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Early Education Forward aims to ensure access to quality early education for preschoolers in vulnerable communities, by reducing the educational gap they risk facing when entering school and also the risk of school dropout. At the same time, through this program we provide pre-school teachers with access to training, support, and opportunities so they can easily adapt to current educational requirements and we contribute to equipping school spaces with quality educational resources.
Together with OvidiuRo Association, our strategic partner in the program, we have brought the project "Every child deserves a story" in the communities in Galați, Vaslui, Botoşani counties and Bucharest where we intervene. The aim of the program is to improve the language skills of pre-school children through reading and access to appropriate resources. Thus, through the "First Book" project, children have access to books suitable for their age, they can take them home and share them with their families and in the KinderLibraries, specially arranged in their classrooms, they have the opportunity to read a selection of books of very good quality, appropriate to their age and related to the curriculum.
635 educators from Galați, Vaslui and Botoşani counties participated in training courses;
9,000 books were distributed to children and educators in the three counties;
35 KinderLibraries were sent to educators;
51 activities were carried out under the summer program for educators;
15 training sessions for educators were organized online.
OvidiuRo Association, whose mission is to make early education accessible and efficient for all children in Romania, especially to those from vulnerable groups, celebrates 20 years of grassroots activity. We are partners in their main project "Every child deserves a story", the purpose of which is for all children to be ready to learn reading when they enter primary school.
OvidiuRo Association managed to grow the network of teachers and social workers, school mediators, and many other volunteers. "They came to the training and went to poor communities that they knew from other projects and, punctually, they were part of our network and here I think it was an opportunity," the two representatives say.
Maria and Oana can't wait to get back in the field, to see what's left after everything that's happened.
"It was also a year of forced growth, a situation for which none of us was prepared," says Maria Gheorghiu, executive director and co-founder OvidiuRo Association and Oana Stănescu, communications director OvidiuRo Association.
The
"only real challenge" of 2020 was the impossibility to make field trips
as much as they would have liked, in their communities of intervention,
Oana tells us.
"But we saw this as an opportunity," Maria adds, and the context has allowed them to understand that their team didn't have to be in all the villages and kindergartens in Romania. "It forced us to have a little more trust in the people there, because they were also forced to build partnerships,." If before they used to go on their own, the context forced everyone to work together.
You have reached the end of our activity report for 2020.
With every story of courage discovered in the report – of the children in our educational programs, of our strategic partners, of mentors and volunteers and of our team, we have tried to convey our message about COURAGE - that was and will be a source of energy for the future! Thank you for going through the entire collection of stories about the programs and initiatives that try to generate a long term change. We, at the UiPath Foundation, will continue to be present in the lives of the children we support, to help them discover and make best use of their potential, and to ensure that every child or teacher has access to quality learning to be able to dream for a better future. We invite you and stay close to us and to the incredible stories about courage from our communities. To learn more about us and our initiatives, you can follow us here:
