i. “ion neculce” program

I. “ION NECULCE” PROGRAM
In January the activities on “Ion Neculce” program started again. Children
attended the Italian language lessons,
theater activities, Romanian lessons and
dancing.
Unfortunately, the volunteers who developed the mathematics and drawing
activities couldn’t continue their collaboration. As a consequence, we started
looking for other volunteers willing to
develop these activities. We can say we
were lucky as, in a very short period of
time we managed to find new youths to
help us in the activity, so that starting
with February mathematics and drawing
are back again on the list of the activities developed in the program.
Two debates were also held, at the classes VI B and VIII A, on the subject “self
esteem”.
We realized that after the winter holiday the children needed some time to
adjust to the activities again, their presence to mathematics and Romanian
lessons being less than usual. This was
the reason our volunteers made a leaflet with all the information on the activities and they entered the classrooms
in order to give it to the children.
The counseling sessions were continued
during January, February and March and
we are happy to let you know that children come on their own now and ask
for help, instead of being brought by
their teachers or by the manager.
We can say that during the first three
months of the year the children in “Ion
Neculce” school program started again
the mathematics and Romanian lessons,
learnt new dances, developed their
communication and relationship abilities
in their theatre activities and improved
their Italian knowledge.
In a conversation with the beneficiaries
of this program the children asked for
more activities like music and sports.
We are happy to inform you that we
have already found a volunteer for the
music activities and starting with April
we will begin them and we continue to
look for someone who will help us with
the sports activities.
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JOSEPH Foundation
Newsletter
II. AL MINA – PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER
The first three months of
this year found Al Mina, our
Peace Corps volunteer
busy with taking care of all
the things linked to the
media campaign for the
Joseph Foundation but also
with the preparation of our
first fundraising event,
which is a concert.
Due to this fact Al had
many meetings with media
represen tatives (with
representatives of the TV
station TeleM, TV station
TVR Iasi and Radio station
Radio Iasi; he also had
phone conversations with
Antena 1 Iasi and ProTV
representatives).
During the months of
January, February and
March Al con tacted
numerous Embassies in
order to tell them some
information on the Joseph
Foundation and to find new
collaboration possibilities.
Also, Al has worked at the
SPA Project: he finished it
and sent it for sponsorship
at Peace Corps Bucharest.
Al has also looked for new
financing lines on which the
Joseph Foundation could
apply.
In the same period Al made
a questionnaire which was,
after that, applied,
questionnaire that was
Al Mina volunteer in our
foundation since may 2008.
intended to find out which
are the needs for social
services in Iasi.
Al contacted the marketing
director at Moldova Mall in
order
to
initiate
collaboration-some
meetings took place in
order to find the best ways
to promote the Joseph
Foundation inside the
commercial complex
Moldova Mall.
So, we can definitely say
that the first three months
of 2009 were full of
activities for Al Mina, our
Peace Corps volunteer.
We wish him best of luck in
his future activities.
III. PROJECT – A FUTURE CHANGED
As we have already announced you in our last
newsletter the Joseph
Foundation implements the
project “A future changed”,
project financed by Link
Romania UK. In the months
January-March kindergarten
activities for children in
Dallas neighbourhood were
developed. The children
were involved in different
creative activities through
which they learnt aspects
linked to hygiene rules and
people around us who can
help.
Also, as part of this program, many poor families
have been taken into evidence. The social worker
took care of each case.
Material help, counseling
and support were offered.
The project is developing
very well and represents a
ray of sunshine and hope
for all the people living in
this poor region in Iasi.
In March we received the
visit of John and Margaret
Willemsen from Link Romania UK. They were very
happy about the results and
they expressed their wish
to develop new services
inside this center.
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JOSEPH Foundation
Newsletter
IV. PHARE PROJECT – SUPPORT FOR GYPSY PEOPLE FROM VOINEŞTI
The project Partnership for
the inclusion of gypsy people
on the labour market implemented by the Joseph Foundation starting with May
2008 is approaching to its
end.
At the end of this project
we feel as if we were in
front of a new beginning.
We aimed at training 50
gypsy people in the village of
Voinesti, in Iasi county (men
and women) in three jobs:
animal breeder, builder and
carpenter. We managed to
qualify 58 persons but the
number of those who don’t
want to be a burden for the
society any more is much
bigger.
We didn’t intend to assimilate them but to include
them on the labour market.
We didn’t want to impose
on them with certain rules
but we aimed at opening the
society to them, so that they
can after that respect social
rules without losing their
identity. To include gypsy
58 GYPSY PEOPLE GRADUADED CARPENTER, BUILDER AND ANIMAL BREEDING TRAINING
people in a society means to find an intelligent way to make
them responsible for the society in which they live, giving
them the rights that will help them become responsible.
