Terre des hommes Foundation launched on Wednesday, March 1st, in Bucharest, a center equipped with 3D technology, for creation and learning through play, especially for children and young people (7-18 years old). The launch of the center hosted creative and handicraft workshops, games, as well as demonstrations of 3D printing and making wooden martishoras.
Terre des hommes foundation already has the expertise and experience of such a digital technology laboratory-type center opened in Târgu Ocna with the aim of increasing the chances of young people to find a job. The Resilience and Innovation Center (RIF) in Bucharest aims to contribute in an attractive way to the inclusion of Ukrainian children / young people and the preparation of Romanians for a future suitable for the 21st century.
This will be a place where participants can creatively explore their talents and develop their digital skills together with their peers. The activities within the RIF are carried out within a support project for Ukrainian children and their families, implemented in partnership with UNHCR - the UN Refugee Agency, the Representation in Romania and Swiss Solidarity.
Under the slogan "Reinvent your childhood. Reshape your future", RIF's free workshops were designed to challenge children and young people to address topics relevant to them, such as friendship, tolerance, expressing emotions, etc. – and to later express them in projects of own creation. In support of this goal, the center is equipped with modular spaces for learning through play, workshops for non-formal education, creativity and the acquisition of technical and digital skills.
The center comes in addition to the activities of the Terre des hommes Foundation over the past 12 months, which have included psychosocial support offered to Ukrainian children and youth, namely the protection of mental balance and psycho-social well-being, the relief of suffering caused by war and uprooting.
"I feel safe and protected in Romania, as I felt when I was at home," says Timofey - an eleven-year-old boy who participated in the launch of the Resilience and Innovation Center (RIF) in Bucharest. He fled the path of war with his family, and in Bucharest he participated in psychosocial activities offered by Terre des hommes Romania, which help relieve stress and regain a sense of normalcy.
"Since the beginning of the war, the needs of Ukrainian refugee families have changed. We are adapting our activities to the needs of families who will remain in Romania for a longer period of time", says Radu Răcăreanu, Program Manager of the Terre des hommes Foundation for the response in emergency situations in Romania.
Context
Since the beginning of the war in 2022, Terre des hommes Romania has responded to the immediate needs of children, young people and mothers arriving in Romania, whether they were for protection, mental health, psycho-social support or personalized individual assistance. We provided social assistance to Ukrainian families either individually or in partnership with residential centers for refugees and other NGOs and were able to support a total of over 13,000 Ukrainians (parents and children) who arrived in Romania. Thanks to our donors and partners, we were able to do much more not only in Bucharest, but also in Constanța (in partnership with the Constanța Civic Resource Center) and Brașov.
In the country and in Bucharest were organized/created during 2022: a summer school, leisure camps in several locations, socialization and inclusion events, workshops to develop children's talents and encourage them to continue their education . Our teams gave Ukrainian families a chance to connect with the Romanian community, while also giving them the means to deal with practical issues. At the same time, we constantly and periodically informed parents about educational options for their children, so that they could prevent any interruption of education.
