Together we change the future! “Marcea Pompiliu” Secondary School, Tg. Jiu-Gorj
The focus in this project was make a change at the community level, a change proposed and achieved by little superheroes of third grade from the “Pompiliu Marcea” Secondary School, Tg. Jiu. “Together we change the future!” came as a story, a story created by children, by creative and hard-working pupils, who feel, imagine, take action but also communicate as grownups.
They screamed in a choir: I can!... I can help another child who wishes to have a toy, a coat to keep warm on cold days or a pencil to write his homework… I can be better, I can speak nice words and I can have a good relationship with my parents and colleagues. I can change the world, can you help me?
Both parents and the teachers said yes. In this way, this project became a dream come true that managed to reduce bullying but also brought beautiful moments in the life of disadvantaged children.
Story of change facilitated by Mrs Gogelescu-Badita Ana-Maria.
List the problems identified by the pupils:
- Eliminating bullying
- Offering help to disadvantaged
- Creating learning materials for younger colleagues
- Creating learning materials for the pupils who signed up for the After school programme
- Offering help to disadvantaged people but also to homeless animals
Explain what problem was chosen to be solved and why.
Help a number of 10 disadvantaged pupils from the school. Often, in the school breaks, children meet with various other colleagues from other classes. They observed that certain children do not have something to eat or do not have something to wear. I was surprised of the civic nature and the kindness the third graders showed… Besides the fact that they identified such a problem at school, they managed to come together and solve it.
Removing bullying from school. The word “bullying” does not have an exact translation in Romanian but it can be associated with terms such as intimidation, terror, brutalization. Bullying is not mean there is a conflict based on a real problem but on people’s wishes to win their power and authority, putting others in a bad light. With patience and wonderful ideas, pupils of third grade managed to finish this phenomenon.
What people are most affected by this problem? What is bothering them?
Pupils from the school are affected by these problems.
List all the solutions you thought of.
Pupils thought of solutions such as:
- Doing a Christmas fair, a fair with cards. The money from these cards would go to packages for disadvantaged children
- Creating informative posters about bullying
- Watching educational movies regarding the exclusion of bullying
- Involving parents in all activities
Which of these solutions was chosen to implement and why?
- Doing a Christmas fair, a fair with cards. The money from these cards would go to packages for disadvantaged children
This solution was chosen because the children realized cards and with the money they made, they managed to help 10 colleagues.
- Creating informative posters about bullying
These posters were put in visible places in order to be seen by all the pupils in the school.
Briefly describe the process of implementing your solution/solutions
To solve the first problem identified, help 10 disadvantaged children, pupils have found the following solutions:
- They made an exhibition with buying and selling of cards
- They organised a fundraiser
- They all brought things they did not use such as clothes, school supplies etc.
From these activities they managed to make 10 packages for their school mates. In this way, 10 souls had a wonderful day with a pure child’s smile.
For the second problem identified, removing bullying from school, pupils have found the following solutions:
- Organising common creative activities of painting, watch an educational movie etc.
- A large number of pupils taking part to different psycho-social activities
What are the results or the impact of your project?
We managed to make 10 children happy.
We managed to remove violence from our school.
How many people benefited from your solution?
20-50 people
What did the people who benefited from the solution say? Write 2 quotes or opinions.
“The grandmother of a child: the help received was of real help…”
Ionut: “Thank you for the jacket”
Ana: “I liked the psycho-social activities, that I did with my colleagues, very much”
What difficulties did you encounter while implementing the project and how did you overcome them?
We thought we won’t make it, that we won’t raise funds and that we won’t manage to remove bullying, but with the help of parents and of teachers, we made it.
How long did it take to implement the solution?
More than 30 days
What did you do to promote the project in your school or in the community? With whom did the pupils talk to about the project? What answers did they receive?
We published different articles and posters on the school website.
We spoke with the school manager and with the teachers in the school and we got all the support.
Approximately, with how many people did you talk to about the project?
10-20 people
Briefly, how do you plan on sustaining the project in the future?
We will organise a fair for “martisoare”, in March and we will help other children with clothes and school supplies. We will continue to remove violence by simply being us better.
