Second ACT

Bailesti October 2018 to March 2019

SECOND ACT TEAM

Asociatia Comunitati pentru Tineret, is a non-governmental organization working in the South-West Oltenia, with the main objective to promote community development.

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Our Mission

Our mission is to develop, implement and support youth development programs built around the concepts of lifelong learning, mobility and associativity.

-identification of needs and opportunities for youth development -identify social problems affecting young people, assisting the social integration of young unemployed.

-promote volunteerism and social mobility -implement internship for young theme.

-improve educational access and quality for children with disabilities ACT works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives. The aim of this empowerment is to establish a wide-based community movement which encourages the positive involvement of young people in solving issues which affect them, treating them as resources, not as problems.

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We are a team of five volunteers coming from Italy, Spain and Portugal. Maria Domenica and Maria Antonia, both from Italy (Sardinia), Francesc and Ana from Spain and David from Portugal. Also in the picture, our gentle coordinator, Ana Barros.

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Ciao! I'm Domenica.

I'm Italian (Sardinia), I'm 27 years old. I've studied law. I cannot

First Impressions

wait to know you, and, to spend some time with you. ? Qué tal chicos? I'm What's up guys?! I'm David, I came directly from Portugal to be close to you! really want to help you in

Ana, from Spain. I'm very happy to be in Băilești, with you, sharing good moments!

Come and speak to us!

whatever I can! Se you very soon!

Hi there! I'm Francesc and I come from Spain.

Hi!! I'm Maria and I'm

I've studied law and I

Italian. My country is

hope to meet you at our

Sardinia. I've studied

activities to know from

Human Sciences. I like

each other about our

to know other cultures

culture and countries!

and new realities!

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ANA

“This photo made me realize that the barbecues in Romania are much more different than the ones I used to do in Spain. The fire is amazing and the food even more. Also, I realised that the local people are so nice, inviting us to their home without meeting us. They are really kind and friendly, worrying about how well we were eating all the time.

Also, there, I realized that not all the people eat at the same time. Nobody waits for the rest if there is a dish in front of him/her.

For me it was rare, but I adapted to it.

In that barbecue I drank a lot of good wine (kept in a kind of 5 liter bottle), and also good beer (not as good as the English, Irish, German or Belgian ones, but also pretty good). Which I loved, definitely, was the food and the possibility of sharing good moments in an open space, in the middle of the nature, enjoying the company of incredible people.�

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MARIA

“ On 3 october I started the travel to new destination with my friend.

When I arrived in the airport of Craiova, I meet Ana, David and Ana. They were very nice with me when we arrived in Bailesti I ate a good pizza.

In the after day arrived another volunteer Francesc and I meet Marius.

In the other days I went to Craiova and meet the other volunteers. Craiova is a very beautiful city.

I saw the city center and visit the Romanescu Park.

I started the Romanian lessons and it is very interesting for me.

The first week in Romania was very funny and interesting.

I like customs, traditions and language.

Cultural Shock?

A bit, because before arriving here I thought that Romania was very different from mine, but is not true.

People are welcoming and respectful, it reminds me my island in many ways and I think this is very important for me.�

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DOMENICA

“My first week in Bailesti was very pleasant. After a long journey I arrived in Craiova, where I met the other volunteers. The same evening we arrived in Bailesti and from here began my adventure. When I arrived in Bailesti I visited the country and started getting to know the community by going around and trying out local food.”

“Also during my first weekend in Romania I went to Craiova with the other volunteers and I visited the city, including the Romanescu park, one of the most beautiful parks in Romania.” “ After the first week of adaptation and having seen and known a little the country we started working on the various activities to present the project in schools.”

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FRANCESC

“Whenever one arrives to a new place is difficult not feel a bit lost and Romania wasn’t an exception for me when our project started and we just landed in this country.

Even though a grew in a town that shares a lot of similarities with Bailesti is undeniably that the Spanish and the Romanian culture are very different, from some special traditions to how to greet people I was learning new things everyday. Of course another issue that must be mentioned is the language barrier that in one hand its really interesting to learn a new language and specially one as Romanian on the other hand made the simplest things like asking for an address or buying our groceries a mimic spectacle. Also other thing that I’m more than pleased to discover is the Romanian gastronomy at first I found myself missing a loot of products that can easily be found where I live but the more Romanian dishes I try the less I miss my grandma’s recipes because here we have discovered a wonderful and delicious cuisine.

It has been hard to leave our countries and come to a new one and I still have a lot of things to see, to discover, to learn and to understand from Romania but now that I know a few words in Romania and a handful of Romanian traditions I must say that the first week here was one of the fastest and most enjoyable learning experiences that I had so far and I know that for this six months is going be even better.”

