News

Research in child protection Austrian institutions

During the FICE Federal Council, a group of FICE Romania specialists has also contributed to a documentary action in child protection Austrian institutions on 16-20 May 2006.

Having received a proper and cordial welcome as result of the excellent collaboration between FICE Romania and FICE Austria, the Romanian specialists have had the opportunity to get to know experiences, models and results openly presented in the Viennese institutions: the scholar and professional preparation complex of Eggenburg, where 68 pupils with certain compartmental and social dysfunctions are attaining qualifications in carpentering, mechanics, gardening etc after having completed general studies; Clara Fey Kinderdorf Wien, a religious congregation institution for children with psychological and movement deficiencies; Kinderwelt Stiefen, a complex of households for educating and raising children in the heart of nature by the use of pets; Drehsheibe, a place destined for adolescents who have committed antisocial acts; Diakonie, a religious institution for children, adolescents, elderly persons physically or psychologically challenged.

Each of the hosts have presented their accomplishments, the evolution of therapies over time. The Romanian specialists have offered documentary materials regarding the FICE Romania projects over the 15 years of activity, for lining up with the European standards for social protection. A very important gain of this documentary action was setting premises for the future presence of experts on child protection and education in the visited institutions, which refers to the spirit of the constant preoccupations of FICE Romania and the assurance of continual professional forming.

Activity Raport

In the anverssary year 2005 FICE Romania had a corresponding agenda with the program aprooved by the anuawol meeting at the end of 2004.

The experience changes in partnershi p with the Local Authorities from Caras Severin, Buzau , Iasi, Bucharest, etc. where there have been presented projects and there have been talks about themes like „Ways of implementing the lengthend programme in schools”
the international symposium „Domestic violence in famylies – bad treatments of the child in families, schools , institutions and society” was organised in september in Alba Iulia in partnership with the Youth National Authority , the „1st of December „University etc.
The continuing of the „Day Center” and the „ lengthend program in schools”, sollutins for preventing and reducing the school abandon and the educational insucces.
The Metodological Centre of Information, documentation and consiliation for parents with children that are in risk situations succeds in the project „Nobody is alone”.
„Know and Decide”- project of preventing and reducing the drug consume was very apreciated this year.
The projects „Classes witout smoching” and „ Don’t smoke and you have only to win” had great succes.
„Chance of the future” is a Phare project that started in 2 schools.
„ The joy of the lecture”- project made to stimulate children to read more . At this project take part more than 60000 pupils.
The project „ Frindship – the succes of life” realised in Romania together with FICE Israel time of 10 days.
The project that has been made together with FICE Finlad has materialised in Aprilie in Finland where a group of 8 romanian specialists stayed 8 days in Finland and visited social care institutions.
In september the specialists from Finland came to Romania.
In december a group of 20 romanian specialts went to Israel for documantation and a comun seminar.
The Magazine of Pedagogy and Social Psihology „The child’s social protection”apeared trimestrialy.
The „15 years of activity” book and CD have been realised.
The greeting cards with the saying „ Support the kids that are in difficulty” that were offered with the occasion of the Holydays have influenced in a good way the efforts of the children and parants in supporting our projects.
The cumune program with the Laboratorio Urbano from Bari- Italy, „Solidarity without borders” helps the poor children fom the poorest neibourghouds from Bucharest and Bari
The Meeting o fthe Federal Council in Alba Iulia between the 20th and the 22nd september.
At the general meeting of FICE Romania from the 13th of December 2005 more participants proposed to organise more experience exchanges.

So we ask the FICE Sections thatwish to study the wish and our proposal to realise exchanges with groups of specialists for short periods (7-10 days).

With the wish of extending our colaboration activities we wish you a lot of successes

President,

Toma Mares

Project “European Friendship Train - 2005”

On the 4-11 May 2005, a number of European schools have joined the “5^th European Friendship Train 2005” project in Bari, Italy.

