Cooperative exercises

In November 2011, AMURTEL Romania’s president and executive director travelled to India to offer project management training during a 10 day capacity building program for women  missionaries “Expanding our Potentials”. The training was designed for workers of Women’s Welfare Organization India, who hosted the event in Jharsugudha, Orissa. It was the result of two years of planning with our partners from Women’s Welfare and Development Jamaica.   Didi A. Ragamaya from WWD Jamaica opened the event with a two day module “Pioneering Women Leaders”, that included cooperative teambuilding exercises, visioning exercises, communication skills training and more.

Didi A. Devapriya and Iulia Halangescu continued with the Project Proposal Writing segment. The 16 participants were highly motivated, and were able to both absorb and apply the information immediately – step by step constructing a viable project proposal. The skills that they learned included problem tree analysis, community mapping, project cycle management, budgeting, reporting, grant writing, monitoring and evaluating.  As a result of the training, three original project proposals were written by the participants.

The 10 day training concluded with 4 days of yoga teacher training, led by Didi A.Ragamaya,  in which the participants deepened their understanding of anatomy, teaching methodology, and improved their technique in performing yoga asanas.

The entire experience was a rewarding, memorable event that strengthened and empowered each of the participants with increased skills, confidence and sisterhood.

Photo journal of the training

The Fountain of Hope After-school Center in Panatau opened its doors for its 5th school year this October.  This year has seen a dramatic increase in the number of children applying to attend and receive a free hot meal, homework help and extracurricular activities. While last year the number of beneficiaries had grown from 22-25, this year it has increased to a total of 41 children! This increase reflects both the severity of the impact of the economic crisis in this rural village, as well as the increasing popularity of the center amongst the children. When the project first began, some of the children were teased by their collegues and felt ashamed about going to the center. However, the annual Open Day programs that invite all  of the children from the local school to watch a short video starring the  Fountain of Hope children seems to have helped shift this view – to the point where, if space allowed it, all 200 of the children from the school would want to attend the program.

Another event that increased  community involvement was a summer volunteer program Club “TIP” (the Clever Kids of Panatau Club) in which local teenagers collectively sculpted and painted mural on the walls of the study room.
Club TIP – photo album
In addition, the community has had the chance to come in contact with the center as it is rented out for various local events such as baptisms and birthday parties to generate income to help cover costs for various repairs. Recently a group of Swiss students visited the center, and the funds raised were used to buy new wood laminate flooring to replace the myriad of carpets that had covered the bare cement.

The Fountain of Hope began in 2007, in partnership with the Panatau Community and The Cooperating Netherlands Foundation. Its main goal was to reduce the rate of primary school dropout in the village, and indeed, none of the children benefitting from the Fountain of Hope’s services have been held back or dropped out. While the majority of such after-school centers in the area closed due to lack of funding, thanks to the involvement of AMURTEL’s international network of sponsors and the local community council of Panatau the project has survived despite severe cuts in social services nationwide.  Please help us to keep it going! We will be needing extra help this year to support the increased costs!

Thank you!

Please see the results and financial report from Fountain of Hope’s  2010-2011 schoolyear:

Fountain of Hope Annual Report 2010-11 Schoolyear

This year, the group was together with Costin, the psychologist of Familia AMURTEL, and our loyal Dada Subuddhyananda – a veteran of these camps. The adventure began with backpacking through the mountains to reach a special lake with an interesting history – it is actually a submerged village that was flooded during Ceaucescu’s reign in order to create a resevoir. Only a church steeple can still be seen above the water’s surface. The boys learned kayaking and also constructed rafts from truck tires and crossed the lake on them. It was a challenging problem solving experience – but as Ionut said “No problem, we can figure it out!”. Meanwhile Stefan and Bogdan swam in the lake, and encouraged the younger ones to learn swimming as well.