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DAVID

“The expectations about the city were more or less the same that thought before to come, a small city, undeveloped compared with the volunteers origin countries and some lower services and businesses.

There were no cultural shocks, only a process of adaptation to some traditions and behaviors that local people do.

Organization members did everything they could to facilitate the process for the volunteers, which made everything easier in the first days.

There were a lot of differences related with what is possible to perceive with our senses, like architecture, urbanization, existence of public spaces to leisure time and so on.

That made the experience in the first week, a period of time of knowing the community with the other volunteers and the association members, and everything was just flowing perfectly.�

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International and Local Partners

Local

International

- Liceul Teoretic Mihai Viteazul

- ProAtlântico Associação Juvenil Portugal

- Școala Gimnazială Nr. 3 Băilești

sveenvio@proatlantico.com

- Școala Gimnazială Nr. 1 Băilești

- Asociación Mundus Spain

- Școala Gimnazială Siliştea Crucii

alberto.unmundoatuspies@gmail.com

- Liceul Tehnologic Stefan Anghel

- Associazione Culturale Malik Italy

- Centrul Speranţei Băilești

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info@eubridge.eu

Time to meet the partner institutions to make introductions, receive additional training on internal rules of the schools, meet with the target group

Community Discovery

and perform need analysis. When these approaches occurred, it was an important goal to make the proper presentations, a description of the project

Institutions

as much complete as possible and to get an understanding how could the project develop itself in which one of the partners. To make this goal possible, two member involved in the project were all the time present to facilitate the interaction. Adrian Gavrila as the mentor of the volunteers and Ana Barros as the coordinator of the project. Both of them, a huge support in the volunteers process of relationship construction close to the institutions.

Mihai Viteazul — In the theoretical high school of Mihai Viteazul, the volunteers made the first contact with the principle of the school in his office to discuss the approach that they will have with the beneficiaries.

In this first meeting at this high school, David Carapinha and Maria Domenica were the ones that attended the meeting. The main objective of the meeting was to discuss with the director of the school, details about the Second ACT project and to understand how the volunteers could participate with this school.

During the meeting, the elements mentioned previously that were representing Asociatia Comunitati pentru Tineret, explained to the director what they could do with the beneficiaries, and, both of the parts, together, decided how they could cooperate and manage the relation between actors.

After the meeting, both parts agreed to start with the project the following week, in a classroom provided to do the activities in the school, with the interested students, one time a week.

Stefan Anghel — In school Stefan Anghel, all of the volunteers decided to do the first meeting session, Francesc, Maria, David, Ana and Domenica. The approach was different from the previous one, since the volunteers were allowed to enter in the classes of the students they were going to work with.

This time, once more, all the members presented themselves and spoke about the association, the project and some personally details. In terms of educational system, the students are being instructed to develop skills, directly related with some particular jobs they are going to work with. That means it’s a system close to professional education, articulating between general classes, and some specific kind of classes, depending on the future profession.

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Community Discovery Institutions

There are two different classes, one, already familiarized with the project, since they were participants, last year, in the first part of the project. The other class will work for the first time with this kind of activities.

During Tuesdays, the volunteers will have the opportunity to work with these beneficiaries, in the beginning, one class per week, in other words, two times a month each class. Some of them are not from Bailesti, need to take public transportations, which means the schedule need to be more strict.

Scoala Gimnaziala nr.3 — When the volunteers visit this school, were invited to present the association and the project to each one of the classes that were occurring at that time. The president of the school was very gentle and supportive and the first contact happened with all of the students.

With this kind of presentation, all of the possible beneficiaries were aware of the presence of the project, and, together with their teachers, they could decide if they want to involve in the project.

Centrul Sperantei — Centrul Sperantei is a center day, where, children with few resources and opportunities could spend a part of the day before they go to their homes. The group of students in this school covers more than one class, which makes it a bigger group, where the volunteers will have to adapt to the group size.

Volunteers went there, all together, once more, with the members that are used to help them, this time also another facilitator was present, Livia, helping to establish a better communication, since she knew members of the center. In the beginning the project was explained, and the center described by the president.

In this center, the volunteers were welcomed with open arms, being allowed to appear when they wanted to participate with the children in the activities planned. There was established, at least, activities once a week, being the volunteers allowed to appear, as mentioned before, as many times as they want.

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On Arrival Training

The main objective of the on-arrival training is to introduce the volunteers to the host country, preparing them for the service period and the volunteer experience.

The last week of October, me and the other volunteers went to Bucharest to participate in this training.

Arrived in Bucharest, we met other EVS volunteers belonging from the other European member states: Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Germans, French, Danes, etc. each with a different and rich culture, like us, participated in various European projects. After known, we were divided into three work groups where we were talking about our projects and the difficulties that each of us had after his arrival in Romania, such as language, cultural differences etc. working group Spending our time together collaborating during the activities of on arrival and not only this also having fun and eating some typical dishes of some countries, such as Turkish baklava and the chai.

