BRVC Year 2 Report

Early Years Education Centre “Urban Kids”

The goal of the Early Child Education Centre “Urban Kids” is to support disadvantaged families in breaking free from the vicious cycle of poverty, exploitation, and vulnerability by providing children and their parents an access to high-quality and holistic early childhood education. This programme provides an opportunity for children at their early stage of life, as well as their parents or caregivers, to build resilience to critical situations, improve parenting skills and knowledge, and promote children’s cognitive, social, and emotional health and growth through play-based learning.

Over the last near-decade, we have seen how this holistic model has impacted children with vulnerable backgrounds, providing a unique opportunity for thriving, problem-solving, social skills, emotional regulation, and better schooling experience, thus reducing school dropouts. This approach prevents the high risk of possible victimisation or criminalisation of these children in the long term, and makes their participation in the community more stable and healthy.

For parents, it provides a relational and emotional experience of parent-child interaction, and promotes the regaining of healthy attachment, building a strong foundation for the future of their children. This breaks down the vicious cycle of generational poverty and brokenness in different spheres of life for both the child and their parents.

Urban Kids focuses on equipping children and their parents with the holistic toolset they need to overcome the challenges associated with poverty and build a brighter future for themselves and their families. And all the gained experience and materials have been accumulated into a set of training materials for the further sharing with other teams from local churches, NGOs and mission initiative groups both in Moldova and countries of Eastern and Southeast Europe.

Accomplishments and Impact in 2022-23

• During last academic year (Sept 2022 – June 2023), 105 Moldovan and 35 Ukrainian children between the ages of 1 and 7 had the opportunity to study on a regular basis in the Urban Kids programme, practicing and testing in real-time the manuals elaborated by BRVC team. Together with children, 109 parents from Moldova and 33 from Ukraine actively participated in the programme. In result, 142 families have been engaged in 40 joint (parent-child) lessons of holistic early development and reintegration.
• Along with regular learning, six common events were organised (Christmas and Easter celebrations, visits to a zoo, farm, etc.), which allowed families to interact and build relational ties in a non-formal setting.
• Young students have been assigned into seven different age and language groups (3 Russian/ 4 Romanian/ 2 Ukrainian) on a weekly basis during the year. Within the framework of the program there was an opportunity for parents to have an alternative education, based on Christian principles and values, covering different spheres of the life of the child and aiming at the formation of a healthy and mature personality.
• One of the additional sections in Urban Kids, which aims to strengthen self-sustainability of the centre is “Mental Math Courses” which continued its development in 2022. It was attended by 60 children assigned in seven age and language groups. The impact of this course is – improvement of the mental ability for quick perception, processing and retrieval of the information, which strengthens children’s capacity to study exact sciences and foreign languages, or to be engaged in creative work. In summer we held an Olympics in Mental Maths event, where 60 young “students” from Comrat and Chisinau municipalities competed.
• At the end of May 2023 our team and all of the students and their parents have celebrated nine children who completed the early learning programme and passed admission processes into the elementary schools in Chisinau municipality.
• Three training sessions were also held for leadership teams from six churches and organizations. As a result, 46 leaders were trained and equipped to work with preschool children, most of whom continue to work with children on the holistic model in their towns and villages, reaching over 1,000 children.

Non-formal Education Centre for teenagers “Urban Teens”

Goal and vision for teens outreach

The goal of the programme is to engage teenagers in holistic development, inclusiveness, and active involvement within local communities. The groups in focus include teens both from incomplete and two-parent families and teens with disabilities, or who are struggling with serious illnesses such as cancer, through comprehensive non-formal education and interaction based on the Urban Youth Centre.

Accomplishments and Impact

Participants:  During 2022, 121 teenagers (aged 9-15) from various districts of Chisinau were included in the educational programme and various socially-oriented events on a weekly basis.

Team: The leadership team consists of three highly qualified and experienced educators who are responsible for the development of the programme, monitoring, training, and motivation of volunteers.

Volunteers: Throughout the year, 29 young people (14 leaders and 15 assistants) were involved on a voluntary basis to achieve the project’s goals. Most of them were also part of the Urban Centre educational programme as participants in the recent past. All volunteers underwent training and received the necessary skills to participate in the activities.

Schools: Weekly lessons on spiritual and moral education (part of the manual) were held in two schools in Chisinau. Over the entire period, 500 primary school children were taught spiritual and moral norms and life skills.

Sunday outreach clubs were held weekly. By the June 2023, 33 meetings were held – 16 for older children (12-14 years old) and 17 for younger ones (9-11). There teenagers developed their skills and abilities to the maximum level through discussions, interactive training, thematic games, and other activities. The aim of these activities was to comprehensively develop the participants (social, physical, intellectual, spiritual, and psychosocial) and to have a positive influence on group interaction and support, which corresponds to Task No. 7 of the “Education 2030” Development Strategy in Moldova. The average number of participants at each meeting was 38-60 (12-15 years old) and 35-50 people (9-11 years old).

