REPORT TO BRITISH EMBASSY BUCHAREST! SEPTEMBER!2012 ... · !3"...

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REPORT TO BRITISH EMBASSY BUCHAREST

SEPTEMBER 2012 – SEPTEMBER 2013

ELIGIBLE CHILDREN IN FIECARE COPIL IN GRADINITA: 1300 DAILY ATTENDANCE RATE: 80% (1040 CHILDREN)

ELIGIBLE CHILDREN IN OCOLNA (AMARASTII DE JOS COMUNA): 80

DAILY ATTENDANCE RATE: 84% (67 CHILDREN)

May 30, 2013, Speaker of the British House of Commons, John Bercow (shown in photo), British Ambassador Martin Harris and a delegation from the UK joined the Romanian Chamber of Deputies President, Valeriu Zgonea, to see the example of progress regarding Roma integration in Podari, Dolj. It’s pretty simple:

It’s pretty simple:

€12 food coupons for a disadvantaged child = Better nutrition at home

= Better attendance in ‘gradinita’ = Better concentration in the classroom = Better preparation for primary school

= Lower drop-out rates for Romania

© Gazeta de Sud

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Everyone knows that education boosts productivity and enlarges opportunities, so it is natural that proposals for reducing inequality emphasize effective education for all. But these proposals are too timid.

They ignore a powerful body of research in the economics of human development that tells us which skills matter for producing successful lives…

They ignore or play down the critical gap in skills between advantaged and disadvantaged children that emerges long before they enter school.

James Heckman, Nobel Laureate in Economics, New York Times, Sept. 14, 2013 BACKGROUND

Fiecare Copil in Gradinita (Every Child in Preschool) is an award-‐winning program that has been cited by both The Economist and the World Bank as a model. FCG incentivizes impoverished parents, many of whom are Roma*, to send their 3-‐5 year old children to preschool. Thanks to OvidiuRo’s sponsors, since 2010, over 1000 children have annually benefited from early education AND better nutrition through FCG.

OvidiuRo's mission is to help today's disadvantaged children get much further in school than their parents did -‐-‐ by providing a rich early educational environment so they will have a similar skill set at age 6 as other better-‐off children have, and thereby will be more likely to stay in school longer. Without early mental stimulation, disadvantaged children have no chance to catch up to their better off peers – intellectually, economically, or socially. Deprived youngsters without early education start school behind, and stay behind -‐-‐-‐ permanently! Early education is positively correlated to higher graduation, higher employment, and lower incarceration rates!

Fiecare Copil in Gradinita targets the very poorest children – those living in overcrowded, inadequate housing conditions in isolated areas with extremely limited access to potable water or basic health care. In the winter, the unemployment rate is close to 100% due to the low need for unskilled labor and the shockingly low education level of the adults.

Food coupons, conditional on children’s attendance in preschool, have proven to be a highly effective and efficient tool to stimulate destitute, functionally illiterate parents (average years in school: 4) to bring their young children to gradinita daily. The parents receive €12 in food coupons per month if they take their child to preschool every day. In Romania, the monthly child allowance (which is unconditional) is €10, so this is a meaningful increase for these families.

* Program eligibility is based on poverty level, not ethnicity.

RESULTS: 1. RECORD ATTENDANCE OF THE MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN 80% of the 1298 children in FCG attended daily (on average, 1043 children). In Ocolna (Amarastii de Jos comuna), the daily attendance rate was 84% for the year. 2012-‐2013 in numbers: • 1300 impoverished children (80 in Ocolna) ready to start primary school at age 6 • 1000 parents (72 in Ocolna) with little formal education brought their children to preschool every day and took part in monthly parent-‐child activities • 170 children (15 in Ocolna) age 2-‐4 and their parents participated in Sotron Doi – a weekly two-‐hour session to familiarize children and their parents with the school environment • 1500 children age 3-‐14, participated in Summer “Health Schools” • 200 (9 from Ocolna) local team members improved their ability to work on a common goal • 6 additional teacher assistants and 3 health mediators were hired • 73% of former FCG children regularly attended clasa pregatitoare and first grade • 3 County Councils (Sibiu, Covasna and Cluj) are considering expanding FCG for all the county’s high-‐risk children.