One of the activities that I liked most we had the multi-cultural evening where EU volunteers they have had opportunity to see and learn about other European cultures. During this event the volunteers divided by states were able to present and to talk about their culture in a cheerful and fun way trying to involve everyone through songs, dances, and representation of the most common stereotypes to each country. multi-cultural night As for my experience in Romania I have to say that Bucharest has been one of the most beautiful and significant up to now. It has allowed me not only to share my experience in a new land but also to meet many wonderful people that which I will always keep a beautiful memory.

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Capacity building

From 13 to 15 of October we were provided with concrete project related tasks and responsibilities, information, skills and aptitudes that would be tailored on the target group and we would be working with.

We had the Capacity Building training in Port Cultural Cetate(http://portcetate.ro/?lang=en), in Romania.

It was such a nice trip, not just because of the natural landscape, also because of the food and the useful information we received.

We stayed in this cozy house and we received the formation inside. We talked about non-formal education and we received some advice from people of the association, much more experienced than us. Also, other volunteers from Craiova were with us, and they told us their experience doing volunteering. How they organized the activities, how they dealt with the frustration when things were not going well, how they tried to improve day by day, the satisfaction they received when they achieved the goals, etc.

We also met each other much better, because we took time to express our feelings, emotions, things we wanted to personally improved, our faults and our virtues, in conclusion. We learnt also our rights and duties as a volunteer, and we shared things we were able to give to the others to make this experience better.

Of course, we had time enough to relax ourselves and enjoy the beautiful landscape. We ate typical food of Romania, reflected on our life in front of the Danube river and spent really good moments together.

Some day we will be coming back and this dog will be receiving us with the same love of the day we arrived.

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Active Citizenship

We have made activities related to reducing pollution and involved the children in the art of recycling. Although in Balesti there is not a habit into recycling, as all the container are used for rubbish, it is a way of making them adapt to it, because maybe in the future there is an awareness created around it and they can demand to change the reality.

Also, we have taught the little children how to identify the container depending on the type of packaging, using interactive games and have talked about the importance of recycling.

We had sessions in Stephan Angels talking about why is important to try not to throw the leftover food into the rubbish, and why is important to plan in advance to avoid it. We gave them some advice not to incur in the mistake.

We have talked in Stephan Angel and Mihai Viteazul about EVS and how to register in the platform, and what kind of projects they can find.

Dismantling stereotypes also have been one of our tasks, as many people have erroneous opinions about the rest of the world. We have spoken also about our countries, and what is typical for us and things that have surprised us about Romania.

In Schola Gimnaziala we have made theatres relating to values, making them imaging conflicts and creating the way of solving then, building a situation.

The 8th of March, the Woman´s day, Domi and Mari gave a lecture about women and equality, showing pictures of women that in the past fought for make their rights equal and how important is respect each other and the equality of rights.

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Language Activities

These months were very funny for Second Act Team and it was a pleasure for us to involve the students in activities concerning foreingn languages.

In the school Gimnaziala n3 Bailesti we enjoyed play with them speaking in English and discovering new words for to improve together a vocabulary.

We did games and they played together.

The Day of Sant Valentine each of them has written a thought in English for a friend, for a pet or for a people that they love.

Was very nice because they were happy to share something with somebody and they express their feelings with us!!

But that’s not all!!

We did also activities regarding languages in the Center Sperantei with the little childrens and they learnt something in English, Italian and Spanish.

They were adorable, and now any of them use expressions in our languages for to say something!!

The other day one little children, during a football game, tell a one of the volunteer ‘’ Hey Chicaaa ‘’ or sometimes, for example, they try to speack in English to say colours, numbers or to use italian language for to say Goodbye : Arrivederciii :D Three of volunteers did also an activity regarding languages in Silistea Crucii and they played a one funny game all together and learnt a lot of words in English, Potuguese, Spanish and Italian.

We are so glad to have accomplished all this and we are satisfied to have taught something new in our languages before to finish this amazing adventure!

Multumesc , Gracias, Obrigado, Grazieee!!

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Thank you very much to everybody!!:D

Erasmus+ Promotion

Since our target group is the youth of the town and one of our main objectives is their development, we had to share with them what Erasmus + is and why is so important. With the Erasmus+ program youngsters from all over Europe have the chance to live abroad while working or studying so is a way to expand your knowledge, to travel to new and exciting places, to meet people from different countries and to immerse yourself in another culture.

