Mobile school in Romania

Among the first children we helped were the children of the street, children living on the streets. If at first our experience was rather tough because we met them on the streets, we met them in abandoned building, in the canals under bridges, in the train station areas, giving them, very often, our time and sometimes, our money, in time, these children have rewarded us and gave us back much more. They have given us a lot of information about what survival means and how to deal with the difficulties.

I've been trying to identify ways, solutions, to create a methodology for bringing these children to the school space. We have succeeded to create a model of school reintegration of these children based on three components.

First, mobile school, a pedagogic tool that can be adapted to the reality of street children, a tool we move to the street and there with a complex methodology based on writing, reading on creative therapy, very much on the game, we draw children to work, to learn, to knowledge.

Second, the educational centre where children come and prepare homework for school. Also, they get psychological and pedagogical assistance and support from social workers, psychologists, and educators.

Third, the time of school integration, when these children are taken to school, after they were trained in meetings on the street or in the meetings of the educational centre.

These children need affective support; at least at the beginning of the interaction they need a continued support, because as it happens to us, the children come daily to our activities. Children need to build trust in order to increase their self-esteem. Children need trusted adults around them because their families often don’t support them as it should be.