During the project we constantly consulted ourselves with
our training partners: FEG Foundation and FEG Education Foundation
but also with our community partners: Voinesti Mayoralty and the
School of Arts and Jobs in Voinesti.
Strategies exist, programs exist,
funds exist, People who work and
have results exist.
We all talk about changing mentalities, for both majority of population
V. PROJECT – REPUBLIC OF MOLDAVIA
The project “Children home alone-Local solutions for
transfrontalier problems” continued its activities. The comparative study Iasi-Chisinau, on the situation of children left
home alone by parents who work abroad, was finished. This
study will be printed in 1000 copies and will be launched in
May, through a press conference.
A training for 20 specialists (psychologists, social workers
and teachers) from both governmental and nongovernmental institutions was held. The training focused on the social
services offered to children left home alone, methods and
working techniques, legal aspects and experience exchange.
It was a very useful training for those participants who
work directly, on a day by day base, with this category of
children.
and for national minorities. But
sometimes the majority hesitates in remembering we are all
human. And the minorities continue to behave like outsiders.
We wanted to change something in these mentalities and
we believe we managed to do
so, at least for the 58 people
we trained, people who can be
an example for other people in
their communities.
-4-
JOSEPH Foundation
Newsletter
VI. CLOTHES FOR MY NEIGHBOUR
As the year 2009 brought
managed to make some
along the confirmation that
donations in the form of
people
clothes, shoe-boxes (that
are
sensitive
to
other ones needs, we had
contained
the chance to continue in
clothes
the first three months of
products) washing powder,
the
pampers and toilet paper.
year
the
“Clothes
program
an d
toys,
hygiene
my
We want to share with you
neighbour”. Due to this in
some cases of children who
January,
and
benefited
our
donations
March,
for
sweets,
February
thanks
to
by
and,
these
also,
to
friends and collaborators
thank you in their name for
from
your help.
Carrefour,
we
2 STORIES
Laura is 15 years old and lives
together with her family; sometimes she gets bitten by her
mom’s concubine and other times
she is not allowed to go to
school. We met Laura at the
counseling room the Joseph Foundation has in “Ion Neculce”
school. This is my life she said: I
am caught between two worlds: a
real one and an imaginary one.
Her parents broke up when she
was almost 2 years old. She hasn’t
seen her father for a long time.
She knows her father tried to
keep in touch with her but after a
while he gave up. After that Laura
had 2 more step “fathers” and
some more brothers and sisters.
The first one, Isabela, is 12 years
old now, has finished 4 classes but
after that abandoned school. The
other sister is almost nine years
old. She disappeared one day and
they never found anything else
about her. It seems she has been
sold. No one knows exactly to
whom and for how much money.
Short sequences from the
life of the children we help!
In a neighborhood in Iasi, in
the middle of civilized
world, between a Mall and
a hypermarket there is a
“blocks of flats” called by
both people who live there
and by people in the surrounding areas “the ghetto”. They don’t have water
or electricity.
That’s the place where our
“heroes” live.
ABOUT
2 DESTINIES
She was 3 years old then and her
name was Corina. The young
ones, Florin and Gina, from the
actual relationship the mother
has, have four and two years old.
More than that, Laura is the one
who raised them. Laura’s mother
has never taken her daughter’s
side. The woman doesn’t know
how to read or write (this makes
Laura be ashamed) but she earns
good money selling cigarettes on
the black market. Meanwhile, her
older daughters, Laura and Isabela, take care of the little sisters,
cook, clean and wash. When she
talks about her mother Laura is
sometimes full of love and, other
times, full of hate. On one hand
she is afraid something wrong
might happen to her, but, on the
same time she accuses her and is
indifferent to her situation. Being
caught between 2 strong and opposite feelings her soul, that of a
child, cannot bare any more and
she starts crying. Between tears
she says that everything she wants
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JOSEPH Foundation
Newsletter
LAURA’S STORY
in this world is to have her mother
back, “a mother who will teach her
the difference between right and
wrong, just like any other good mothers do”.
***
Laura admits that meeting the ones
from the Joseph Foundation was very
important to her, as, she could have
ended up on the streets just like her
cousin, Mariana and she could have
been sold to different people. Laura
comes to the counseling room each
Friday. Besides this she goes to
different other educational activities.
According to her age she was
supposed to be in the ninth form
already, but she is still in the 6th. She
repeated her first 3 years of school,
as she didn’t come to school on a
regular base. She wants to finish at
least 8 classes in order to show
people around her that she is capable
of doing this. In school she is
ambitious and likes to compete
with other colleagues. And who
knows, maybe one day she will
end up working with kids just like
her, because she will be able to
guide the ones who have a life just
as difficult as hers.