For all these reasons we, as volunteers of the program, couldn’t leave Bailesti without making sure that the high school students of the town are aware of the opportunities that they have to participate in the several programs of Erasmus+. So, we went to the high schools and presented to the students all they can learn in a couple of weeks with a youth exchange, the wide variety of studies abroad that they can do with the Erasmus Scholarship and of course all the benefits, personally and professionally, of becoming a volunteer in the European Solidarity Corps.

It has been a really good time sharing and discussing with them about all the chances that they have at range with this program and the facilitation that the EU provides to its participants. We talked with them about the experience of some of our volunteers who had participated before in some of Erasmus+ programs and about our experience in the European Solidarity Corps.

During the project we’ve tried to show to the students the benefits in participating in any of Erasmus+ programs. We have

made presentations in the high schools that we work with explaining the opportunities of Erasmus scholarships for studying abroad, the youth Exchange program and the European Solidarity Corps.

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Personal Development

We have done theater and corporal expressions activities with the children from Mihai Viteazul and Schola Gimnaziala nยบ 3, adapting the activities to the age. They have learned formulas to increase the self-esteem, concentration and enjoy, using an alternative method as it is the theatre.

We have had sessions talking about Erasmus+ and EVS with the students from Mihai Viteazul and Stephan Angel, because maybe,e in a few years, they could be interested in participating in these kinds of projects. We have encouraged them to do it from our experience as volunteers.

Also, we have talked about the importance of teamwork and having a collaboration spirit, when playing football or in other aspects of life.

We have connected the students in different events we have done, like Christmas Event or Football Match, and even we have connected the children from Centrul Sperantei and Schola Gimnaziala nยบ 3, and the result was very good, as they enjoyed.

We had food and toys collected in some events before Christmas in the schools, and many children participated. The children from Sperantei were really happy when they received the toys, and they prepared some songs to sing in front of the children of Schola Gimnaziala as a token of gratitude.

In addition, Domi and Maria went with the children from Schola Gimnaziala nยบ 3 to distribute food and toys to different houses. It was a beautiful moment concerning personal development.

In general, we think that children have learned from us, but we have learned much more from them because, after this experience, our hearts have considerably widened. Thank you guys from everything.

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Cultural Awareness Portugal

One of the purposes of the Second ACT project, is to create a sense of global community between the beneficiaries of the project. For that, the volunteers have the objective of showing the heritage and cultural aspects of each of their countries.

To reach that objective, some of the sessions with the students, were prepared to show some details of what we have “home�. The sessions consisted in an interactive approach where, also non-formal activities were use to create an environment of relaxation and enthusiasm during the activities. In the beginning some of the most visible traits started to be exposed, like our geographical characteristics, language, food, weather, landscapes, fauna and flora. Some of these characteristics were very similar to the ones students are used to in Romania, but, also, some of them were completely different, which was very curious and funny to realize.

With the kind of strategy, the volunteers had the goal to raise the aware of how difference could be and advantage and synonym of richness and diversity.

After the first presentations, where the students ended up to understand and find what some curiosities about the volunteers countries, we started to provide them with more specific resources, natural products and economy sources of income.

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Cultural Awareness Portugal

In that part, questionnaires, demonstrations of how to do activities, learning platforms with riddles and charades with some of the information provided during the sessions and energizers mixing cultural aspects with foreign language.The activities are encompassed in one of the objectives of the Second ACT project, to gain knowledge about other cultures, to share and promote multilingualism and its importance, to provide a different perspective and mindset about the world, also to provide critical thinking about other realities and ignite the curiosity to wanted to acknowledge more about others, as well to provide more tolerance and respect for difference.

For all of this reasons, this kind of projects should be more and more spread in communities like BăileČ™ti. The volunteers hope this moments could be a reality after the end of the project. This is the second part of a job that have already been started with other team of volunteers, First ACT, and needed to be continued and improved by time. The best way of creating better human beings is with education, and this process of knowledge is a win/win trade off, where volunteers could help and be helped, as the beneficiaries could be helped and teach the volunteers.

We wish all of this could be a start for a better future! Mulțumesc, ne vedem pe lume.

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Cultural awareness: Spain

These six months have been a busy time for us, we have been doing activities in several centres and we had a great time with it. Among the many different kinds of activities that we’ve done there were the ones related with the cultural awareness. Through these activities we wanted to share parts of our countries culture and realities with the students and also learn from them about the country that has been hosting us these months, Romania.

For my part I talked with the students of the Liceul teoretic Stefan Anghel about the traditions and customs of Spain, specifically about the region I’ve been born and raised, Valencia, which is located in the eastern coast of the country.

For this matter we prepared some activities in each of them talking about a part of our culture. For a starter we made a guessing game in which we showed the students pictures of some things related with our traditions and they had to guess what they were. It was an opportunity for me to share with them two things that I really love about my homeland: our regional sport “pilota valenciana” , which a weird kind of sport close to tennis but played with gloves instead of rackets and with a wooden ball, and our one of parties the “correfocs” that covers our streets in light, sparkles and fire.

