Panciu - Centre Pinocchio

Romania is one of the poorest countries in Europe. After the great efforts to conform to the requirements, in January 2007 it entered in the European Union. However, serious economic al problems still exist in all the sectors, especially in the service industry. The workcamp will develop in Panciu, a small and rural village in the Vrancea country, around 200 km north from Bucarest. Here the Roma families live in situation of strong indigence and a discrimination toward this ethnic group still exists in school, in work contexts and in the political sphere. Every family has in average 4/6 children, who often grow without figures of reference and in risk of abandonment. The local association "Lumea lui Pinocchio" (“Pinocchio's world”) is strongly committed for the improvement of the integration and the active partecipation of the Roma's population in the Romanian society, expecially with regards to the minors. Every activity of the Daily Center Pinocchio (sport, music, theatre, street art and computer workshops) has the aim of promoting educational projects of personal growth and mutual exchange, targeted at the most disadvantaged children and youngsters. In the Center children of 3-16 years old do activity of scholastic support, creative games and workshops. The local staff is composed by 1 educator, 1 social worker, 1 secretary-accountant, 1 cook, 1 cleaning woman. Romanian volunteers and other international long-term volunteers collaborate with the local staff in the Center. During the summer 2018 we would like to propose games, manual activities, creative workshops with the goal to offer some aggregative moments and educational opportunities to the children and young people of the Panciu community. The aim is to create moments of sharing, of reciprocal exchange, and to the discover the richness of other people through the play.