Podari - Ovid.ro

 REPORT TO CARGILL SEPTEMBER 2012 – SEPTEMBER 2013 ELIGIBLE CHILDREN IN ROMANIA: 1298 DAILY ATTENDANCE RATE: 80% (1043 CHILDREN) ELIGIBLE CHILDREN IN PODARI: 49 DAILY ATTENDANCE RATE: 90% (44 CHILDREN) In June British Ambassador Martin Harris, the Speaker of the British House of Commons, John Bercow and a delegation from the UK joined the Romanian Chamber of Deputies President, Valeriu Zgonea, to see the example of progress regarding Roma integration in Podari. It’s pretty simple:
€12 food coupons for a disadvantaged child
= Better nutrition at home
= Better attendance in ‘gradinita’
= Better concentration in the classroom
= Better preparation for primary school
= Lower drop-out rates for Romania
1 BACKGROUND Fiecare Copil in Gradinita (Every Child in Preschool) is an award-­‐winning program that has been cited by both The Economist and the World Bank as a model. FCG incentivizes impoverished parents, many of whom are Roma*, to send their 3-­‐5 year old children to preschool. Thanks to OvidiuRo’s sponsors, since 2010, over 1000 children have annually benefited from early education AND better nutrition through FCG. OvidiuRo's mission is to help today's disadvantaged children get much further in school than their parents did -­‐-­‐ by providing a rich early educational environment so they will have a similar skill set at age 6 as other better-­‐off children have, and thereby will be more likely to stay in school longer. Without early mental stimulation, disadvantaged children have no chance to catch up to their better off peers – intellectually, economically, or socially. Deprived youngsters without early education start school behind, and stay behind -­‐-­‐-­‐ permanently! Early education is positively correlated to higher graduation, higher employment, and lower incarceration rates! Fiecare Copil in Gradinita targets the very poorest children – those living in overcrowded, inadequate housing conditions in isolated areas with extremely limited access to potable water or standard health care. In the winter, the unemployment rate is close to 100% due to the low need for unskilled labor and the shockingly low education level of the adults. Food coupons, conditional on children’s attendance in preschool, have proven to be a highly effective, and efficient, tool to stimulate destitute, functionally illiterate parents (average years in school: 4) to bring their young children to gradinita every day. The parents receive €12 in food coupons per month if they take their child to preschool every day. In Romania, the monthly child allowance (which is unconditional) is €10, so this is significant increase for these families. * Program eligibility is based on poverty level, not ethnicity. RESULTS: 1. RECORD ATTENDANCE OF THE MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN 80% of the 1298 children in FCG attended daily (on average, 1043 children). In Podari, the daily attendance rate was 90% for the year. 2012-­‐2013 in numbers: • 1300 impoverished children (49 in Podari) ready to start primary school at age 6 • 1000 p arents (45 in Podari) with little formal education brought their children to preschool every day and took part in monthly p arent-­‐child activities • 170 children (41 in Podari) age 2-­‐4 and their parents participated in Sotron Doi – a weekly two-­‐hour session to familiarize children and their parents with the school environment • 650 children (39 in Podari), age 3-­‐14, participated in Summer School Preparation Programs • 200 (10 from Podari) local team members improved their ability to work on a common goal • 6 additional teacher assistants and 3 health mediators were hired • 73% of former FCG children regularly attended clasa pregatitoare and first grade • Sibiu, Covasna and Cluj County Councils are considering expanding FCG for all the county’s high-­‐risk children. As shown in the graph on p. 3, attendance peaked in December. In the last three months of the school year it decreased largely due to parents taking their children with them when they leave home for seasonal work that starts in the spring. See Attachment A for Podari’s attendance by month. 2 The teacher-­‐recorded attendance rates in graph below show a slight decline in the annual average from 2010 to 2013. This reflects the efforts of OvidiuRo to get teachers to keep scrupulous records – by applying sanctions when spot checks detect inaccurate or incomplete reports. Consequently, the teachers’ attendance taking has gotten more accurate over the course of the three years the program has been running. Before the FCG program was instituted in 2010, there was no daily attendance taking so direct comparisons are not available, but teachers consistently report that rarely more than 40% of these children ever attended, and a 2012 World Bank Report1 found that on average, only 37% of Roma children were enrolled in preschool – which says nothing about their actual attendance rates. 