Community Initiative Youth Clubs change the Universe of Youth in Rural Areas

Children and youth’ life from rural areas seems to follow an established routine. They go to school in the morning, they help their parents with the household chores at noon, and in the evening those who still have enough energy, do their homework. Summer holidays pass extremely fast: they wake up in the morning to work the field and then spend their time with friends in the community. They seldom go away to visit the nearest city and when they do that it feels like a real experience. Many of them dream of opportunities to help them grow and prepare them for life and for that reason when World Vision opened Community Initiative Youth Clubs in 10 partner communities they welcomed the opportunity with great joy and pleasure.

“I have learned a lot since I started attending the club activity. For me it is a chance to spend my time in a useful way with my colleagues and learn many new things. I have become more responsible, active and self-confident”, says Mihaela, 14, member of “The Creative” Club.

Almost 200 children and teenagers, aged between 12 and 18, take part in the Clubs activities. Meetings are held once or twice a week and are coordinated by two/four volunteer teachers who had been trained during the course “Social-educational animator”, facilitated by World Vision. The learning is based on four components: active citizenship, commitment, social entrepreneurship and leadership. Clubs help the youth become agents of change, develop social, civic and life skills and abilities, with long-term impact on community. The club meetings include a team entertaining and learning activity (a game), a story about character development, followed by processing the results of the game and the story, as well as other methods of non-formal education: debates, team work, brainstorming.

 „After the Community Initiative Club „Little Savers” was founded, children and teenagers started to participate in constructive games, analyzed stories with morals, discussed about the problems in their community and, last but not least, they wrote and put into action community projects. Thus, every young person had the opportunity to spend his spare time in an useful way and to develop himself and also the community he lives in”, said teacher Crina Aurelia Vilcu, facilitator of „Little Savers” Club.

The main tool for learning during the club meetings is represented by project writing and implementation. Since their opening in 2012, 70 community projects were developed by the members of the club with the support of World Vision. For instance, “The Little Bees” Club, in commune Virvoru de Jos, first project was “A new school… a new coat” based on ecology actions within the school: flower pots, wastes gathering, a march against pollution effects. During the march, with banners, inscribed T-shirts and in a loud voice, the children sent messages such as:” Don’t pollute, just recycle!”, “Don’t throw away, just gather!”, “A cleaner environment, a healthy life!”.

 “We want to live in a clean village. We always take part in ecology actions but we would like people to keep the village clean all the time. A clean environment means a healthy life for us all!”,  says Adriana, 16, member of “The Little Bees” Club.

 Also, the members of the “Skilled hands” Club in Argetoaia commune, through the project “Be ECO...nature asks it from you!” rehabilitated the park of the commune: they cleaned it, painted the benches, gathered wastes, while the members of “The Friends” club in Cernatesti, through the project “A friendlier club” made bracelets that they sold at the fair organized on Village Day; with the money collected they arranged the space where the club activities take place.

 “This summer was a completely different one. I was involved in lots of activities. I learned about team work, how to write and implement projects. People tell us that the park looks great and they enjoy it very much. All these make us feel proud and happy!”, says Alex, 15, member of “Skilled Hands” Club.

Community Initiative Youth Clubs opened new horizons for children in rural area: in time, the older members became junior leaders and took the responsibility to integrate and orientate the new ones, among clubs there were organized exchange activities, the most active members went on WV Summer school, coming back better equipped and ready to share the acquired knowledge with their mates. Every year, children go on learning  new things, using their imagination and freshness in the benefit of their personal and community development.