They also built catamarans using surfboards, wood planks, string and a piece of canvas.  The next day, the  group put on backpacks and began hiking. They faced a big challenge – a powerful thunderstorm, with torrential rains and strong winds. But they did not give up nor get discouraged, but quickly divided duties. Ionut and Bogdan collected firewood, while Florin and Stefan made a shelter out of a big tarp where the group huddled to stay dry. Andrei and Daniel brought water and Ionut Zaharia helped build the fire. It was an unforgettable experience.

The third day, the group hiked through the forests of Sovata and through the village. The children were very enthusiastic and reached all of the destinations that the instructor proposed. In the afternoon, they got to go swimming in the salt water “Bear’s Lake”.

The last day was spent in the ropes course – where the group did many difficult exercises, including the infamous trapeze challenge – in which one must climb a 4 meter wooden pole and then jump to a trapeze bar. Stefan and Bogdan were extremely courageous – having performed this feat last year as well. Ionuts overcame his fear and managed in the end to accomplish all of the exercises.

It was wonderful to see how all of the children grew in their sense of responsibility, bravery and teamwork through these experiences.

Photo Album from Sovata Adventure

despachetare calculatoare

Au fost dornici sa invete

The first phase of instruction took place in the month of August in Familia AMURTEL. The younger boys took part in a training with Iulia Halangescu. They were thrilled to get to unpack the new computers. When they began learning some basics, they were very excited. They couldn’t believe that they could do it. It was an opportunity to increase their self esteem and help them to feel equal to the grown ups who “know” how to use a computer. Ionuts, one of our beneficiaries, even proclaimed that he could help us by becoming the secretary, so that Violeta wouldn’t have to do everything alone.

tastarea primelor litere

deschiderea primului document word

A few days ago, an extensive renovation began on our second kindergarten in Bucharest, benefitting children with social disadvantages as well as promoting the Neohumanist Education alternative model of holistic education.

The roof had been leaking like a seive during rainy periods.

However, simply replacing the roof proved not to be so simple. The building itself is on a weak foundation that is gradually sinking causing walls to crack. Taking the roof off, means also to structurally reinforce all of the walls so that they can hold up the new roof.

Though AMURTEL had successfully raised funds for this project, after the demolition of the existing roof had already begun - we discovered that the project would cost significantly more than planned, so we are in need of donations to help us cover the deficit.

Thank you!
AMURTEL Romania Team

 

Where: Bucharest Romania, “Gradinita Rasarit”

Instructors: Dada Nirmalkrsnanada, Didi A. Devapriya

After last year’s successful course, AMURTEL Romania is organizing its second annual  Disaster Relief Management Training. The course last year resulted in a motivated team of volunteers that organized a small scale intervention in August 2010 at a camp of families displaced by flooding in Brailla.

The goal of the course is to strengthen and build the AMURT and AMURTEL  volunteers that are ready to be part of a “Rapid Response Team”  responding to disasters both on the national and international levels.

The training will be led by instructors who have participated in the AMURT and AMURTEL relief efforts for large scale disasters in Indonesia, Myanmar, and Haiti. In particular the course will focus on creating “Child Friendly Spaces” programs, based on the successful experiences of AMURT and AMURTEL in recent disaster relief situations.

Cost: 75 euros

For more details go to “Contact Us”
+40 744565252

www.amurtel.ro

Permaculture
planning session: July 12-14
Poieni, Romania
Cost: 100 Euro

You are invited to participate in creating a sustainable permaculture design for AMURTEL’s farmland in Poieni Romania.
Permaculture is a holistic approach to designing and planning efficient ecological systems. It is based on patterns that occur in nature to maximise effect while minimizing wasted energy. Elements in a system are viewed in relationship to other elements, where the outputs of one element become the inputs of another. Within a Permaculture system, work is minimised, “wastes” become resources, productivity and yields increase, and environments are restored.

The planning session will be guided by Dada Subuddhyananda, who has studied permaculture design in Croatia and applied this knowledge to development work in Haiti.