FICE-Romania has continued the collaboration with Laboratorio Urbano-Italia. The delegation representing Romania came from the “Spiru Haret” National College, where the “Collegial Solidarity” has been up and running for over 6 years. The Romanian students have presented aspects regarding FICE-Romania’s activities in integrating the youth in society, social protection and other actions which have been hosted in schools for organizing the free time.

We have actively participated in the St. Nicholas’ celebration, presenting the “Spiru Haret” National College’s Sign of Friendship painting. We have also spread out the Romanian culture, by reciting Romanian poems translated into English and Italian at the “Youth Festival of Cultures: dance and theatre” in Piazza Ferarresse, Bari.

We have joined the “Feast of Europe” at Castel del Monte, and we have promoted a piece of Romanian heritage by entering the international multimedia competition: “Young people in Europe and their free time: the town’s answer” and by planting a Romanian tree in the “Garden of Europe” in Piazza Umberto, Bari.

The organizer of this project was Eugenio Lombardi, the head of “Laboratorio Urbano – European Urban Workshop”. He has started this project 5 years ago and he has been managing and organizing it ever since.

The partnership between FICE-Romania and Laboratorio Urbano – Italia over the past years has contributed to the creation of some bonding between students of different nationalities, to expanding their cultural sights, and to integrate them in an united Europe.

Here are some of the other countries that have participated: Croatia, Italy, Andorra, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Slovenia etc

This year, for the first time, 15 local highschools and secondary schools have become involved in participating to the program, schools such as: Michelangelo S.M.S. (Scuola Mezza Statale); I.T.C. (Instituto Technico Comerciale) Calamandrei.

„The Joy of Reading” – a national competition for promoting reading habits

FICE

Romania

has started the national competition for promoting reading habits – ‘The Joy of Reading’. Any student from the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th or 8^th grade can take part, as long as he proves he likes to read and as long as he can convince his classmates to also join the competition. Our goal is promoting reading habits among young people. Our objectives are: encouraging pupils to become better readers, to help recover the ones which experience reading difficulties and to understand that reading is an essential activity, thus making it easier to talk about the advantages reading brings upon.

The pupils are organized in classes, each group with its own motto. The entrance in the competition is made on the basis of a collective contract which can be found the special contest notebook which the organizers offer. From this notebook, the participants sent a different page each month, containing the work theme, based on the experience in the world of books: knowing the ‘Rights of the reading child’, a visit to a memorial house of a writer, to a publishing house, library or bookshop, promoting a literary hero among friends and classmates etc. Each month, the participants have to organize, together with their classmates and their form teacher, actions on a given theme, as well as literary contests, debates, compositions on literary texts, meetings with writers etc. The contest will end when this school year is over. The participants who will consequently maintain their ‘contract’ will enter the final stage of this competition, where they will be able to receive various prizes (books).

The school library will also have something to gain. the organizers of the competition ‘The Joy of Reading’ are FICE

Romania

and The Publishing Association on Cultural and Pedagogical Profile (AEPC). The partners are the Scholar Inspectorate of Bucharest, the University of Bucharest– the Letters Faculty– The Desk for the Science of Information, the publishing house ’Three’, the publishing house ‘Aramis’ and the publishing houses members of AEPC. The media partners are the magazine„Universul şcolii” (the Universe of School), the magazine ‘Social Protection of the Child’, the television ‘România de Mâine’ (Tomorrow’s Romania). The sponsors are the publishing house „Semne” (Signs) and SC „Dufa România” SRL.