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As shown in the graph below, attendance peaked in December. In the last three months of the school year it decreased due to parents taking their children with them when they leave home for seasonal work that starts in the spring. See Annex for Ocolna (Amarastii de Jos) attendance by month.

The teacher-‐recorded attendance rates in the graph below show a slight decline in the annual average from 2010 to 2013. This reflects the efforts of OvidiuRo to get teachers to keep scrupulous records – by applying sanctions when spot checks detect inaccurate or incomplete reports. Consequently, the teachers’ attendance taking has gotten more accurate over the course of the three years the program has been running. Before the FCG program was instituted in 2010, there was no daily attendance taking so direct comparisons are not available, but teachers consistently report that rarely more than 40% of these children ever attended, and a 2012 World Bank Report1 found that on average, only 37% of Roma children were enrolled in preschool – which says nothing about their actual attendance rates.

1 “Toward an Equal Start: Closing the Early Learning Gap for Roma Children in Eastern Europe”, 4 June 2012, The World Bank

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2. INCREASED PARENT PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOL ACTIVITIES FCG stimulates poor parents to get more involved in their children’s education. First, it gets parents in the habit of bringing their children to preschool every day, regardless of the weather, the children’s mood, the distance, or other chores the parents might consider more important at the moment.

Secondly, another precondition to receiving food coupons at the end of the month is parent participation in two activities: Parent Day (a monthly activity with both children and parents) and Parent on Duty (5 times a year when the parent spends an entire day in preschool assisting the teacher). In Ocolna, parent attendance at Parent Days was good -‐ 84%. Over the course of the school year, 82% of the parents helped the teachers as Parents on Duty.

Food coupons help impoverished families improve their children’s nutrition at home. Children also received nutritious snacks during Sotron Doi and in the summer program in which 1500 children participated.

3. ENHANCED UTILIZATION OF HUMAN AND MATERIAL RESOURCES

In April 2012, OvR received a grant from GlaxoSmithKline to improve the health of children in FCG communities. Through the health grant, the children in Ocolna got medical tests, vitamins, a kit for personal and home hygiene that included soap, shampoo, detergent, tooth brush and tooth paste, etc. and the teachers conducted an information session on health and hygiene for parents and children. The results of the medical tests revealed that in Ocolna, 27 out of 69 children had intestinal parasites (Giardia) and 9 had streptococcal infections. They all received treatment but the local coordinator is worried about the long-‐term effectiveness, as free treatment is only available for children, and there is a high chance that parents will go untreated. The treatment solves the effect, but not the cause: lack of sanitary facilities and basic hygiene, and polluted water.

Weekly School for Moms & Toddlers: Sotron Doi is held once a week in the spring for 2-‐4 year old children and parents who are anxious about the school environment. In a non-‐threatening, low-‐key setting, children and their parents (usually moms) gradually adjust to the routines of school. For 10 weeks, 15 children and their moms participated in these two-‐hour sessions in Ocolna, and everyone received a diploma at the end – and encouragement to come every day in the fall.

Summer “Health School”: With support from GlaxoSmithKline, OvidiuRo organized 90 summer programs in 14 counties for 1500 children. Two-‐thirds were preschoolers. In these 13-‐day workshops, children learned about their body, the benefits of healthy food, and the importance of playing sports. They reviewed numbers and letters through writing exercises and applications play games and explore the surroundings in order to get ready for school in September. The teachers used OvR’s workbook “Good morning,

© Aurelia Boriceanu

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children!” in which kids were encouraged to ask questions and find answers, to explore and discover, to be creative and act as team players.

Unfortunately for the children in Ocolna, all four gradinita teachers were occupied in farm work over the summer so none were available to organize the summer program. Nonetheless, the 105 children in the Ocolna kindergarten will work on the workbooks in the fall. 4. BETTER -‐TRAINED TEACHERS

January 2013 FCG Annual Meeting: 34 representatives from the 20 local teams (coordinators, teachers, school principals, mayors, school inspectors) came together for OvR’s 3-‐day annual meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Bucharest (food and accommodations provided pro-‐bono by the Hilton). They discussed the outcomes and challenges of the past year, set the objectives for the spring semester, and visited the American International School of Bucharest.