1 “Toward an Equal Start: Closing the Early Learning Gap for Roma Children in Eastern Europe”, 4 June 2012, The World Bank 3 2. INCREASED PARENT PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOL ACTIVITIES FCG stimulates poor parents to get more involved in their children’s education. First, it gets parents in the habit of bringing their children to preschool every day, regardless of the weather, the children’s mood, the distance, or other chores the parents might consider more important at the moment. Secondly, another precondition to receiving food coupons at the end of the month, is parent participation in two activities: Parent Day (a monthly activity with both children and parents) and Parent on Duty (5 times a year when the parent spends an entire day in preschool assisting the teacher). In Podari, parent attendance at Parent Days was good (81% in the spring quarter); 71% of the parents helped the teachers as Parents on Duty over the course of the school year. Food coupons help impoverished families improve their children’s nutrition at home. Children also received nutritious snacks during Sotron Doi and in the summer program in which 1500 children participated. 3. ENHANCED USE OF HUMAN AND COMMUNITY RESOURCES Weekly School for Moms & Toddlers: Sotron Doi is held once a week in the spring for 2-­‐4 year old children and parents with anxiety about the school environment. In a non-­‐threatening, low-­‐key setting, children and their parents (usually moms) gradually adjust to the routines of school. For 10 weeks, 41 children and their moms participated in these two-­‐hour sessions in Podari, and everyone received a diploma in the end – and encouragement to come every day in the next school year. Summer “Health School”: With support from GlaxoSmithKline, OvidiuRo organized 90 summer programs in 14 counties for 1500 children. Two-­‐thirds were preschoolers. In Podari, 39 children between age 3 and 7 participated, one group at the Podari Gradinita and the other in Braniste. In the 13-­‐day workshop, children learned about their body, the benefits of healthy food, and the importance of playing sports. They reviewed numbers and letters through writing exercises and applications play games and explore the surroundings in order to get ready for school in September. The teachers used OvR’s workbook “Good morning, children!” in which Kids were encouraged to ask questions and find answers, to explore and discover, to be creative and act as team players. 4 4. BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS January 2013 FCG Annual Meeting: 34 representatives from the 20 local teams (coordinators, teachers, school principals, mayors, school inspectors) came together for OvR’s 3-­‐day annual meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Bucharest (food and accommodations provided pro-­‐bono by the Hilton) to discuss the outcomes and challenges of the past year and to set the objectives for the spring semester. The three days were a mix of project training, educational exchange (including a visit to the American International School of Bucharest), and team building. July 2013 Training for summer programs: Podari teachers Mihaela Stefan and Claudia Nica participated in a one-­‐day session in Carpinis, Brasov to prepare them for running the summer program using OvidiuRo’s new “Good morning, children!” workbook designed by the OvR staff. 23-­‐24 August 2013 Local Coordinators Meeting: This annual meeting brings coordinators together to share their experiences implementing FCG, discuss the year’s results and plan activities for the new school year. Mihaela Stefan participated in the two-­‐day meeting in Bradet, Covasna County. FCG Health Component Project management training was also held. 26-­‐27 August 2013 Summer Program Best Practice Roundup: Summer program teachers and education specialists met in Predeal, Brasov County to discuss the programs and make suggestions for future improvements. Mihaela Stefan and Claudia Nica from Podari made a presentation on how they reached their summer school goals. September 2013: Step-­‐by step training in FCG methodology was held for Podari and Amarasti (the other Dolj comuna that is implementing FCG with funds from the British Embassy). Held at the Podari School, the purpose was to clarify program activities and roles, especially important for integrating new team members. 