Sweet sixteen but dynamic agent of change
During the project, Silvia put into practice everything she learned – starting with identifying one real community need:
“Children and teenagers from Corbu spend too much time in front of the computer, losing their abilities to socialise, to communicate, to discover their talents and develop them. The entire week, they go to school and do their homework and on the weekend, you can’t separate them from the computer”, Silvia explained.
Children spend too much time in front of the computerThe “Weekend Atelier” project intends to solve this problem by offering all the children and teenagers, aged five to 18 from the village, the opportunity to meet each other on the weekend and discover and develop through all kinds of artistic activities, their abilities, skills and talents. World Vision volunteers like Silvia will coordinate the activities.
After Silvia was granted permission to run the project out of the World Vision-supported Corbu Community Center, Silvia advanced her plan, searching out partners. She decided to approach the Mayor to speak about the needs of children and youth in order to have the local authority as a partner in the project.
“At 9am, I was in front of the mayor’s office. I went in; I introduced myself and started to talk about my project. I was very nervous but I succeeded to calm myself and speak loud and clear, to offer a logical argument and negotiate. The mayor asked me some questions but I answered them at once. At the end of the conversation I had a partner and a 1000 lei (US$250) of financial support”, Silvia shared.
She confessed that the night before the decisive meeting, she had written a speech and tested it out on her father, her most severe critic and most valuable advisor.
“Though my father understood my project, he still asked me lots of questions, forcing me to rewrite a new, more argumentative and logical speech and to have answers prepared to all the possible questions. The debate training helped me very much”, Silvia said.
Silvia won me at once with her youthfulness and enthusiasm and secondly, with a good project“Silvia won me at once, with her youthfulness and enthusiasm and secondly, with a good project. The city hall will support her initiative because we are directly interested to promote the children and the young people from Corbu. The actor Stelica Morariu, our fellow citizen, will be directly involved in this project, bringing for children, his important artistic expertise. As for the finance, we will try to give Silvia the 1000 lei promised”, said Marian Galbinasu from the Corbu city hall.
“Silvia is smart, involved, takes initiative and definitely has leadership abilities. She is one of the 31 teenagers from Corbu, Cumpana, Cobadin and Constanta to take part in the ‘Youth Civic Education and Community Participation’ project and could become agents of change for their communities”, shared Anamaria Marienscu, World Vision Romania project coordinator.
The ‘Weekend Atelier’ project has also scored big points within World Vision’s Georgia-Romania initiative and as the winning project writer, Silvia will travel to Georgia in April with two other World Vision volunteers to take part in a youth exchange.
Youth Civic Education and Community Participation project is funded by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Georgia.
“Children and teenagers from Corbu spend too much time in front of the computer, losing their abilities to socialise, to communicate, to discover their talents and develop them. The entire week, they go to school and do their homework and on the weekend, you can’t separate them from the computer”, Silvia explained.
Children spend too much time in front of the computerThe “Weekend Atelier” project intends to solve this problem by offering all the children and teenagers, aged five to 18 from the village, the opportunity to meet each other on the weekend and discover and develop through all kinds of artistic activities, their abilities, skills and talents. World Vision volunteers like Silvia will coordinate the activities.
After Silvia was granted permission to run the project out of the World Vision-supported Corbu Community Center, Silvia advanced her plan, searching out partners. She decided to approach the Mayor to speak about the needs of children and youth in order to have the local authority as a partner in the project.
“At 9am, I was in front of the mayor’s office. I went in; I introduced myself and started to talk about my project. I was very nervous but I succeeded to calm myself and speak loud and clear, to offer a logical argument and negotiate. The mayor asked me some questions but I answered them at once. At the end of the conversation I had a partner and a 1000 lei (US$250) of financial support”, Silvia shared.
She confessed that the night before the decisive meeting, she had written a speech and tested it out on her father, her most severe critic and most valuable advisor.
“Though my father understood my project, he still asked me lots of questions, forcing me to rewrite a new, more argumentative and logical speech and to have answers prepared to all the possible questions. The debate training helped me very much”, Silvia said.
Silvia won me at once with her youthfulness and enthusiasm and secondly, with a good project“Silvia won me at once, with her youthfulness and enthusiasm and secondly, with a good project. The city hall will support her initiative because we are directly interested to promote the children and the young people from Corbu. The actor Stelica Morariu, our fellow citizen, will be directly involved in this project, bringing for children, his important artistic expertise. As for the finance, we will try to give Silvia the 1000 lei promised”, said Marian Galbinasu from the Corbu city hall.
“Silvia is smart, involved, takes initiative and definitely has leadership abilities. She is one of the 31 teenagers from Corbu, Cumpana, Cobadin and Constanta to take part in the ‘Youth Civic Education and Community Participation’ project and could become agents of change for their communities”, shared Anamaria Marienscu, World Vision Romania project coordinator.
The ‘Weekend Atelier’ project has also scored big points within World Vision’s Georgia-Romania initiative and as the winning project writer, Silvia will travel to Georgia in April with two other World Vision volunteers to take part in a youth exchange.
Youth Civic Education and Community Participation project is funded by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Georgia.
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