Programs and projects

22 – 26.05.2014 Botosani. The second part of the project ‘Let’s know our country by exchange visits’ has come to an end. Successfully.Between May 22 and 26, 2014 a group of 10 scouts – pupils of the School for Visually Impaired Children in Bucharest – together with three teachers and a parent were guests of the students in ‘Alexandru Vlahuta’ Technological High-School in Sendriceni, the county of Botosani.We were welcomed with friendship and care by the school leaders, colleagues in the project and all children and teachers we met during our stay at the guest house of the high school.We enjoyed beautiful spring weather and our program was dense and full of novelties.Bucovina is a surprisingly beautiful and hospitable area in Romania.
We visited the school premises (with several buildings). We saw where students acquire theoretical knowledge and how they use it in practical works.

We sang and played games together with the secondary school students. We went hiking together. And we also went on trips to visit important monasteries (Neamt, Moldovita, Sucevita, Voronet). We visited the Neamt Fortress and the Aurochs Reserve not far from the town of Targu Neamt.

Other places we went to were the Water Museum and Ion Creanga memorial house in Targu Neamt.

And in Suceava we had the chance to learn about planets and stars at the Planetarium. Very interesting and novel was the Museum of Painted Eggsin Moldovita, as well as the ride on the narrow train across the hills of Bucovona.

We went very near the border to Ukraine – at Siret – and we saw the world – known pottery workshop at Marginea.

Worth mentioning is also the chance we had to visit Family Dohotariu’s household with a lot of animals, where we could caress bunnies, puppies, kittens and cats, guinea fowls, young chickens and everything these wonderful people had around the house.

We also picked herbs such as common elder, wormwood, plantain, chamomile, dandelion and we breathed in their ravishing fragrances.

The way back to Bucharest was a bit more tiresome as we had a night train and we occasionally dozed off during the seven hours of our journey. But, no complaints – it was an overall worthwhile experience. Unforgettable.

For most of us it was the first trip to Northern Moldavia.

We are so grateful to our fellow teachers who helped achieve this project by donating 2% for ARVAR Association and also to the guides in the Liechtenstein Guild who supported us. A big thank you to all!
Workshop at the School for the Visually Impaired Children in Bucharest For two days (March, 31^st and April 1^st2014) the School for Visually Impaired Children in Bucharest hosted a workshop for the presentation of the new Robobraille program. This consisted of the theoretical presentation and practical demonstration of the program in front of a group of teachers, parents and members of the Association for the Blind in Romania. A group of 12 people participated in the activities on each of the two days. The activities took place in the computer laboratory of the school; they started at 10 every morning and lasted for four hours each day, with a 15-minute break.Teachers, parents and colleagues from the Association for the Blind in Romania attended. Tanja Stevns and Lars Balieux, trainers from Denmark, first presented the importance of this program for the visually impaired people and then made demonstrations on how to transform all types of documents into audio format, mp3, e-book, Daisy and also how to transform a text from Word into Braille and the other way round.After each theoretical presentation and practical demonstration the participants tried the application on their own computer so that, if there were any misunderstandings or functional problems, they could be clarified on the spot.The program is easy to use, it is translated into Romanian and it is free to use by any user who needs help in order to download materials from the internet and study them. Those willing to use the program only need to access the website: www.robobraille.organd they will be provided with all details for the correct use.This event was possible through the contribution of the School for the Visually Impaired Children in Bucharest and also the two trainers, Tanja Stevns and Lars Balieux and Assoc, from the Association Synscenter Refsnaes in Denmark, ARVAR
Project meeting in Vienna. On the 4^th and 5^thof March 2014 we had the second meeting in the European (Leonardo da Vinci) project called ROBOBRAILLE SMART ALTERNATE. The School for the Visually Impaired Children in Bucharest is a partner in this project together with seven other institutions in Europe.The working session took place in Vienna on the premises of the Association for the Blind in Austria (partner in the project).The programme was busy, with plenty of information on the project progress and the steps to be followed in order to achieve the intended objectives. Robobraille program will be extended to the United States as we were informed by the project coordinator, Tanja Stevns.We also decided on the project logo proposed by the Danish team. Robobraille service created the program meant to make the conversion of documents into Romanian, Bulgarian and Polish, which is an important step for people who do not know English.The final goal of the project is to create a handbook enabling each user to take advantage of the robobraille program.Along the two days there was also a useful visit to the School for the Blind in Vienna and a guided tour of the city center and Art Museum.
14 and 28.11.2013 Also this autumn, ARVAR Association with Vision Association organized two seminars at HEIDI chocolate factory in Panteleimon, 10 km from Bucharest. Each seminar had as 8 participants, blind and sighted children accompanied by 2 teachers, members ARVAR the same time. Seminar, designed by the team at the chocolate factory, completed the theoretical knowledge of pupils about the raw material from which prepare chocolate but they also offered the opportunity to work virtually under the guidance, making Santa Claus and chocolate tablets after their own imagination and taste, having at hand all the ingredients.