5. COMMUNITY TAILORED SOLUTIONS “Some say the Roma issue is a European one, others that it is a national concern. But it is also a very local issue, because it is the local authorities at the municipal and county level that do the work of social inclusion on the ground.” British Ambassador Martin Harris OvidiuRo works with local authorities and implementation teams to make sure the program runs smoothly so they have a chance to become an integral part of the local education system – not just a temporary NGO-­‐spawned ‘add-­‐on’. In Intorsura Buzaului, one of the coldest towns in Romania, attendance was especially low for the younger Roma children because of the long distance they had to walk from their community outside the village to the local school. Finally, after a meeting with the mayor in March, he agreed to have the school bus make a detour in order to bring the children to gradinita. This relatively small step had an immediate impact: attendance among the 3 year olds almost doubled from one day to 5 the next, and remained high for the rest of the school year. This is the kind of local solutions that OvidiuRo tries to inspire in the participating communities by meeting regularly with the school director and local authorities. British Ambassador Martin Harris’s visit to the Podari FCG program in the summer of 2012 led to several benefits for Dolj County and its leaders. In January 2013, the leader of the Rotherham Municipal Council visited Craiova and Podari. Ambassador Harris wrote on his blog, “I wanted him to see the excellent work that local authorities have been doing on Roma inclusion in partnership with OvidiuRo and to start a conversation on Roma inclusion between local authroties in Romania and the UK, which are both trying to address this challenge.” http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/martinharris/2013/04/02/roma-­‐inclusion-­‐in-­‐rotherham-­‐and-­‐romania/ In March, Podari school principal Marilena Andriescu and OvidiuRo's Oana Stanescu visited Rotherham, England as part of a delegation from Dolj County that included the vice president of the County Council (Cristinel Iovan), The EU affairs manager (Ileana Majina), and the Vice Mayor of Craiova (Cristina Calangiu). Ambassador Harris led the delegation, which was part of the British Embassy's twinning program between Rotherham and Craiova. The delegation “spent a full day in a settlement of some 3000 Roma looking at different aspects of employment, education and policing.” Ms. Andriescu was especially impressed by the provision of free school meals for the poorest children. The Ambassador writes, “The school had set up breakfast clubs where children – and their parents – could get a good meal before classes begin. Which means the children start the day properly fed, on time, and ready to learn.” In June, the Speaker of the British House of Commons, John Bercow, and a UK delegation visited the FCG program at the Podari School with the Romanian Chamber of Deputies President, Valeriu Zgonea. (See photo on p. 1.) PUBLIC AWARENESS ~ BEFORE ITS TOO LATE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD ~ AND THE OUTCOMES FOR A GENERATION OvidiuRo is committed to raising awareness of the importance of early education for Romania’s disadvantaged children – both among the public and in the business community. OvidiuRo’s long-­‐
standing partnerships with AmCham, ProTV, Rompetrol, Hilton (2004) and Carrefour (2006), as well as more recent partnerships with Cargill (2010) and GlaxoSmithKline (2012), and GDFSuez in 2013, are instrumental in directing the attention of opinion leaders and government authorities to a profoundly serious problem for which there is no national strategy. Podari Media Brunch, December 6, 2012 OvidiuRo & Cargill held a second joint media event in Podari announcing the second year of Cargill’s investment in the community and the results of the first year partnership. Duane Butcher, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission in Romania, attended the event and noted that, “Podari is a small but powerful example on how foreign investments in Romania goes beyond financial investments.” The event was reported on in both national and local media, generating two TV news spots (TVR Craiova & PRO TV) and 13 articles in the press. “Before It’s Too Late” June 26, 2013 Thirty media partners, including Forbes, Business-­‐
Review, Viva, Tango, Romania Libera and Sapte Seri, promoted this event designed to draw attention to the importance of early education “before it’s too late” to make a difference in school outcomes for the poor. Over 250 online articles resulted from the communication activity May-­‐ July as well as 28 print ads and 30 online banners. ProTV, OvidiuRo’s main media partner, broadcast six prime-­‐time news spots about the event, two of which were live transmissions from Palatul Copiilor. Eight TV channels reported on the event, including Prima TV and Antena 1. OvidiuRo representatives spoke on Pro TV, TVR, The Money Channel, and VTV talk shows about the importance of early education for disadvantaged children. Thirteen television outlets aired OvidiuRo’s video spot. Popular radio anchor Mihai Dobrovolschi referenced the event on his morning show ‘Guerrilla de dimineata’ and Irina Margareta Nistor 6 presented it on Antena 1’s morning show “Razvan si Dani”. Pro FM, Bucuresti FM, Radio Romania, Actualitati, and RFI gave radio coverage. As a Major Investor in Fiecare Copil