FCG Ocolna’s coordinator Lucel Coteanu was one of the ten local team members who received a certificate signed by the Minister of Education, Remus Pricopie, for their effort, dedication and professionalism in implementing FCG.

July 2013 Training for summer programs: a one-‐day training session in Carpinis, Brasov to prepare for the summer program using OvidiuRo’s new “Good morning, children!” workbook designed by the OvR staff.

23-‐24 August 2013 Local Coordinators Meeting: Lucel Coteanu (center left in blue striped shirt in photo below) participated in the two-‐day meeting in Bradet, Covasna.

26-‐27 August 2013 Summer Program Best Practice Roundup: Summer program teachers and education specialists met in Predeal to review the programs and make suggestions for future enhancements.

September 2013: Step-‐by step training in FCG methodology was held for Amarasti and Podari (the other Dolj comuna that is implementing FCG with funds from Cargill). Held at the Podari School, the purpose was to clarify program activities and roles, especially important for integrating new team members.

© Alina Seghedi

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5. COMMUNITY TAILORED SOLUTIONS “Some say the Roma issue is a European one, others that it is a national concern. But it is also a very local issue, because it is the local authorities at the municipal and county level that do the work of social inclusion on the ground.” British Ambassador Martin Harris

OvidiuRo works with local authorities and implementation teams to make sure the program runs smoothly so they have a chance to become an integral part of the local education system – not just a temporary NGO-‐spawned ‘add-‐on’. Dolj. British Ambassador Martin Harris’s visit to the Podari FCG program in the summer of 2012 led to several benefits for the county and its leaders. In January 2013, members of the Rotherham, England Municipal Council visited Craiova and the FCG Program in Podari. Ambassador Harris wrote on his blog, “I wanted him to see the excellent work that local authorities have been doing on Roma inclusion in partnership with OvidiuRo and to start a conversation on Roma inclusion between local authorities in Romania and the UK, which are both trying to address this challenge.”2

In March, the school principal Marilena Andriescu visited Rotherham, England as part of a delegation from Dolj County. The delegation spent a full day in a settlement of some 3000 Roma looking at different aspects of employment, education and policing. Ms. Andriescu was especially impressed by the free school meals for the poorest children. The Ambassador wrote, “The school had set up breakfast clubs where children – and their parents – could get a good meal before classes begin. Which means the children start the day properly fed, on time, and ready to learn.” In Ocolna, OvidiuRo allocated 6000 lei (approximately €1400) from the GSK grant to build a public water pump at the kindergarten. Covasna, Valcele. As an extension of the OvR-‐GSK partnership, OvidiuRo worked with medical students from Bucharest’s Carol Davila University in a medical caravan offering free medical exams to children and adults in Araci & Hetea (as part of the ‘Together for Rural Health’ project for medical students). Consultations were provided in cardiology, gynecology, pediatrics, ophthalmology, and ORL. Over four days, the 20 medical students and 15 specialists saw 300 children and 260 adults – most of whom rarely make it to the doctor unless their condition is already life threatening. The visiting doctors concluded was that the health needs of people in Araci and Hetea were among the worst they had encountered. On the first day, 5 young children were diagnosed with pneumonia. The doctors also observed that many children suffered from rickets, intestinal parasites, ongoing respiratory infections, and poor nutrition. The pediatricians noted that whereas in most communities, out of 20 children seen, 5 would be sick – in Araci, of 20 examined, less than 5 were considered healthy. This year, the OvidiuRo coordinator will meet regularly with the health mediator and the community doctor to help the families access the recommended medical care.