28-31.10.2013 – In the European project LDV. Robobraille SMART, held the first meeting between the 8 partners: Denmark (2 institutions) Synscenter Refsnæs and Sensus, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ireland, Austria and Romania. The meeting took place at the Assoc. SENSUS in Hillerod town north of Copenhagen, Denmark. All partner institutions were present. The 2-day program was dense concrete and well organized by the host institution. Each partner presented the institution, assumed tasks for the project. He was a role model in the organization and holding of the meeting. Congratulations to the two Danish professionals, Tanja Stevens and Lars Ballieu. They created a platform for all participants to post information during the project so that everyone can find what interests him there.

2013 – 2014 – ” Let us know each other the country through exchanges of visits” The project is in partnership ARVAR and Special Secondary School for the Visually Impaired . 25-27.10.2013 – a group of pupils accompanied by two teachers from Secondary School Sendriceni – County Botosani came to visit Bucharest. They lived at the school and visited the most important cultural sites in the capital city. For those children who no longer came out of the county ( some of them ) was a real expedition. They came by train all night and three days did a marathon. They visited the Parliament House, the History Museum of Romania, Museum of Natural History Grigore Antipa, Peasant Museum, the Village Museum. In all these movements were accompanied by teachers from the school by volunteering. Participated with other children at the Halloween celebration in the school gym and they chatted with children in middle school for the visually impaired. Raluca Vlaicu class IV gave an evening concert at the piano and then shared her experience student at music schools from Bucharest. Urmeaza 2 of the project when students from our school will return the visit Botosani The project is in partnership ARVAR and Special Secondary School for the Visually Impaired . 25-2710.2013 – a group of students accompanied by two teachers from Secondary School Sendriceni, county Botosani came to visit Bucharest. They lived at the school and visited the most important cultural capital dim . For those children who no longer came out of the county ( some of them ) was a real expedition. They came by train all night and three days did a marathon . They visited the Parliament House, the History Museum of Romania , Museum of Natural History Grigore Antipas Peasant Museum , the Village Museum . In all these movements were accompanied by teachers from the school by volunteering. Participated with other children at the Halloween celebration in the school gym and they chatted with children in middle school for the visually impaired . Raluca Vlaicu class IV gave an evening concert at the piano and then shared her experience student at music schools bucurestene. Follows Part 2 of the project in our school when pupils return to their visit of Botosani.

28.06.2013 – Last meeting for disseminating project – Exercises for Stimulating Motivation on Volonteers
GRU-11-P-LP-303-B-ES

5.06.2013 – returned to Romania the two representatives of the SENSUS Association from Denmark. The meeting took place at the Special Secondary School for the Visually Impaired. Tanja and Lars brought school children for the Blind Association headphones with MP3 player devices that can record and listen to music. They presented the project Robobraille for Romania and further steps to be followed.

22.02.2013 – SENSUS Association submitted to the European Commission, through their agency projects, a Leonardo da Vinci theme RoboBraille Smart Alternate Media – a project that is included Special Secondary School for the Visually Impaired and participate Assoc. ARVAR