In the next activity we went for a different thing, our country and specially Valencia is famed for hosting tons of music and cultural festivals either national or from other parts of the world. In this activity I pointed in the map of the Spain some of the most important festivals that happen in Spain through the year and at the same time the students told us about the ones that can be enjoyed here in Romania.

For the next one we prepared a presentation to talk about a specific part of our cultures. In my case I talked something that is really important for both my town and for Bailesti: the agriculture. This sector means a lot for our history, our landscapes and our way of life. Is because of our agriculture that a lot of our celebrations are the way they are and of course it has defined our gastronomy. So, in this activity I talked about some of the main products that we cultivate and how we do it, from the famous valencian oranges to the rice with what we do the paella. Also, I showed them some our most typical and delicious dishes: the cocas, the allipebre, the baked rice and of course the paella.

For our last activity in Stefan Anghel we wrapped it all up with a Kahoot quiz with questions about the topics that we discussed with the students. After the quiz, in which they did pretty well, we went more time to the high school to give some diplomas for the winners.

This where the activities that we did with the students of Stefan Anghel during this first half of our project and I have to say it has been a lot of fun, we had the chance to share our cultures with other people and at the same time learn about others.

It has been a great time and the fact that there is more incoming makes it even better. I must say thank you to all the students and the teachers of Stefan Anghel and I hope to see you again.

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Cultural Awareness: Sardinia-Romania

The cultural awareness is one of the main activities carried out by volunteers in high schools Stefan Angel and Mihai Viteazul from the host community. Where each of us has presented to students their own culture and talked about their traditions.

During the presentation of our cultural awarnes we talked about our land of origin, that is Sardinia. We started our meetings by presenting our traditional costume projecting video images, etc. representing the way in which it came and is still created today, materials used the jewels that compose it, etc. Focusing especially on the way in which his typical “su lionzu” headdress is made.

Starting from the breeding of a particular type of silkworm typical of my country still produced today by only two families of the place. Showing them all the various stages of processing until you get the finished product. Following this, seeing the interest of young people we decided to other topics such as food, music, stereotypes and prejudices, etc.. aiming at talking about the Sardinian agro-pastoral world with the boys of the agricultural institute Stefan Angel. comparing the Romanian tractions with ours. focusing on how, for example, cheese is produced, in Sardinia still today made in a traditional way by shepherds showing them all the stages of production of different types of cheese (such as caciocavallo or rotten cheese with “hasu muhidu” worms) and from what such types of cheese or food differ from that of other regions.

Another of the topics covered is that aroused considerable interest was the fact that in Sardinia still kills the pig at home during the Christmas period with the use of a special type of knife produced only in Sardinia (Sa Lesorja) made of iron with the handle made of goat horns. etc.

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Cultural Awareness: Sardinia-Romania

Another of the topics covered is that aroused considerable interest was the fact that in Sardinia still kills the pig at home during the Christmas period with the use of a special type of knife produced only in Sardinia (Sa Lesorja) made of iron with the handle made of goat horns. etc.

By showing them and explaining and how the meat is consumed, the various types of meats that are produced are the way in which it is roasted (similar but at the same time different from what happens here in Romania).

Involvement in the performance of these activities also the boys who participated with great interest by giving their contribution by doing research where they looked for similarities and differences between Sardinia and Romania discovering that apparently seem two very different regions in reality very similar.

As for the other institute, in the Mihai Viteazul, we decided to talk about other topics more related to their course of study focusing more on other topics such as tourism, places of interest, folk events, stereotypes and prejudices and traditional traditional dances by comparing with them and comparing the typical Sardinian dance of Orgosolo with the Mihai Viteazul folk dance of the Romanian tradition.Finally, before the Christmas holidays, we decided with the other volunteers to combine everything we had talked about during the various meetings and to create a kahoot quiz for the students.

Stefan Anghel( XIÂ A).

Where they could test what they had learned about different cultures in a fun way, challenging each other. At the end of the test we gave them diplomas to thank them for the interest shown so far during the activities.

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Midterm Braşov (03.02.2019– 7.2.2019)

The Midterm or final evaluation. It is a meeting that takes place in various sessions ,with the representatives of the European Union ,in which all European volunteers participate, who are part of Erasmus + projects ,over four months.

As for us at 2act, we participated in the session ,that took place during the first week, of February from 3.02.2019 to, 07.02.2019.

Me and my group, we arrived in Braşov around 6:30 pm on Sunday evening ,after a long train journey.

Arrived at the hotel ,and greeted the other, volunteers we decided to go out ,all together to drink and spend a different evening, in the company.

