- The After School centers are located in the counties of Vâlcea, Dolj, Ialomita, Cluj and Vaslui
Bucharest, December 7, 2017 – Five After School Centers in the countryside were fitted with IT equipment, furniture and school supplies, whose beneficiaries are 150 children from disadvantaged families from Scundu – Vâlcea County, Breasta – Dolj County , Roşiori – Ialomiţa County, Camarasu- Cluj County and Pungeşti- Vaslui County. The project is part of the strategic program Investing in Rural Areas conducted by the Vodafone Romania Foundation and is being developed in partnership with the World Vision Foundation Romania. The funding granted by Vodafone Romania Foundation to this project amounts to over 630,000 lei.
The equipping of the After School centers was tailored to children’s needs and consists, inter alia, of laptops, tablets, printers, portable speakers, educational apps, complete interactive notebook packs, individual class benches and adjustable height chairs, parquet flooring, cabinets and relaxing mattresses for children. In addition, children have received the school suppliers they need during their class activities and are served a hot lunch at the centers from Monday to Friday every week.
The curriculum includes both formal preparatory lessons of Romanian and Math and non-formal schooling. The program also comprises a teacher training component, where 10 of the teachers from the after school centers participate in regular training courses, as well as a Parents’ School module, designed to helps the parents of the 150 beneficiary children improve their parenting skills and behavior.
The decision of the Vodafone Romania Foundation to invest in After School Centers has been based on the findings of the study „Investing in Education of Countryside Children” conducted in the first half of the year 2017. According to the study, over two thirds of the schools in the rural communities around the country are facing at least one educational risk, such as poor results in the national school performance evaluation, dropout risk, high absenteeism and grade repetition rates, and with one or more socio-educational risk factors, such as school children coming from economically disadvantaged families and inadequate/insufficient school facilities. The study, which can be read in full here, recommends enrollment of such children in after school centers, as a solution to prevent their school dropout.
The Vodafone Romania Foundation is a Romanian nongovernmental charitable organization, established in 1998, which operates separately and independently from the Vodafone Romania SA’s business. During its 19 years of activity, Vodafone Romania Foundation has funded 1,046 programs run by 660 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of healthcare, education and social services. These projects had a total of 2 million beneficiaries – children, young and old people and physically, socially or economically disadvantaged people. So far, Vodafone Romania has invested over 26 million euros in projects run by nonprofit partner organizations. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available at fundatia-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.fundatia-vodafone.ro/ and www.facebook.com/fundatiavodafone.
World Vision Romania is part of the World Vision International partnership, which is present in nearly 100 countries around the world. World Vision Romania is a Christian foundation that implements community development programs, as well as advocacy and humanitarian relief programs mostly in rural areas, placing the children’s wellbeing as their focal point. The foundation is focusing on working with children, their families and their communities, supporting them in their efforts to successfully tackle the challenges of poverty and injustice. Inspired by Christian values, The Foundation works with the most vulnerable people from around the world, irrespective of their religion, race, ethnicity or gender. In 27 years of activity in Romania, WVR has supported over 500,000 children and adults from 400 communities in eight counties. World Vision Romania believes that rural children should enjoy equal opportunities with the urban children and, as such, the foundation has embarked on developing long-term community development programs, focusing on child education, school drop-out prevention, child health and protection, agriculture and rural development and civic and Christian commitment. Children are thus provided access to better living conditions through a sustainable development of the community they live in. The foundation’s projects are built around the wellbeing of underprivileged communities and their members, as a way to facilitate access of every child to life-fulfilling opportunities. For more details about the foundation, visit: www.worldvision.ro, www.facebook.com/WorldVisionRomania, blog.worldvision.ro/
