Smile To You

Violence in schools is one of the most visible forms of violence against children and young people. Schools cannot fulfill the important role of educating and socializing if they are an environment of aggression, bullying, violence. Bullying is actually a form of violence that seems to have increased quite a lot in recent years. Incidents have occurred, especially at school level, which increased awareness of the bullying phenomenon. It results in: name-calling, exclusion from activities, discrimination, violation of rights, abuse of any kind, verbal or written aggression. We chose to create a project on this topic by engaging European volunteers, as it was found that young people of the same age and same interests are more easily accepted than adults by the other youngsters. Generally, the unmistakable victims of this phenomenon are rural children who attend a school in the urban environment, but also those from rural areas that are economically and ethnically disadvantaged (Roma children).
Project activities will take place in different schools from Vrancea County - Focsani, Marasesti, Panciu, Garoafa, Ciuslea.

Project duration: 14 months (01 September 2018 – 30 October 2019)
Volunteer stage duration: 7 months (01 November 2018 – 31 May 2019)
Partner organisations: 8 (each organization should send 1 volunteer)

Our project will target children and young people from Mărăşeşti town (where Roma children represent over 55% of the school students), from Panciu town, from Focsani - Gh. Asachi High School (where 90% of pupils come from rural areas) and the Pedagogical High School ”Spiru Haret” and from the rural communities of Garoafa and Ciuslea.

The main objectives of the project are:
- To increase the awareness of children and young people in Vrancea County on the phenomenon of bullying and its effects during the 14 months of the project.
- To improve the skills of the 8 volunteers in working in the field of education with disadvantaged groups during the 7-month mobility.
- To increase the motivation of children and youth from participating communities to take responsibility for resolving conflicts in their lives without violence during the 14 months of the project.
- To develop attitudes of non-discrimination, equality, tolerance, respect among the children and young Romanian participants in the project and European volunteers during the implementation of the project activities.

Procedure of submission:
The organisations that would like to become partners should send an email with their updated Partner Identification Form to voluntariatpentruviata@gmail.com by 10th April 2018.