. The mayor leaves his desk and goes to Bucharest himself to get the children back. There, he learns they were bored, so they just got on a train. Their families don’t have the time to babysit them. Once back home, the mayor talks to the families, very much surprised that they children were found took to the streets in Bucharest. In order to prevent such a scenario from happening again, the mayor decides to involve personnel from local public institutions in the education of minors during summer. He asks for the help of the Public Access Point to Information (PAPI), whose headquarters quickly turn into a second home for underprivileged children, who learn how to use computers and get all the attention they need.

At PAPI, children learn how to write and draw on a computer, use educational software, read stories, watch cartoons or surf the web, under the guidance of Electronic Network of the Local Community (RECL) personnel. “We now care for ten children. We call them to PAPI or the library every day. We don’t make them come, but they want to be here, because they find what they learn interesting. The youngest child is eight years of age”, mayor Nicolae Pandea says. “They learn to use computers not just for games, but also to create something beautiful, to learn how to create a well written and correctly laid out document, change pictures and multimedia files, do research that’s useful for school and essays on different topics”, RECL manager Gina Vasilescu explains.

The personnel who take care of the children bring them food from home. Every time there’s a birthday, they collect money for a small party. The mayor in Ştefan cel Mare has even bigger plans. “We are now trying to found a NGO for social issues, trying to raise the funds”, Pandrea says. The association would have specially trained personnel for handling children and would cater for a larger number of children in the community. The local authority also wants to set up a kitchen for the children under its care. “We have a space in the Community Centre we could use as a kitchen and refectory. Unfortunately, the building isn’t complete yet, due to lack of money”, the mayor explains, hoping, however, to finish works this summer. One of the construction workers is the mayor’s sun: “He’s studying Theology, so this will give him something to do in summer”, Pandea says.

The key to success is involving authorities

This isn’t the first project benefiting children from Ştefan cel Mare. The City Hall has a partnership with the “Copiii noştri” (“Our children”) Foundation. Some 30 children aged 4 to 14, from underprivileged backgrounds, are helped by specialialists to acquire the necessary skills for independent living. “The project helps them develop their emotional and social skills, by identifying, acknowledging and rationalizing emotions. They learn how to mantain a conversation, establish visual contact, become part of a group, actively listen and effectively deal with conflicts”, Gina Vasilescu says. The RECL manager has become like a second mother to the children and is actively involved in the work.

The activities in the project developed in partnership with “Copiii noştri” take place according to age groups. Preschoolers play role games, go on school visits and get involved in artistic activities. Children age 7 to 10 benefit from individual and group counselling; children also take part in artistic activities and trips. Children aged 11 to 14 benefit from counselling and help in choosing their academic route, and from activities favouring social integration. The project’s team includes teachers, psychologists, social assistants, parents, representatives of the local community. The programme is financed by European funds.

Beneficial community initiatives

Another social project the local public administration has undertaken aims to ensure a warm meal for poor children during weekends. Irina Ravac, local coordinator of the Knowledge-based Economy Project (KEP), says that Ştefan cel Mare officials have always shown an interest in helping the less fortunate.

“The City Hall’s initiative in favour of the poor families is not unique. Years ago, the community set up a space in the church’s yard, where children get warm meals during weekends. All expenses are supported by the community. There is also a plan to create a home for the elderly in place of an old community farm”, Irina Ravac says.

An example of good practices

Teaching underprivileged children at PAPI centres is an example of good practices that has also been used by other communities that wish to cut school dropout rates and the number of missing children cases. For instance, PAPI Balta Albă, county of Buzău, became last autumn an IT school for 30 children aged 7 to 14. These children, whose families have financial trouble, wouldn’t have had access to computers otherwise, since parents can’t come close to affording one. Children are proud to say the teachers showed them not just how to use the computer, but also how to “befriend” it and use the internet, do their homework and use computers for research. The children are also proud because they’ve been able to take part in computer drawing competitions with the help they got at the PAPI centres.

An active way of preventing vagrancy and school dropout

The attention local authorities are paying to children from underprivileged families is meant to reduce school dropout rates and the cases of children voluntarily leaving their families due to economic difficulties.

According to Police statistics, more than 90% of missing children cases are caused by children running away from home. Children leave because of trouble at home, parent neglect, abuse or under peer influence. The Centre for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children – FOCUS says that from 1,400 cases of children missing in 2007, most of them, the so called “voluntary disappearances”, were vagrancy cases. Children go begging or just travelling through the country, with no destination, and they risk becoming victims of human trafficking. In such cases, the most ardent problem, both for parents and local communities, is how to keep them at home.

School dropout rates are on the rise, according to figures published by the National Institute of Statistics. In 2008, 436,404 children aged 3 to 17 were not listed at any educational institution (kindergarten, school, highschool or trade school). Also, the number of children out of school increases sharply after the age of 13 (in the first part of secondary school, 24,186 of that age are not in school) and reaches a maximum level at about 16 – 17 (138,243).

Online resources:

PAPI Balta Albă Became an Informatics School for 30 Children with Special Needs

Children from poor families in Ostra have an after school centre