These children would love to go to school
Did you ever happen to meet children who, if they had the means, would love to go to school? There are children coming from poor or dis-functional families who don’t go to school even though they would love to.
On the other hand, have you ever witnessed a situation where because someone is different they have been left aside and alone? Or have you heard about communities in which going to school is not a habit and parents don’t allow their kids to go to school because they don’t see the meaning of it?
Well, this is still happening in some Romanian, Roma communities, as explained here.
Save the Children Romania, supported by IKEA Foundation, is trying to change these people’s mentality and do some good to these unfortunate children. They coordinate an important project called ”Raising Children in a Stigma-free Society”, implemented in București, Dâmbovița, Argeș, Constanța, Iași, Dolj and Tulcea.
Today we visited two summer kindergardens, which take children form some of the poorest areasofBucharest. The summer kindergarden is an educational project for children aged 3-7 years, who have never been to school. Four hours a day in a two month period they come to classes and learn many useful things that they never had the chance to experience before. They learn the basics about being together with other children and behaving in society, they learn to speak about them, they learn poems and little songs, they learn to draw and they socialize. All these while some of them have never seen a pencil before, as one of the tutors told us.
Today we met children playing, singing and smiling. One of the first things we noticed when we entered the classroom was a little girl waving her hand at us. We recognized one of the kids that visited last week the IKEA store in Bucharest, in our guided tour for school children “Sustainability in IKEA”.
We also met parents, proud of their children and of their achievements. These parents were more confident in their children’s education and future. When we asked one mother why she brought her child to the summer school, she told us: “My daughter is happy here. She comes home and she says: ‘Mom, I learnt a new song today. Or I learnt how to draw.’ I am so happy that she is happy and learns new things. At first, I was a little afraid about this, but now I am glad that I brought her here.”
Later, we talked to one of the teachers. She was also proud of the children and how they developed their abilities and manners. “At first, they didn’t know the numbers, they didn’t know how to draw in colors, and they didn’t even know how to wash their hands. Now they can sing, recite a verse or count. They can also eat their lunch by themselves. Soon, they will be able to go to a public school. I am very proud of them”, the teacher told us.
All in all, it was great for us to see how things change little by little for those kids, thanks to IKEA Foundation and Save the Children Romania.