The real activities ,started the following morning, around 10 am. In fact, after having, reunited in a great hall, they explained, to us how the various work sessions ,would take place, and that here, unlike the on Arraival, we volunteers had, the task of organizing some of the activities. t That would take place in the morning and, in the afternoon during, the three days we would have spent together.

So as to ,have the opportunity to observe and verify the various, improvements, and teachings that each of us has had ,during our stay in Romania, as for example the to relate to others to express themselves in public ,in a more secure way, and not only ,in their mother tongue but above, all in English and in Romanian.

After lunch we started the activities, that would take place during the afternoon session, we were asked to split up for the associations, and present each project following the instructions, provided by the tutors on the cards drawn at random, for example, some who presented their own, project as if it were a puppet show,or a reality show, or in our case as a comedy ,in which we have represented in an ironic way our activities.

On the second day, however the activities took place differently, in fact we were divided into two groups, different .And each has done the different sessions, independently differently. In fact, during the meetings we dealt ,with various issues such as the one we experienced. This voluntary experience, positive and negative aspects that characterized it, comparing the various personal, experiences or the way we would have seen each other in a year etc. Successively they have divided ,into small groups of two or four people, to discuss some unclear aspects regarding the preparation of the youth pass etc.

Finally as for me personally, this little experience as well as having clarified,some doubts was very important not only because it made me meet again, many of the volunteers I had met already when I had done the arraival in October ,spent some time in their company, but also to meet many other wonderful ,people with which. I am happy to have shared ,this little experience that will, remain one of the most beautiful and meaningful things in my life.

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Capacity Building — Welcome new volunteers

On 7th to 10th February the Team Second ACT was in Baia the Fier, a beautiful place in Gorj with the new volunteers from Craiova, of the new project that is called Action Changes Things, for to do with them a Capacity Building.

The days were divided into sessions.

In the first session the Second ACT team involved and motivated the new volunteers to participate in the activities of the Capacity Building.

They then reflected together and shared expectations, needs, fears, goals, strengths and weaknesses.

The volunteers started with their own feelings, afterwards, the process of reflection and sharing, each of which described their own intuitions.

In the second session they told about the project in general.

The volunteers have evaluated in their own words the things of the project and the objectives that this has.

Also in this session have been presented the roles of the parts of the project: the national agency, sending organization, hosting organization, project manager, activity coordinator, mentor, monitoring and activity research and volunteers and what are the responsibilities of the parts and how they interact with each other.

In the last part of this session they were told what an activity is.

The Second Act Team explained what an activity description is and the parts that compose it.

They also shared with them, their personal experience of these almost five months in Romania, presenting a small ironic performance in which they told their experience in the schools.

After the sessions they had fun toghether and they have socialized with each other.

We wish Good Luck to everybody and enjoy this new experience!

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Events

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Zaibar Festival 20 October

On 20 October, in the streets of Băilesti, there was the event of Zaibar Festival.

During the Festival the villagers sell their products: Food, drink and their hand made products.

The staff Second ACT, in collaboration with Asociatia Comunitati pentru Tineret, wanted to promote the Erasmus+ program, in particular the European Solidarity Corps.

The European Solidarity Corps is the new European Union initiative which creates opportunities for young people to volunteer or work in projects in their own country or abroad that benefits communities and people around Europe.

For information visit : https://europa.eu/youth/solidarity_en In addition, we have explained what is the goal of our project.

Our project is lasting six months ( 3 October — 31 march ). During this months we will work with the students and the community of Bailesti.

Facebook : Second ACT Bailesti For involve the children, during the festival, we organised an activity of face painting.

Face painting is an entertainment activity that helps to develop children’s creativity. For to do this activity is must use specific colours for face and draw fantastics animals and characters.

It was a brillant idea and a great satisfaction for us, because we were able to entertain the kids and to get them involved.

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Halloween event

The 2nd of November we gathered to celebrate Halloween. Even though it is supposed to be the day of monsters and ghosts and all that stuff we managed to spend a great time.

For the beginning we met with our guests at Parcul Tineretului to make a quick session of warm ups and energizers. First we started with a relaxing and joyful massage, then we cooked a delicious pizza in the back of our partners, under the supervision of our Italian volunteers who made sure we didn’t add pineapple or ketchup, and we wrapped it up with a jumping snake. After all this and with good mood despite the cloudy weather we headed to Casa Cultura to start the event.

There we were met with terrifying decoration (balloons) and spooky music (Thriller from Michael Jackson). We had prepared some games for our visitors so after making the teams we started with them. A memory game where they had to test their memory and try to find the pairs of horrifying monsters drawn in the cards. A Frankenstein relay race where they knew how is to be a monstrous creature avoiding obstacles. A Halloween trivial for those brave enough to test their minds and their English skills. And finally they had to find the comically oversized nose of our witch while they where blinded.

