Youth Activities
Kinga Gergely - Social Worker, reponsible for programs of youth activities and coordinating members of staff (language skills: Hungarian, Romanian, English)
Peter Grossmann - Manager, member of the board of the Romania Initiative Group Bautzen (RIG), responsible for finances and volunteer supervision (language skills: German, English, Hungarian)
Markus Wiatr - Volunteer, responsible for language lessons and special youth programs like music lessons and bicycle workshop (language skills: German, English, Hungarian)
Kibedi Erika - Secondary School Teacher, employed on fee-paying basis, responsible for dance and drama workshop (language skills: Hungarian, Romanian, German, French, Spanish)
Valber Dias - Soccer Coach from Brazil, employed on fee-paying basis, responsible for sport programs (language skills: Portuguese, French, Spanish, German, Hungarian)
Facilities
The “ Romania Initiative Group Bautzen “ has got
a three-room flat in Keresztur, where we established an office room and a
room for working in smaller groups.
Since November 2003 we have been renting the premises of the former church
choir rooms of the Catholic church. There we can use the kitchen facilities
and we have a larger room for working and a smaller one, where we establish
a pottery workshop.
Preparing the rooms in the former choir facilities was one of the major work
tasks. Together with the young people we have done a lot by ourselves. The
different jobs were coordinated, the floor was sanded and painted, windows
and doors were painted. Furthermore we looked for skilled workers, cleaned
the rooms, ordered furniture and picked it up, got curtains and lamps. We
were ready to help , whenever our help was required.
Target Group
We offer activities for anyone, apart from some works
requiring special basic skills.
Although our main target group are children and young people, we offer activities
for all generations as well. We like having this mixture of adults and adolescents.
The continuous process of learning from each other and living together is
very important for realising our aims.
1. Meetings on Fridays and Saturdays / Activities for former institution children
Report by Helena Bähr, former volunteer in the youth project
It´s Thursday afternoon in the neighbourhood of
Kossuth . “ HI , Helena ! How are you doing ?What are we going to do
tomorrow ? Shall we go for a cycle ride ? Tünde, Eva and Istvan would
like to join us . O.K. See you then “. Tomorrow is Friday again. In
spring or summer we go on trips with our bikes to the surrounding villages
, to the pond or to Soskut. Or we go to the sports ground to play soccer or
volleyball. And if it happens to rain, we will go to the flat of our action
group, where we can cook something , play some games or do some handicrafts.
It is now Friday afternoon , quarter past four. “ Hi, Helena , the others
are coming in a minute. What are we doing today ?” . “ Going for
a cycle ride. Maria told me you wanted to go on a trip”. “ Oh
no, I`d rather play soccer “. In this case we had better wait for the
other folks, who arrive at half past. The group decides to play soccer.
It is now Friday evening at six or eight. “ Don´t forget to come
to the talk with Hajni tomorrow morning. And next week we will speak about
the weekend in Parajd.” . We are planning to go for a weekend trip to
Parajd in the mountains with the girls who are about to leave school.
There are regular talks on topics like friendship or future on Saturdays .
We started with organising
activities for girls and formed groups according to their age. The work with
the boys began in January , after we had found a suitable social worker. We
often organise activities together, like sports. Sometimes friends of them
join us , too.
There are one or two groups of young people , who come to us every week. It
really was hard work to get them to obey certain rules, e.g. the smoking ban.
The talks are very important for the younger participants ( 14 to 16 year
olds ), whereas the older ones prefer activities offering fun and distraction.
Anyway, they all agree that the organised events on Fridays are a very important
part of their lives.
Information about Flat-sharing Groups
The well-known children´s home, where about 450 children lived after 1989, was closed in summer 2003 . Preparing this closure took a longer time .The children´s home itself doesn´t exist any more, but the institution does. That means that 76 children and young people live in so-called flat-sharing communities , each one with 4 to 8 people ( in Cristuru Secuiese and its region ).Additionally, there are also 41 children who live in foster families in villages of this area. The foster parents have had to report to the administration of the children´s home for some time now.
For each of those groups there are educators, who work
permanently in shifts. Furthermore domestic workers are employed. The flats
are sparsely furnished. There could be many more opportunities for the educators
to do something with the children and to work intensively with them. But those
are often not used. The television is often the only leisure activity.
Especially, during the weekends, when there aren´t any school classes,
a lot of children and young people feel bored. So , we offer them the chance
to spend a bit of their free time in a useful way.
It is very important for the young people to have a place , where they can
meet their friends, who they do not very often see due to the new situation
of the children´s home.
In cooperation with several european youth organizations we are sending young people for their voluntary service abroad. This happens within a multilateral project and through structures of the” European Voluntary / Action 2 “. We also receive young people for their voluntary service in the youth project.
3. Handicrafts Workshop on Saturday
Working creatively is a good opportunity for communicating with others and for learning about oneself and your partner. By making things and being creative you get the feeling of being in another period of time and of being valuable.
On Saturday from 3 to 6 pm our house is open for anyone. People can do handicrafts there. The activities cover felting, working with clay, making pearl necklaces, the traditional way of painting Easter eggs with wax crayons, making decorations for the Christmastime, binding of books, making postcards and carnival masks etc. Above all, the younger children go for these activities. Sometimes about 50 children came at the same time to the workshop and wanted to take part. The staff members have to be very active, have to explain a lot and give help. We always take care that adults and young mothers go for these activities together with their children.
We would like to thank all members, donators and sponsors for the help given to us so far.
We appreciate the donations , because without those we will not be able to continue our work to the same extent. Each donation makes it possible for us to plan our activities and to work intensively in Cristuru Cecuiese ( Szekelykeresztur ).
You may contribute to our work by becoming a sponsor yourself
or by encouraging others to do so. However, we would also be grateful to receive
donations for particular projects. If you give a donation , please do not
forget to state the purpose of the donation, e.g. youth project and your address.
There are tax rebates on donations.
You will receive a charitable donation certificate for the tax office .
For methods of sending funds please consult our Donations page.