in Gradinita, Cargill’s logo was on press ads announcing the event, http://www.elle.ro/news/intalnire-­‐cu-­‐ethan-­‐hawke-­‐before-­‐its-­‐too-­‐late-­‐317609/ and in the “Event Book” which was distributed to the 750 participants. The “Book” is also being used as OvidiuRo’s Annual Report (elements of which are included in the attachments to this report). At the event, the Cargill logo appeared in the VIP reception slide show (350 guests) and before the movie screening (750 guests). Cargill’s logo also appeared on OvidiuRo website. Tom Wilson’s video highlighting the importance of food coupons conditional on children’s attendance in preschool was shown before the film screening and to 70 media representatives at the “Before It’s Too Late” press conference. The event made international news (including in The Huffington Post, Miami Herald and The Telegraph as well as on Yahoo News) as a result of the Associated Press news release. 130 online articles were generated. Below are links to a selection of articles: •
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Live Pro TV news featuring Cargill logo (min. 2:22): http://www.ovid.ro/2013/06/ethan-­‐
hawke-­‐si-­‐amalia-­‐enache-­‐live-­‐la-­‐palatul-­‐copiilor/ Press release containing Cargill logo, published on Pro TV website http://www.protv.ro/stiri/iti-­‐place-­‐ethan-­‐hawke-­‐spune-­‐i-­‐fata-­‐n-­‐fata-­‐mergi-­‐la-­‐premiera-­‐
before-­‐midnight-­‐la-­‐palatul-­‐copiilor-­‐ia-­‐ti.html http://www.montereyherald.com/entertainment/ci_23544522/romania-­‐ethan-­‐hawke-­‐
promotes-­‐movie-­‐education http://www.forbes.ro/P-­‐intalnire-­‐cu-­‐ethan-­‐hawke-­‐before-­‐its-­‐too-­‐late_0_7677.html http://www.harpersbazaar.ro/intalnire-­‐cu-­‐ethan-­‐hawke-­‐before-­‐its-­‐too-­‐late/ http://www.viva.ro/arhiva/intalnire-­‐cu-­‐ethan-­‐hawke-­‐before-­‐its-­‐too-­‐late-­‐2322974 http://business-­‐review.eu/featured/before-­‐its-­‐too-­‐late/ http://www.elle.ro/news/intalnire-­‐cu-­‐ethan-­‐hawke-­‐before-­‐its-­‐too-­‐late-­‐317609/ SCALING UP ~ IN ORDER TO REACH A CRITICAL MASS
Every year since September 2010, 1300 or more disadvantaged children have had the benefit of attending gradinite in 20 communities in 11 Romanian counties. Some of these children will start Clasa Pregatitoare on Monday, 16 September, with three years of preschool ‘under their belts’. • Through the food coupons, their parents have been given the opportunity to improve these children’s (and their siblings) nutrition, to at least a modest extent. • Through strategic incentives, their parents are also changing ingrained habits about the “right time” to start their children in the education system. • Through the allocation and involvement of the local authorities, these children have clothes to wear to gradinita and a social worker paying attention to them. This is nice – for these 1300 children – but it needs to be done for all the impoverished children in Romania – before it can make a dent in the education gap between the Romanian urban middle class and the rural poor. 7 To further advance OvidiuRo’s goal of transforming the key elements of Fiecare Copil in Gradinita into national early education policy (and get the Romanian government to take over the cost of food coupons conditional on children’s daily attendance in preschool by 2020), this July OvR signed a formal agreement with the Ministry of Education to create an Early Education Working Group that will “analyze FCG scale-­‐up option, as a basis for ensuring preschool participation of all children at risk, and guarantee a convergent set of actions which will facilitate the development of effective public policy re preschool education, particularly for poor children”. We consider this a major breakthrough in our lobby efforts, as it is the first official statement we have from the Ministry that it is considering scaling up our program to national level. In parallel, OvR advanced in discussions with the Covasna, and Sibiu Counties to use county funds to expand the program throughout their counties starting January 2014. Discussions will resume in October (funds to be made available by application from City Halls starting January 2014). A third County Council, in Cluj, also agreed to allocate public funds to expand the program in two more communities – OvidiuRo is currently in the process of assessing the need in this county and informing local authorities about the program methodology. In Cluj, the program in partnership with the County Council is expected to start by October 2013. In July, OvidiuRo submitted a proposal to the EEA Grants (Norwegian funds) to cover program scale-­‐up in three other counties (Brasov, Dambovita and Dolj) with high numbers of impoverished, Roma children with low kindergarten participation rates. If funded, this program will start in 2014 and add two more components to FCG: a solid parent education module, and an impact evaluation study. INCREASING INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT THROUGH ‘DIRECT PENTRU COPII’