After all this we all joined for a fun freeze dance game, when despite the attempts of a particularly annoying Spaniard everyone managed to stand still. At last we ate candy, not before another game where we all danced and shout and did whatever came out from the bag.

To summarize, a really fun and entertaining afternoon with the kids from Bailesti and we will be looking forward for the next event where we hope we gather even more and have even more fun.

A huge thanks for everyone who showed up and see you in the next one.

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Football Match Silistea Crucii vs Bailesti

If there is something that can bring people together even if they are from different places and ages that is football, and so we new almost since the beginning that we were going to do an activity related to it, a football match between two of the we are working in. With activity we aimed not only to enjoy a day dedicated to sport but also to allow the students we work with to meet people new people from other places, to promote gender equality since the match was mixed and also to promote local solidarity since alongside the match there was a collection of books, clothes and toys in benefit of the kids of Centrul Sperantei in Bailesti in which the players as well the public could participate .

And so the day came, we organized a match between the students of the Scoala Gimnaziala Nº 3 from Bailesti and the ones from the Scoala Gimnaziala of Silistea Crucii. The match was going to take place in the sports pavilion Ada Nekita in Bailesti, and by the way big thank you to the personnel of the pavilion for letting us do the match in their installations. So, the teams and the place were set, it was time for the match to begin. We started with a collective session of warm up which was quite improved by one of the students from the Bailesti team who showed us some stretching movements. After the warm up the match began, and boy was it intense, both teams where really into it and took the match really seriously, perhaps even too much, we could tell that both teams were giving the 200% of their strength in the field.

In the end victory for Bailesti even though Silistea Crucii made things hard. The prize: a trophy made by the kids from the Centrul Sperantei, a nice shake of hands between the teams and that’s it.

Huge thanks to all of the players, the public, the people who participated in the collection and, again, the personnel of the pavilion. Congratulations for the winner and better luck for the defeated, but don’t get comfortable guys because there is more to come.

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Christmas Event

In 14 th December in the Cultural House of Bailesti, the team Second Act, did a very funny Christmas Event.

The protagonists of the Event were the students of the Scoala Gimnaziala n 3 and Mihail Viteazul of Bailesti and Silistea Crucii.

The event opened with Christmas dances and then we continued with a team game, during which the guys, divided into groups, had to look for objects that belonged to different categories: Recycling, Drawing, Music and Dance.

Later, each of them wrote his Christmas wish on a paper and we collected their letters on a big Christmas tree in the wall.

The wishes were many, for example: Spending time with the family on a table full of food. Was fun to know their wishes and we wish each of them that one day will come true.

For to close the event we decided to play the game of Tombola with prizes.

The children worked and collaborated together during the games and they had a lot of fun.

In addition, they prepared some Christmas songs that they sing at the end of the event for to wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The children helped us to collect games that we gived to the childrens of the Centrul Sperantei.

The children of the center were very happy thanks to them and we are proud of this.

We thank all participants for the collaboration, we will see you soon for others fun events together .

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Event Scoala GimnazialaN. 3 and Centre Speranteia

One of the key objectives of our project is to bring the youth of Bailesti together involving them in activities and events that allow them to meet each other and learn and have fun together. For this very reason we promoted a series of activities and events that culminated in this event in Scoala Gimnaziala N.3.

To understand the nature of this event we have to go back to the cold days between November and December when we planned a football match between the school of Silistea Crucii and the School N. 3 from Bailesti, for this match we also organized a side activity which consisted in a collection of toys for the kids of the Centrul Sperantei. We conceived it as a collaboration between both centres: the students from the schools will bring toys while the kids from Sperantei will help us creating the cups and other prizes for the players of the match. That was the first part of this series of activities and it worked really well, but it went even better when one week later in our Christmas event the same students brought us more toys and clothes for the collection. That same afternoon we went to bring to the Centre Sperantei to give them everything collected in both occasions.

That was the moment that we decided to organize this event both as a way to allow this groups to finally meet face to and a way to thank and celebrate the work and collaboration of each other while taking part together in activities that aimed to improve the English of the kids.

After the Christmas holiday we met again to do the event in the School N. 3 and it developed as follows.

For starter we let them meet each other and then we started the first activity; and what better to get along with each other than a fight. Of course, not an actual fight. Our first energizer was a game called the chicken challenge in which in pairs they had to touch the knees of their partner until the last one standing.

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After the warm ups the English kicked in with our first language game: the Chinese whisper. In this game we stood in a circle and the chosen participant had to whisper a sentence in English to the person besides him/her and from there the whisper went from one to another all the way through the circle. You can imagine that even though we tried so hard the outcome was actually hilarious, with the sentences missing halfway of the trail and reaching the last one completely transformed.