Participants will be introduced to the fundamental principles of permaculture design, and will have the opportunity to put the concepts into practice using the concrete example of “Casa Iedera” Poieni.

AMURTEL runs a children’s home and after-school center in the nearby village of Panatau, and is seeking to create a design that will increase the long term sustainability of the projects, designing ecological social economy projects and increasing food production on the land.

Participants will stay in the beautiful rustic country farmhouse on the land. Healthy vegetarian meals will be served, and there is the option to participate in daily meditation sessions in nature.

For more details and to sign up please contact:
Didi 0744565252
didi@amurtel.ro

The "Young Voices of Europe" from Romania

In January 2011, three of our young adults, that share the common background of having grown up in the AMURT and AMURTEL homes took part in the “Young Voices of Europe” project . The project promotes and celebrates the role of voluntary active citizenship amongst youth, especially Roma and other minorities, in furthering values of human rights, social inclusion and intercultural understanding within Europe. YVE is a project of Pakiv European Network, that brought together around 45 young people from Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Romania for joint learning, exchange, reflection and cross border action. It was an opportunity for our young people to meet positive models of Roma people, and to understand the roots and culture of the Roma. This was particularly valuable for the AMURTEL participants, as many of our young people either are Roma themselves, or grew up with other Roma young people. The project also helped to increase their self-esteem and sense of identity, as well as inspiring them to work together as active citizens.[/lang-en]

The Romanian team created a video about volunteering, which you can watch at the follow links:

Young Voices Romania pt 1
Young Voices Romania pt 2
Young Voices Romania pt 3

During the project, the participants received training in how to use new multimedia tools such as blogs, making videos, and radios, to promote causes related to intercultural understanding, social inclusion and human rights.

Atelier de creare filme si blog-uri

They constructed the story step by step, building on their own experience of being excluded in their childhood or throughout their lives. The experience of creating the story, selecting the songs, and sharing their experiences was a very special. It was an emotionally releasing experience, and it visibly increased their confidence.

Now the ones with Roma background are proud to be Roma, and to be called Roma, and the others are more positive and accepting, having questioned the prejudicial stereotypes of the society. Another very positive aspect that these young adult volunteers from AMURTEL gained from this experience was a better understanding about Roma history, and in particular, the Holocaust. Also, through the interactions between them, they were able to learn a few words of Roma language, as well as from the other languages of the participants.

Other creative expressions of our three volunteers together with the other participants from Romania, were a skit performed for the participants, as well as a collective painting and poem about Roma issues in Europe, as part of the Roma Day on the 8th of April 2011. All this you can see it at the following link:
Pakiv European Network – Young Voices Project

Poza din intervetie in urma inundatiilor din vara anului 2010 in judetul Braila in tabara de sinistrati de la Lacul Sarat.

Poza din interventia in urma dezastrului cauzat de cutremurul din Haiti la inceputul anului 2010.

Procesul de recuperare poate lua luni sau chiar ani. Interventia in caz de dezastre nu consta doar in asistenta medicala insa este nevoie deasemeni sa fie adresate nevoile sociale si emotionale a persoanelor afectate. Copii mici au nevoie de locuri de siguranta unde sa se joace. AMURTEL a creat astfel de spatii “Spatii prietenoase pentru copii” la interventiile dupa tsunami din Indonezia si cutremurul din Haiti, iar in Romania in vara anului 2010 in urma inundatiilor in Braila la Lacul Sarat, unde am organizat un program educational pentru copii sinistratiolor, implicand activ si parintii. In cadrul acestui seminar vom avea si un reprezentant de la IGSU, unul din partenerii nostrii, care ne va prezenta aspecte ale proiectului SafeQuake, impreuna cu brosura acestuia.

Acest seminar introductiv v-a continua printr-un curs detaliat in luna Iulie, tinut deechipa de expertii internationali din AMURT si AMURTEL de interventie in caz de dezastre, pentru cei care sunt interesati sa devina voluntari in acest domeniu.