FICE

Romania

has organized, on the 16^th of December 2004, at the National College “Spiru Haret”, the seminary “Parental Methods in the Education of the Child”, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Research and

Romania

’s National Committee for UNESCO. The participants were teachers, psychologists, representatives of local authorities in the area of education and social protection, representatives of the parent committee, students and journalists. The research that FICE

Romania

has put together, ‘Me and my Father’, has been presented and debated upon. This study has included a questionnaire addressed to mothers and one addressed to fathers. It was distributed all through Bucharest, Iaşi, Vaslui, Alba, Caraş Severin, Buzău. 812 parents have responded to the questionnaires, their average age being 42. This action has had, as primary objectives, the identification of the reciprocal support relationships between the two parents in raising and educating the children; establishing the degree of involvement of the two parents in the education of the child; revealing the sources of tension of the father-child relationship. One of the conclusions was that “authority has to be unitarily expressed in the family. Any fissure in the relationship mother-father is exploited by the child and thus generates an opportunistic and dualistic behaviour”. The debate of the seminary has also revolved around this idea. The need of mutual approval in education has also been discussed. The general observation was that, nowadays, the parental functions are interconnected. It also has been mentioned that, in the actual Romanian society, school is losing grounds on the education terrain, since values are being mixed up. As a result, the educational professionals have the role of initiating and sustaining orientation programs, even for educating parents for the actual social contexts of everyday life. Acknowledging the role which the father has to comport in the modern family is considered a necessity. The parental pattern can thus become consistent and be perpetuated by the children, when they will end up having their own family and school responsibilities.

FICE Romania has recently published, in bilingual (Romanian – English) edition, the volume “The young people and the education for the values of nonviolence”, coordinated by Prof. Ioan Neacsu, Ph. D, Prof. Dr. Rodica Mares and sociologist Mariana Nica. The volume includes the works of the international seminar “The young people – education for tolerance. Strategies for preventing violence” (27^th of March – 2^nd of April 2003) held in Bucharest. As an organization which defends the rights of the children, FICE Romania offers the specialists and the public an important theme whose consequences are very serious for the society and the family.

Each part offers solutions, e.g: education for preventing violence in schools, the promotion of tolerance and understanding, violence on the computer screen, violence from the identification to the answer, violence in family and its consequences in school, violence and the teenagers living in the country, the help for rehabilitation of abused and exploited children, as well as the emergency centers for children in danger, juvenile criminality, understanding and intervention in critical situations, violence in boarding schools, the national management of the anger, home violence and the exploitation of children, etc.The authors of the works are specialists in psycho-pedagogy, justice, social protection, public order and medical science, from Romania, Israel, Germany, Russia.The volume has 444 pages and it addresses the class-masters, school headmasters, teachers, educators in the institutions for protecting the child, school advisors, families and teenagers.

Multiculturality and Social Integration of the Young People – organized by FICE - Romania and Laboratorio Urbano Bari, Italia

Multiculturality and Social Integration of the Young People, organized by FICE - Romania

*in the morning: debate regarding the European Integration, experience exchange with Laboratorio Urbano-European Urban Workshop;

*in the afternoon: workshop with the theme: The Young People and the Unemployment,

practical activities regarding the organization of some shows and inter-cultural events;

*in the evening: arrival in Bari of the European Friendship Train and welcome by the local school-children.

*in the morning: workshop on the theme :” The Professional Orientation and Integration”;

*in the afternoon: experience exchange, meetings, debates having the theme: Religious and Ethnic Tolerance” ;

*in the evening: young people will take part in the historical “Procession of Saint Nicholas” in Bari.

*in the morning: visit to Alberobello; experience exchange meetings, debates on the theme of drugs;

*in the afternoon: workshop: “The young people and the social protection”;

*09.30: introduction of the pupils arrived from the European Countries, at the presence of the National and local Authorities, the representatives of the Embassies in Rome and the Apulian pupils ;

- *in the afternoon: visit to Ruvo and Trani and a party offered to all the European students;

*8.30: St. Nicholas’ Square: meeting of all the European students; the “Friendship Procession” across the old town to Mercantile Square;

*9.30: awarding of prizes to the winners of the International competitions; performances by the artists arrived from different European Countries;

*in the afternoon: workshops Communitary Services for adolescents and Young People, debates on the impact of globalization on the young people;

in the e*in the evening: The Youth Festival of Cultures : dance and theatre.