For our next activity we brought up a classic: Simon Says. In this activity we put to test not only the listening abilities but also their patience as we had to make what Simon said only when we heard the magic sentence “Simon Says…” It was a lot of fun and of course we went through several Simons who really challenged us.

Then it was time to practice our acting skills with the game called Read and Act. In this game we separated the kids in two groups and gave to one of the groups a paper with an order for the other group. One of them read it out loud and the other group had to act what they understood from it. Then we changed the roles so all of them read and acted.

The last activity we prepared was the fruit salad: three fruits, three teams, one circle and one kid in the middle of all of it. For this game we made three teams: the lemons, the oranges and the apples. Standing in circle we had to wait for the person in the middle to call our team so that was the signal to leave our places and start running around until another team was called since that was the moment to find a new place in the circle. When we heard “Fruit salad!” a friendly a funny chaos was unleashed as all of us started running at the same time.

That was the last of our activities but the best was to come as the kids from the centre Sperantei prepared a song to thank the students of the school N. 3 for their donations and for hosting the event in their school. And that was the perfect culmination of this exiting afternoon that we spend all together learning, playing and laughing.

Thanks a lot to all the participants for being so involved and active in all the games, to the teachers and personnel of the school Number 3 and the personnel for helping us deal with such a big group of kids and to allow us to celebrate the event in the installations of the school.

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Football Championship

With the advent of the good weather and the spring, the month of March was also the last period of time of the volunteers in Băilești, regarding their EVS project with Asociatia Comunitati pentru Tineret.

For those reasons, and because of the success of the football match did in December, between școală Gimnazială nº3 and școală Gimnazială Silistea Crucii, the volunteers decided to organize a bigger event, this time including more partners. To do that, besides including the schools that participated in the football match in December, there were added școală Gimnazială nº1 and Liceul Teoric Mihai Viteazul in the activities.

Regarding the good conditions, this event was organized outside, on a beautiful natural grass pitch, capable of providing the performers, an environment of a Champions League professional game.

The morning/afternoon was toasted with four exciting matches, where the two first, were played to find out, who would play for the fourth and third place (the ones who lost), and the ones who would challenge for the first place (the winners of the first two matches). However, that was the less important detail of the event.

The main objective was accomplished, the volunteers brought together, beneficiaries from four different institutions they worked with. Putting them to work together, in an inclusive, supportive and cooperative environment, where they were able to pass a day of pure joy. Promoting a healthy lifestyle and encourage them to keep having this practices for their own personal benefit.

In the end, all of them received a prize for participating (medals), and each school, a certificate of participation, that proved the proud, committed and engaged behavior they all had during the event.

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Final Event

The final event, consists of an event organized by us volunteers of second ACT, following the conclusion of our EVS project, to greet all the boys and people. Who shared this volunteering experience with us for six months.

This great farewell party took place on 22/03/2019 in the village park, where all the volunteers and boys gathered to spend a final day together in company before our departure.

Various classes of schools in the country participated in the various activities. So around noon after we gathered at the park we started the various activities. Activities that included the most diverse games, organized a series of games (Gimkana).

Composed of various activities. Among the most engaging were the face painting, , where we volunteers gave vent to our creativity by drawing on the boys the various flags of the European states, the human tunnel,where the boys divided into two groups had to challenge each other passing under the legs of their members teams with an object in their hands and whoever came first won, for example, the sack race, or the balloon game. Games where children and young people have been free to run and have fun playing carefree giving their energies. Involving all participants, regardless of the age.

This event was one of the most beautiful organized, which allowed us to greet children and boys in the most original way possible making us feel less detachment from them. And that is part of those experiences that will always remain in the heart, and that I will always remember with pleasure and with a bit of nostalgic.

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WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO EVS? How to proceed:

Erasmus+ supports the European Solidarity Corps. If you are from an Erasmus+ programme country you can get involved in volunteering activities by registering in the European Solidarity Corps Portal.

After registration you can: - search for a suitable project in the list of published vacancies available for registered participants - wait to be contacted by organizations that could offer you a placement.

If you are from an Erasmus+ partner country, you can apply for Erasmus+ Volunteering directly through the organization responsible to send you abroad or to receive you in the host country and for arranging all practicalities. The European Youth Portal, the EU's website for young people, hosts a list of Erasmus+ Volunteering organizations. Browse the list and get in touch with organizations that may interest you to check if they are offering placements. Please bear in mind that some of those listed may not currently be looking for new volunteers.

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Need a hand?

OFFICE ADRESS: STR. A.I. Cuza, NR: 48, BL: 12.A, SC: 1, AP: 3 Craiova, ROMANIA

WEB PAGE: WWW.ACT-ONG.COM

EMAIL: officengo.act@gmail.com

PHONE: (+4)0769 433989 36