PAPI Homocea takes over services of a „Social Centre and Club for Children”

19.01.2012

PAPI Homocea, in Vrancea County, will offer more services as it will also be a Social Centre and Club for Children. The development of this new component of PAPI is part of a project financed by Hilfsverein Nymphenburg in Munchen (Germany).

„Local children in primary and secondary school will go to PAPI for IT skills, painting and cooking classes. Such workshops are a part of the project called Social Centre and Club for Children, created following a partnership between the Humanitarian Association Homocea and the German foundation Hilfsverein Nymphenburg. With the support of the German foundation, we built a social centre for children from poor families, where they will learn how to use computers and take painting or cooking lessons” , RECL manager Homocea, Adina Grama.

A club with five workshops

As part of the project, children in poor families in Homocea will get IT training for free, thanks to the partnership between the Red Cross, whose local affiliate is led by mayor Neculai Ionescu, and the Humanitarian Association.

Courses will be taught by specialists in the three areas. The entire location has 90 square metres and will host both PAPI and the five workshops of the multi-functional centre.

“The City Hall offered us 90 square metres where we set up a room, an employee retreat and another room for cooking, with all the amenities – fridge, cooking machine, and microwave. The club will have five workshops – IT, photo, creative workshop for painting and drawing classes, gastronomy and first aid. They all have the necessary equipment”, the RECL manager says.

“The social centre will develop not just artistic or computer skills, but also abilities like offering first aid. We decided to have first aid courses because health always comes first”, teacher Lidia Boc, representative of the Red Cross and a future teacher of the centre, says.

The RECL manager explained the intentions of the project’s initiators.

“Through this centre we want to develop children’s skills, to promote measures and social programme aimed at them and offer ways to spend their free time and to be informed in interesting areas. We hope to have as many such projects as possible in our community, in the future”, Adina Grama says.

Social projects through the commune’s NGOs

This is not the first or only project in Homocea. The local administration is particularly concerned with solving the issues faced by under-privileged categories; to find solutions as quickly as possible, the administration started two NGOs – the Humanitarian Association of Homocea and the “Amaro Drom” Association.

“The two NGOs in Homocea are implementing projects for the benefit of citizens. Amaro Drom, through its president Vasilica Bataru, an old partner of PAPI, will soon start a large scale project supporting the Rroma community in Bairabace, one of Homocea’s poorest areas. The project Improving life quality in the Baibarace community, where we volunteer, will repair the road and connect the neighbourhood to the fresh water supply system. The social component will include counselling information and counselling campaigns on topics like family hygiene, family planning and STDs. The Humanitarian Association has other social responsibility projects with help from Mayor Neculai Ionescu, in his quality as president of the Vrancea Red Cross. The first project is a partnership with PEP Netherlands, offering food, clothes and hygiene objects for under-privileged families”, the RECL manager explains.

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Keywords: HomoceaVranceaSocial Centre for ChildrenPAPI servicesHilfsverein NymphenburgIT trainingpaintingcookingchildren’s clubworkshops for children