Laura swings between two worlds
-a very handy one, that of street
and crimes, in which she is being
pushed by her own family, and
another one, showed to her by
the ones from the Joseph
Foundation’s
team
and
its
volunteers, who try to offer Laura
and other children like her a new
chance in life.
(FROM PREVIOUS)
looks lost.
The teacher remembers the first time she
realized Valentina’s parents separated.
”Valentina came to school one day and
started crying. While I was trying to calm
her down I asked her what happened and
she told me her mother doesn’t even call
her.”: Just like Valentina, Petre says: “My
mother doesn’t want to see us any more.
We love her no more. She left us. She lied
–she said she will come for us.” Angry and
disappointed by their mother, the children
try to protect their family from critics and
derisory. Petre is angry on his classmates
who talk ugly about his father. Valentina is
VALENTINA'S STORY
more cautious and she tries to make her
father look well pretending nothing is
Valentina is 12 years old and
she is in the 5th form. She knows
she is a good student and she
states:”I don’t have any bad
marks!” She started coming to
the activities developed by the
Joseph Foundation by herself. We
could say this is a little bit unusual
for a child her age. But this wasn’t
just a trifle; it was rather a choice
and a decision made by Valentina.
Valentina
learns
quickly
and
adapts very well to the new situations in her life-situations a child
her age shouldn’t have to face.
Until recently Valentina and her
brother, Petre, were living with their pa- wrong with her family. With a mother who
rents and grandmother. After Christmas takes her children’s allowances and gives
last year Valentina found out that her pa- them no help and a father who is most of
rents are getting a divorce. Now the chil- the times drunk and, sometimes, even abudren live with the father and the grandmo- sive, Valentina and Petre depend on their
ther. The stormy family life scarred the grandmother who took over all the reschildren, both emotionally and physically. ponsibilities in the family. When asked how
as Valentina’s family is struggling to survive. much is 3 times 2, Petre says quickly “6”
The trauma caused by their parents’ sepa- and when he is being asked how much is 3
ration is more obvious in Peter’s case. His times 4 he smiles and says “is 12”.Petre,
teacher says he started having memory who says he wants to become a bodyguard
problems and lacks attention. He often to beat the ones who hurt him, likes maforgets the alphabet even if he writes it thematics. It is clear that Valentina and
before. Also, sometimes he smiles a lot in Petre need help from the Joseph Foundafront of the camera, just like every child, tion in order to have some moments of
but other times he isolates himself and he normality in their life.
JOSEPH Foundation
Newsletter
VII. PROJECT – A CHANCE FOR EVERYONE
This project is being developed
together with our partners:Voinesti
In December we started a new project in the village
Mayoralty, FEG Foundation, FEG
of Voinesti, project called „A chance for everyone”
Education Foundation and Somerset
(financed through Phare 2006), project that aims at
Foundation between December 2008-
training 50 people in three jobs: builder, carpenter
November 2009.After the training all
and clothes manufacturer.The goal of this project is
the people part of the project will
to help the community in Voinesti through training
receive a professional certificate,
activities.In the first two months of the project we
according to the training attended by
have had organizing activities and selection of
them: carpenter, builder or clothes
beneficiaries who were willing to be part of this
manufecturer.
project. In February and March we had a promotion
beneficiaries will benefit of a training
campaign through leaflets and posters and at the
organized by the Joseph Foundation
end of March we had 79 people on the list, all
on life skills neccessary after the end
willing to be part of the training.
of the project, in order to be able to
Also,
all
the
find a job.
VIII. VOLUNTEERS
JOSEPH FOUNDATION
Str. Dacia 21, Pav. I, Iaşi
The activities with the volunteers
continued in January, February
and March, too.
With their help the following
activities were developed in the
program “Ion Neculce”:
Romanian lessons, mathematics,
dances, drawing, theatre and
Italian language. Also, our
volunteers created a leaflet (that
was presented in all the
classrooms) with information on
the activities included in the
program and also a material for
debates at classrooms on the
issue of self esteem.
We identified new volunteers for
mathematics and drawing.
As we wanted to reward the
work and enthusiasm of our
volunteers we declared March
“volunteers’ months”at the
Tel: +40232-223053
Fax: +40232-223053
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.fiosif.ro
RON: BRDEROBU RO55 BRDE 240SV081 5947 2400
Joseph Foundation. As a
consequence, we had a meeting
with our volunteers, meeting in
which we discussed about new
possible activities and about the
media campaign of the Joseph
Foundation. We all spent some
relaxing moments and we were
happy to see that we have the
same ideas on the activities we
develop for the benefit of
children in difficulty.
We want to thank again all our
volunteers for their effort.
Joseph Foundation
GIVES THANKS TO ALL THE PARTNERS AND
SPONSORS THAT SUSTAINED US IN 2008!
EURO: BRDEROBU RO48 BRDE 240SV142 5800 2400