We believe that the seeds of the solution to Romania’s increasing Roma school drop-­‐out rate lies in civil society support. We have come to believe that asking individuals to make nominal automatic monthly donations through their online banking or credit card (we call it “Direct pentru Copii”) is the single best way to encourage individuals to develop the habit of donating personally to the causes they care about. SMS drives are an effective way to raise money for a crisis, but they are essentially “impulse sales” – and a poor way to build long-­‐term relationships and have 8 accountability to donors. And events, as important as they are, are geared to companies, and they don't really encourage the habit of personal giving. By setting up an automatic monthly bank debit to OvidiuRo, individuals can, almost effortlessly, help sustain our programs while we work toward making our successful strategy national policy. OvidiuRo encourages its corporate partners to inform their employees about ‘Direct pentru Copii’ and to reiterate the importance of investments in the early education, especially of the most impoverished children. OvidiuRo has a compact package of clear information about ‘Direct pentru Copii’ which we would be pleased to present to Cargill’s extended team. Please watch the linked video (in particular, minute 2:30 for testimonials): http://www.ovid.ro/en/2013/04/tom-­‐wilson-­‐video-­‐doua-­‐minute-­‐despre-­‐impactul-­‐programului-­‐
fiecare-­‐copil-­‐in-­‐gradinita-­‐12-­‐aprilie-­‐2013/ PODARI FINANCIALS Of Cargill's $25,000 contribution to OvidiuRo for the 2012-­‐2013 school year, approximately $7000 went into the local community in the form of salary, classroom materials, food coupons, and teachers' direct training costs; $12000 went to OvidiuRo's expenses, and $6000 remains to be spent. This remainder is due to: 1. A smaller number of eligible children than we budgeted for (because the 6 year olds entered the newly formed Clasa Pregatitoare, and no longer were part of the gradinita), and 2. The unexpected financial contributions of Carrefour and GlaxoSmithKline ($6200). Because a grant from Carrefour Foundation covered food coupons in all the FCG communities for the 2013 calendar year, Cargill was not charged for the Podari food coupons for January-­‐June 2013. GSK covered the cost of the summer programs in Podari, as well as in 40 other communities. School director Andriescu has expressed the need for a computer, printer and/or video projector in the Braniste Gradinita. With Cargill’s permission OvR will allocate up to $2600 of the remaining $6300 for this purpose. (See Attachment B Section 2 of the proposed 2013-­‐
2014 Budget.) Perhaps Cargill’s greatest contribution to Podari and Dolj is the catalytic effect of Cargill’s original sponsorship. As you well know, the Podari Fiecare Copil in Gradinita program came into existence in 2011 because of Cargill – and it has led to a number of unexpected benefits for the community and for Dolj County: •
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The British Ambassador Martin Harris's personal visit to the Podari School and community in the summer of 2012 led directly to (1) the Embassy's $9600 contribution to the FCG program in Amarastii de Jos in southern Dolj County, and (2) to the Podari school director's participation in a fact-­‐finding trip to the UK sponsored by the British Embassy and the subsequent visit to Dolj by a delegation of UK public authorities and officials (which included visits to Podari). The summer school program for 39 Podari children, age 3-­‐7, which focused on health education and was funded by GlaxoSmithKline. 9 CONTINUATION OF FCG IN PODARI FOR 2013-­‐2014 SCHOOL YEAR OvidiuRo requests that Cargill continue its sponsorship of Podari for the 2013-­‐2014 school year by rolling the remaining $6320 into the new school year’s budget and making an additional contribution of $17,500. The continuation of our partnership will: 1. Contribute to diminishing poverty in Dolj county (which is in the 4th most impoverished county of Romania mainly due to the lack of a proper infrastructure in agriculture and to migration of the young people looking for jobs and their recently increased tendency to stay abroad). “No region comes out of poverty just through agriculture, but through an extended jobs offer. Lack of education directly leads to poverty, with or without existing jobs in the agriculture sector” Evenimentul Zilei, 22 July 2013. 2. Help to motivate Dolj County to begin building the FCG program into its annual county budget; 3. Demonstrate Cargill’s long-­‐term commitment to improving life in Dolj County. ATTACHMENTS:
A. 2012-­‐2013 Attendance Chart B. 2012-­‐2013 Actual Expenses and 2013-­‐2014 Proposed Budget C. 2012 OvR Financial Report D. 2012 Donor List E. 2012 Team List F. FCG Methodology 10