Covasna, Intorsura Buzaului, one of the coldest towns in Romania, attendance was especially low for the younger Roma children because of the long distance they had to walk from their community outside the village to the local school. Finally, after a meeting with the mayor in March, he agreed to have the school bus make a detour in order to bring the children to gradinita. This relatively small step had an immediate impact: attendance among the 3 year olds almost doubled from one day to the next, and remained high for the rest of the school year. Dambovita, Gura Sutii. When it was clear that the local authorities in Gura Sutii did not have the resources to expand and renovate its dilapidated kindergarten, OvidiuRo obtained in-‐kind contributions from GDF Suez, Energy Assistance, Distrigaz Confort, Dedeman, Holcim, Lafarge and Orange. Consequently, the building was completed in time for school opening in September 2012 — so that 74 disadvantaged children could attend gradinita in a safe, clean and well-‐furnished building. This partnership led to GDF Suez sponsoring all the FCG program expenses in Gura Sutii for 2013.

2 http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/martinharris/2013/04/02/roma-‐inclusion-‐in-‐rotherham-‐and-‐romania/

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PUBLIC AWARENESS ~ BEFORE ITS TOO LATE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD ~ AND THE OUTCOMES FOR A GENERATION

Some kids win the lottery at birth, far too many don’t — and have a hard time catching up over the rest of their lives… Success nominally attributed to the beneficial effects of education, especially graduating from college, is in truth largely a result of factors determined long before children even enter school.

James Heckman, Nobel Laureate in Economics, New York Times, Sept. 14,2013

OvidiuRo is committed to raising awareness of the importance of early education for Romania’s disadvantaged children – both among the public and in the business community. OvidiuRo’s long-‐standing partnerships with AmCham, ProTV, Rompetrol, Hilton (since 2004) and Carrefour (since 2006), as well as more recent partnerships with Cargill (since 2010), UK Embassy (since 2012), GlaxoSmithKline (since 2012), and GDFSuez (2013), are instrumental in directing the attention of opinion leaders and government authorities to a profoundly serious problem for which there is no national strategy.

Local media events: Last December OvR and Cargill held their second joint media event in Podari, a comuna near Craiova, to announce the second year of Cargill’s investment in the community and the results of the first year partnership. Duane Butcher, Deputy Chief of the US Mission in Romania, attended the event and noted that, “Podari is a small but powerful example on how foreign investments in Romania go beyond financial investments.” The event was reported on in both national and local media, generating two TV news spots (TVR Craiova & PRO TV) and 13 articles in the press.

Fundraising: “Before It’s Too Late” Under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and with support from the star and director of the highly acclaimed Hollywood film, Before Midnight, OvidiuRo raised approximately €80,000 for its 2013-‐2014 FCG program at the film’s Romanian premiere on June 26.

Thirty media partners, including Forbes, Business-‐Review, Viva, Tango, Romania Libera and Sapte Seri, promoted the event designed to draw attention to the importance of early education “before it’s too late” to make a difference in school outcomes for the poor. In all, 250 online articles, 28 print ads, and 30 online banners were generated.

ProTV, OvidiuRo’s main media partner, broadcast six prime-‐time news spots about the event, two of which were live transmissions from Palatul Copiilor. Eight TV channels reported on the event, including Prima TV and Antena 1. OvidiuRo representatives spoke on Pro TV, TVR, The Money Channel, and VTV talk shows about the importance of early education for disadvantaged children. Thirteen television outlets aired OvidiuRo’s video spot. Popular radio anchor Mihai Dobrovolschi referenced the event on his morning show ‘Guerrilla de dimineata’ and Irina Margareta Nistor presented it on Antena 1’s morning show “Razvan si Dani”. Pro FM, Bucuresti FM, Radio Romania, Actualitati, and RFI gave radio coverage.

The logos of Major Investors in Fiecare Copil in Gradinita were on press ads announcing the event, http://www.elle.ro/news/intalnire-‐cu-‐ethan-‐hawke-‐before-‐its-‐too-‐late-‐317609/ and in the 35 page “Event Book” distributed to the participants. The “Book” is also being used as OvidiuRo’s Annual Report (elements of which are included in the attachments to this report). Logos of OvidiuRo’s donors, including the British Embassy, were prominently displayed in the VIP reception slide show (350 guests) and before the movie screening (750 guests) and also in a video made by British filmmaker Tom Wilson. The video was shown to 70 media representatives at the press conference and before the screening. The event made international news (including in The Huffington Post, Miami Herald and The Telegraph as well as on Yahoo News) as a result of the Associated Press news release. Below are links to a selection of articles about the event:

• Live Pro TV news: http://www.ovid.ro/2013/06/ethan-‐hawke-‐si-‐amalia-‐enache-‐live-‐la-‐palatul-‐copiilor/

• http://www.montereyherald.com/entertainment/ci_23544522/romania-‐ethan-‐hawke-‐promotes-‐movie-‐education

• http://www.forbes.ro/P-‐intalnire-‐cu-‐ethan-‐hawke-‐before-‐its-‐too-‐late_0_7677.html • http://business-‐review.eu/featured/before-‐its-‐too-‐late/

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INCREASING INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT THROUGH ‘DIRECT PENTRU COPII’ We believe that the seeds of the solution to Romania’s increasing school drop-‐out rate among the poor lie in civil society support. Asking individuals to make nominal automatic monthly donations through their online banking or credit card (we call it “Direct pentru Copii”) is a good way to encourage individuals to develop the habit of donating personally to the causes they care about. SMS drives are an effective way to raise money for a crisis, but they are essentially “impulse sales” – and a poor way to build long-‐term relationships and have accountability to donors. And events, as important as they are, are geared to companies, and they don't really encourage the habit of personal giving.

By setting up an automatic monthly bank debit to OvidiuRo, individuals can, almost effortlessly, help sustain OvR’s programs while we work toward making our successful strategy national policy.

OvidiuRo encourages its corporate partners to inform their employees about ‘Direct pentru Copii’ and to reiterate the importance of investments in early education, especially for disadvantaged children. OvidiuRo has a compact information package about ‘Direct pentru Copii’ which we would be pleased to present to British Embassy’s staff.

Please watch the linked video (in particular, minute 2:30 for testimonials): http://www.ovid.ro/en/2013/04/tom-‐wilson-‐video-‐doua-‐minute-‐despre-‐impactul-‐programului-‐fiecare-‐copil-‐in-‐gradinita-‐12-‐aprilie-‐2013/

SCALING UP ~ IN ORDER TO REACH A CRITICAL MASS Every year since September 2010, 1300 or more disadvantaged children have had the benefit of attending gradinite in 20 communities in 11 Romanian counties. Some of these children started clasa pregatitoare on Monday, 16 September, with three years of preschool ‘under their belts’.

• Through the food coupons, their parents have been given the opportunity to improve these children’s (and their siblings) nutrition, to at least a modest extent.

• Through strategic incentives, their parents are also changing ingrained habits about the “right time” to start their children in the education system.

• Through the allocation and involvement of the local authorities, these children have clothes to wear to gradinita and a social worker paying attention to them.

This is nice – for these 1300 children – but it needs to be done for all the impoverished children in Romania – before it can make a dent in the education gap between the Romanian urban middle class and the rural poor.

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To further advance OvidiuRo’s goal of transforming the key elements of Fiecare Copil in Gradinita into national early education policy (and the Romanian government to take over the cost of food coupons conditional on children’s daily attendance in preschool by 2020), in August OvR signed a formal agreement with the Ministry of Education to create an Early Education Working Group that will “analyze scaling-‐up FCG, as a basis for ensuring preschool participation of all children at risk, and facilitate the development of effective public policy regarding preschool education, particularly for poor children”. We consider this a major breakthrough in our lobby efforts, as it is the first official Ministry statement about scaling up FCG.

In parallel, OvR advanced its discussions with Covasna and Sibiu to use county funds to expand the program. Discussions will resume in October (funds to be made available by application from City Halls starting January 2014). A third County Council, in Cluj, also agreed to allocate public funds to expand the program in two more communities. OvidiuRo is currently assessing the need in Cluj and meeting with the local authorities about the program methodology. In July, OvidiuRo submitted a proposal to the EEA Grants (Norwegian funds) to cover program scale-‐up in three other counties (Brasov, Dambovita and Dolj) with high numbers of impoverished Roma children with low kindergarten participation rates. If funded, this program will start in 2014 and add two more components to FCG: a solid parent education module, and an impact evaluation study.