On 24.01.2013 was held an expert workshop Robobaille project in Romania at the Special Secondary School for the Visually Impaired in Bucharest. Were present Ballieu Lars Christensen and Tanja Stevns, creators of the program, a group of colleagues from the Association of the Blind and a group of school teachers. Danes have presented the project implementation in Europe and set tasks for the next stage. Next meeting will be on 06.05.2013 also at school. Tanja us wanted to be partners in a Leonardo project which will run between 2013 – 2015 and which aims to develop programs for people with special needs
ARVAR Association in partnership with Special Secondary School for the Visually Impaired in Bucharest runs Robobraille project initiated by the National Foundation for Visual Impairment Danish Center for Children and Youth and Sensus ApS financially supported by the Danish Velux Foundation. Project managers are Lars Christensen and Tanja Ballieu Stevns. The duration of the project is 2012-2015. Robobraille is a software that facilitates the access of visually impaired internet and is free of charge and can be downloaded.
7 to 9 November 2012 – Participation in Robobraille Conference, Budapest, Hungary Presentation RoboBraille RoboBraille

Grundtvig project

Exercises for Stimulating Motivation on Volonteers
GRU-11-P-LP-303-B-ES
National Agency Identification: RO1 LLP(ANPCDEFP)
Partnership type: GRU-12M

Participants:

Fundacion Belen (Spania)
Minister Development Centre Ltd (U.K.)
Asociatia pentru Reinvierea Vietii Asociative in Romania A.R.V.A.R.
HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY EUROPEAN UNION RELATIOS RESEARCH AND APPLICATION CENTER (Turcia)
National Association of Folk High Schools in Lithuania (Lituania)

Specific objectives of the partnership are:

Increasing the motivation of our volunteers and consideration of support mechanisms.
Brainstorming workshops between volunteers, teachers and students on their motivation
A traveling photo exhibition will present the results. This exhibition will be held at the beginning of the second year of the project, at each of the subsequent partner meetings.
The results of each institution will be discussed in international meetings and integrated into a common set of exercises
Collection of photographs, films, exercises on a DVD.
Dissemination of results through the site of each institution.

Activities planned for each meeting:

November 2011 Knowledge of partners and establishing a joint questionnaire with 27 questions that will be applied in each country on a total of more than 150 respondents.
February 2012 Discussing the results of the questionnaire applied in each country.
June 2012 Designing two or three games and exercises for inner motivation by each institution
October 2012 Short films will be created by volunteers, as part of exercises showing their work and / or expressing feelings and opinions in this area.
December 2012 Assessment exercises and games through questionnaires.
February 2013 A traveling photo exhibition will present the results of these exercises
July 2013 The final report with all the experience, movies, games and exercises will be compiled on a DVD
Dissemination of results through the site of each institution.

The first project meeting 7-8.11.2011 Lichfield UK
Theme of meeting:
Knowledge of partners, establishing the tasks in the project for the next meeting, setting future meetings and establishing a joint questionnaire with 27 questions that will be applied in each country on a total of more than 150 respondents.
Photo
The second project meeting 27-28.02.2012 Madrid Spain
Theme meeting:
Discussion of results from the questionnaire published in Motivatii pentru voluntariat

Photo

The third project meeting 11-12.06.2012 Bucharest Romania
Theme meeting:
Designing two or three games and exercises for inner motivation by each institution

Video

The fourth project meeting 1-2.11.2012 Ankara Turkey
Theme meeting:
Volunteers drawn into the project activities had their own games and exercises in the form of videos, photos and PowerPoint presentations

Foto

The fifth project meeting 13-16.03.2013 Kaunas Lithuania
A new project meeting had place from March 13 to 16, 2013 in Kaunas in Lithuania. Was attended by partners from the UK, Turkey and Romania and our hosts Lithuanians. Spain team was unable to attend due to weather. Frankfurt airport was closed for three days just when they had come to the meeting. So on days 14 and 15 working meetings were held in which applications were submitted MOT UP game, dissemination plans of each country. The meeting was coordinated by Christine Lester in the UK. They conducted two workshops very interesting and attractive. The first day I was engaged in building a pen structure houses an association of volunteers. I was working with 3 groups for production of 20-minutes and each team presented its idea and realization. The second day we went to “Village Museum”, the city Kaunas space that is naturally occurring cultural events held by authorities in the field, summer camps for children and youth categories. In this space I found the activities that take place during the summer. The workshop consisted of natural material manufacturing, straw, tow, sticks, birds usually are made in Lithuania during the Christmas and Easter holidays, festivals and international events. It was a friendly atmosphere of respect and appreciation for each of us. Thanks hosts.
Photos