EDUCATE disabled Romanian orphans DENIED EDUCATION

Dear Friends,

We are grateful for the care and support you have given to our children at Delia's Center for Special Needs Kids. We have seen so much wonderful progress and a promise of more to come! For sure, your assistance has made a true impact on the lives of the kids. 

Advocacy and advancements for children with special needs is slow in progress here and it is especially difficult to get attention and support for kids who do not have parents and are in the foster care system. The laws here can be frustrating and without any "muscle" to make meaningful change. One of the things our kids grapple with every day is that while the law says all children must go to school, there are no special education teachers. One of our Romanian board members is the Vice Principal of a local high school and she says the teachers are frustrated too as they have no training, no support and yet have children in the classroom that they don't know how to teach. It is understood that material needs to be adapted to accomodate the needs of different children but the average teacher, with no training, doesn't know how to do that. What we see in response, are children in classrooms who are virtually ignored by their teachers and classmates. We have kids who are now attending middle school and high school who cannot do basic math and read at an early elementary school level but are in classrooms with children who are at grade level. Or they are in kindergarten but cannot process what is going on around them due to intellectual disabilities or having autism. They feel defeated in the classroom and ashamed.

All of the above underscores the need for Delia's Center and more and more we are having children traveling from rural villages nearly an hour away to receive our services. Thank you for making it possible for our kids to be educated according to their needs in 1:1 and small groups.  I am excited for my next trip to Barlad at the end of March and trying hard not to be envious of our CEO Laura Larkin who is on her way to Romania at this very moment!

We look forward to sharing more updates with you soon!

Best,

Lauren 

Links:

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Dear Friends,

How lucky we were to spend nearly two weeks with our amazing children at Delia's Center for Special Needs Kids. At the end of September, I traveled with our CEO, Laura Larkin and new U.S. Board Member Kyle Arney to Barlad. We were fortunate to have a new volunteer join us - -our longtime supporter Luisa came for a few days to be with the kids and get to know everyone. The kids were so thrilled as Luisa speaks some Romanian!  Everyone had a wonderful time listening to her read books, playing games, and singing and dancing!    

While Laura had already been in our new location, helping the team to move in June, it was the first time for me and Kyle. How proud we were to see the friendly, welcoming environment that has been created for the children! We are also so proud of our children for attending school despite the struggles they face each day. It still always surprises us how these kids can be in regular classrooms with no suppport - no special education teacher, no support aide. Every day it is so tough for them to keep up or even sit in the class. Our team works diligently with them to provide educational support according to their needs!    The one thing that truly was heartbreaking to us was learning how so many of our kids are bullied in school by their peers - for their differences, level of poverty, lack of clothing, etc. Plus there is usually no intervention by teachers and even the teachers often don't give a break to a child who is unable to have proper school supplies. This leads us to consider what we can do and while our staff does provide emotional support, we would like to develop a support program for the children and for parents.

Below are some photos to share with you!  It is a peak into the fun we had visiting and our special kids!

As always,  please reach out with any questions; lauren@deliafoundation.org

Thank you for caring!

Best,

Lauren