*in the morning:-meetings and experience exchange regarding the educational system of Italy and Romania;

*in the evening: the Youth Festival of Cultures distribution of the diplomas of participation, dance and theatre.

FICE Romania organizes under the auspices of the Commission for Education and Science of the Romanian Parliament , in partnership with the Police Academy Alexandru Ioan Cuza “, Bucharest- between the 27^th of March and the 2^nd of April- the International Seminar having the theme: Young People and the Education for Tolerance. Strategies in preventing Violence.

The theme is Young People and the Education for Tolerance. Strategies in preventing Violence.

The theme: The Tolerance Culture. Institutional Factors Implied in Violence Prevention.

The theme: The Rural Area and the Violence Perception in Adolescents’ Behaviour.

*The 30^th of March Câmpulung-Muscel - Debate at “Carol I” National College, having the The theme: The Educators’ Role and the Role of the Institution that are Dealing with the Initial Training in Preventing Violence.

*The 31^st of March Alexandria - meetings and debates with the specialists and representatives of the county authorities having the theme: The Child’s Rights and the Protection Against Abuse, Violence and Educational Neglect.

*Participants: teachers, psychologists, sociologists, pedagogues, lawyers, priests, doctors, journalists, Romanian and foreign pupils, representatives of the governmental institutions, of NGOs, of religious cults. Those who are interested are kindly asked to send the theme and the place where they would like to take part, by fax or e-mail till the latest the 10^th of March 2003.

Theme: The Youth and the Education for Tolerance. Strategies in Violence Prevention.

I am sure that we all agree that violence among children has become a phenomenon. Starting from this, FICE Romania used to take attitude and it still does through specific meanings to the NGOs to prevent and reduce this phenomenon .

For this purpose we have taken the decission to organize: the international seminar and the documentation visit having the

theme: The Youth and the Education for Tolerance. Strategies in Violence Prevention.

Participants: pshychologues, sociologues, lawers, journalists and adolescents.

The seminar will take place in: Bucharest, Ploieşti, Braşov, Câmpulung Muscel, Roşiorii de Vede. In these towns documentation visits, and debates will take place.

Knowing your experience and your personal concern or some of your collaborators’ concern , we would be more than glad to be our guest at this activity that wants to be FICE’s contribution to the perfection of activity in the area of violence prevention and diminishing among children and young people.

FICE Romania will pay for the accomodation and the trips through the country (through places of touristic interest), and also the costs implied by the organization of the seminary and by the debates.

Please confirm your coming to this seminary and if possible the presence of 1 or 2 of your colleagues by e-mail or by fax at the fax-number 0040213300812 till the latest the 15^th of February 2003

We would be grateful if you could send me together with the confirmation of your presence, the title and the duration of your intervention in English, German or French. Having your agreement the works that are to be presented will be included into an English-Romanian volume that is to appear after the Seminar and the documentation.

Hoping that you will accept our invitation to this action we present the major points of the programme:

*26 March - The participants’ arrival;

¨ *27 March - The Seminar will take place. Meetings with the representatives of the Romanian Parliament in order to discuss the theme: “Laws and Reform in the Domain of Children Education and Protection;

- meetings and debates with specialists having the theme: The Culture of Tolerance. Institutional Factors Implied in Violence Prevention;

- debate at Rucar Highschool having the theme: The Village Area and the Perception of Violence within the Behaviour of Adolescents;

- visit and debate at “Carol I “ National College Campulung Muscel having the theme: The Role the Teachers and the Institutions of Initial Education Have in the Fight Against Violence’;

- meetings and debates with specialists and representatives of the local authorities having the theme:”The Children Rights and the Protection against Abuse, Violence and Educational Neglect;

We have the convinction that you have propositions regarding this programme and we are kindly asking you to let us know about them.