Every week, throughout the academic year, volunteer teams actively planned and prepared weekly programmes for clubs and other events, which contributed to the maximum development of potential and team building.

• In addition to training for volunteer teams, three retreats were organised, during which young activists strengthened their understanding of the socio-psychological characteristics of teenagers, as well as were able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their involvement, which helps to increase motivation and the quality of the programme carried out.
• After the start of the refugee crisis in Moldova, as a result of the war in Ukraine, the leadership of the Beginning of Life decided to include teenagers, children and youth from among the refugees from Ukraine in the development programme. Thus, more than 150 teenagers from Ukraine actively participated in the project throughout the year.
• In addition to including refugees in programmes within the Urban Center, volunteer teams were also created to conduct educational and leisure activities for refugee children and teenagers at Baltsata multifunctional placement centre for refugees. During the period from Oct 2022 to June 2023, more than 450 children and teenagers participated in these activities.

House of Opportunity, Comrat

A new House of Opportunity (HOP) was opened the city Comrat (Autonomous Territorial Unit Gagauzia) in November 2022. During the preliminary stage of this project, our team had to address several issues. First of all, there was a problem of finding the proper accommodation for the House. Most local landlords, after hearing about the project and the socially vulnerable girls who were making up its first tranche of participants, were refusing to offer apartments or houses for the House, or in several cases were doubling the price. And in the context of very narrow offer on the market and the effects of refugee crisis, this problem was very serious. But finally in November an apartment was found and rented, for a normal price and good conditions. However, the apartment remains up for sale, which is a threat for the project. There have been some challenges in the team. The coordinator who started the project decided to move to Chisinau and stopped working for HOP Comrat. This has slowed down the whole process of establishing the centre. During this time several training sessions for HOP development, led by FSCI Bulgaria, were undertaken.

Within this period there were enrolled in the programme five young girls from the region. All with vulnerable backgrounds, but ready to learn and work at making a change. By June 2023 four beneficiaries remained, one having decided to leave. Out of these four girls, three have found part-time jobs, and continued their studies in local college. The plan is to admit two more young ladies into the programme in September.

Elaboration of new educational materials and platform

Throughout the last 12 months, the development and writing of materials for non-formal and interactive learning model was carried out, in total six manuals with 40 lessons each for age range from 3 up to 16 years old were completed. By June 2023, two manuals for Early Years Education were completed (with editing, proof-reading and design). Both Early Years and young teens (8-15) lessons were applied in testing mode and corrected with the participation of teachers and programme participants with the vision to equip local leaders and their teams for holistic mission within the community. All the manual drafts are now completed and waiting for editing and design. In parallel, an online educational platform www.urbancenter.md was launched in Jan 2023, which is being filled with materials and being made as user-friendly as possible. This platform will engage leaders and their initiative groups in using the materials of the BRVC model from any place of Moldova or Ukraine, what creates wider area of impact. In the second part of the year it is planned to publish first three manuals and present them to NGOs and churches, as well as local authorities.

Dialogue with national and local authorities

Following the meeting with the Minister of Education of Moldova, Anatol Topal in June 2022, the process of building up the dialog and cooperation with local authorities has continued. We began the process of gaining project approval within the Ministry of Education and its subdivisions, which required additional verifications and permissions since December 2022. Unfortunately, the first package of documents, that was submitted to the Ministry office in August 2022, was lost by the Ministry. However, we have resubmitted the package for official approval. In general, the bureaucratic process has taken more time and effort than we expected, and we are still awaiting the official response and permission after two rounds of correspondence.

While this delay has not significantly impacted the overall development of the programme, there is a risk of delays in the testing and approval processes within preschool and school institutions in Moldova in the future.

On a positive note, the Department of Education in ATU Gagauzia, as well as school administrations, have shown high interest and support in the programme. We have been actively engaging in dialogue with the Municipal Department of Education, Youth and Sports of Chisinau, the Department of Education of ATU Gagauzia, and the Department of Social Protection of the municipality of Chisinau. Additionally, we have established connections with local and international NGOs in Moldova to foster collaboration and exchange of expertise.

Despite the ongoing administrative procedures, we remain committed to the programme’s implementation and are working towards securing the necessary permissions and approvals to ensure its smooth execution. We will continue to engage with relevant authorities and organisations to promote holistic development and inclusiveness among teenagers in Moldova.

Refugee Crisis Response

Our team has continued to respond to the emergent needs of refugee families, including them into the process of restoration within our therapy centre, Urban Art, and in the Early Years Education and teens outreach. Along with that, 10 small groups for therapy and restoration were run for 150 refugee women and men, with their children or grandchildren. This gives an opportunity to them to start the process of integration, and to deal with the consequences of post-traumatic stress caused by their experiences of the war, and their flight from it.

Serghei Mihailov
Executive Director, Beginning of Life
June 2023