OVIDIURO FINANCIAL REPORT 2012

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ACTUAL EXPENSES IN OCOLNA FOR 2012 – 2013 SCHOOL YEAR

80 children age 3-5 in Ocolna, Dolj Original Budget

total expenses

UK expenses Comments

Euro 1. Human resources: 10 local team + OvR coordinator €2,000 €3,441 €3,441

Teacher € 1,000 €60 €60 Lucel Coteanu - local coordinator

Kindergarten director local

authorities

Social worker €1,040 €1,040 Anca Gheorghe -social worker 1/2 salary for 9 months

School mediator local

authorities Semi-annual performance bonuses for excellence € 1,000

OvR coordinator €2,341 €2,341 Elena Mocanita 1/7 salary for 12 months

2. Equipment Sub-total: 0

classroom equipment 3. Administration Sub-total: 0

Rent & utilities local

authorities

Phone, Internet, maintenance, office supplies local

authorities

4. Training Sub-total: €1,994 €1,994

Implementation Team training in September, Podari

€100 €100 for 9 local team members

2-day local coordinator meeting in August, Bradet

€248 €248 Lucel Coteanu and his family attended

3-day annual team meeting in January, Bucharest €95 €95 Lucel Coteanu attended Travel for trainings, spot checks, project

management €1,551 €1,551

5. Program direct costs Sub-total: €18,550 €12,314 €4,295

Recruiting children local authorities

Obtaining legal documents local authorities

School clothes & shoes as needed local authorities

Food coupons (100 children x10mo x 12€) € 12,000 €3,335 €3,335 Food coupons for 4 months

Food coupons provided by Carrefour Jan-June 2013 €5,345

Carrefour Foundation's grant for FCG's 2013 food coupons allowed OvR to redirect this amount to other costs: teacher trainings & salaries

Classroom educational materials (100 children x 15€) € 1,500 €720 €720

Healthcare component (100 children x 40€) €2,674 Activities covered by GlaxoSmithKline

Monthly parent meetings & school events € 1,200 Summer School activities & supplies (100 children x

20€) € 2,000 €0

Summer School workbooks for 100 children & teacher kits

€ 650 €147 €147

Summer school workbooks for all the children enrolled in Ocolna kindergarten

Daily snacks for Sotron Doi € 1,200 €93 €93

Total costs €19,550 €17,749 €9,730

Amount in British Pound Sterling £15,516 £14,791 £8,108

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REQUEST FOR CONTINUATION OF FCG IN OCOLNA FOR 2013-‐2014 SCHOOL YEAR

OvidiuRo kindly requests that British Embassy continue its sponsorship of Ocolna for the 2013-‐2014 school year by contributing £10,167 for the 105 children who are enrolled in the FCG program as of 16 September 2013. See below the proposed budget for 2013 – 2014 school year.

2013-2014 Budget: 100 children, age 3-5 Total Budget

UK Embassy

1. Salaries & taxes subtotal: 5,800 € 2,500 €

Teachers (4) local authorities

Kindergarten director local authorities

Social worker local authorities

School mediator local authorities

Program director 1,500 € Regional coordinator 1,200 €

Program manager 2,500 € 2,500 € Accountant 600 €

2. Equipment & administration subtotal: 1,000 € 0 € Classroom or school office equipment 1,000 €

Administration local authorities

3. Training & program oversight subtotal: 3,000 € 0 €

Two training session for 4 teachers 1,000 € Transportation & accommodations: site visits, trainings, etc. 2,000 €

4. Program direct costs subtotal: 19,500 € 9,700 €

Recruiting children local authorities

School clothes & shoes local authorities

Health services provided by GlaxoSmithKline grant 5,000 € Classroom educational materials (15*100) 1,500 € 1,500 €

Food coupons January-June 2014 7,200 € 7,200 € Food coupons provided by Carrefour Foundation Sept-Dec. 2013 4,800 €

Parent meetings, school events, Sotron Doi 1,000 € 1,000 € TOTAL COSTS 2013-2014 SCHOOL YEAR 29,300 € 12,200 €

In British Pound Sterling: £24,417 £10,167

REPORT TO BRITISH EMBASSY BUCHAREST! SEPTEMBER!2012 ... · !3"...

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