Official statistics show that some 40,000 Ukrainian children, most of them of school age, are now on Romanian territory. It is especially important for these children and for their parents to have continuous access to education, be it formal, non-formal or informal education. State authorities run a series of initiatives, as do other private bodies whose purpose is to develop these contexts suited for learning.
EduCare is a project run by Fundatia Bosch Romania in partnership with Edupedu.ro to provide correct information and data related to education – data that are obtained from official sources and which have been checked. This educational information hub to support refugees will include information about the activities and initiatives of organisations and entities working with this target group. The voice of the community is also heard as the interaction with Ukrainian refugees has to be real and natural.
Information provided by EduCare will be available in three languages (Romanian, English, Ukrainian) so that it be easily accessed by all interested parties.
In the circumstances created by the war in Ukraine, Fundatia Bosch Romania had an active contribution by promptly answering Romanian authorities’s and NGOs’ calls for involvement. The foundation developed partnerships with actors relevant for emergency situations, allocating funds amounting to more than EUR 80,000. “The effects of this emergency situation will be seen in time and we knew from the beginning how important it was to have a centralisation and a coordination of all initiatives aimed at providing support, in order to make sure we would answer the needs – and not only on the short term. In effect, EduCare will answer long term needs of refugees from Ukraine by providing easy access to relevant, certain and centralised education-related information. We also considered the development of an educational information hub as we consider education a key element to facilitate the integration of refugees,” says Simona Beldiman, Executive Director – Fundatia Bosch Romania.
“The enthusiasm of our authorities, which was intense at the start of the crisis, seems to have reached a minimum for some time already, when it comes to providing support and attention to refugees from Ukraine and especially to children, who are the hardest hit by the Russian invasion in their home country. The involvement of NGOs is natural and, as it happens with many situations in our schools, fills the huge void caused by authorities. The involvement of a specialised educational information platform such as Edupedu.ro in the EduCare project is natural and we hope we will thus reach the families of refugees from Ukraine with school-related information they need,”, says Mihai Peticila, journalist and co-founder of Edupedu.ro.
Established in 2020, Fundatia Bosch Romania is a non-governmental organisation established at the initiative of the Bosch Group in Romania with the purpose of setting the right framework for the expansion of its social responsibility activities. The main goal of Fundatia Bosch Romania is to generate a change for good for disadvantaged people in particular and for the society as a whole. Education, the environment, habitat, health, and the society are the fields of involvement for Fundatia Bosch Romania. Through its EduCare umbrella-programme, Fundatia Bosch Romania supports sutainable initiatives in the field of education. Access to education and education for the future are the two areas of interest. For more information: www.fundatiabosch.ro.