ECO CHAMPIONS - ROMANIAN ACTIVITY

The students from National College, Constanta, Romania, involved in the e twinning Volunteer voices project organized an action in the historical city center, in the arheological park. In this action were involved cleaning the area and organizing some activities for informing the society about the pollution danger. Our students worked a lot: sharing fliers, making a workshop with children from 3th and 4th grade. This project is wished to be an exercise of active involving in the life society, promoting the democratic values and the civic responsibilities, giving and sensibility for the human problems.
It`s important to protect the nature in which we live and to learn how to be ecologic, it is important to learn to selective collection the household waste.

WOMEN ARE EQUAL TO MEN

Levice - On 8 March 2011 - 100th anniversary of International Women´s Day, Tareq Al harbi, student of Business Academy in Levice decided to honour the women in the town Levice. Tareq came out to the streets and gifted women with a beautiful flower. He also did a short survey with these questions which were given the women:

1. Do you think men and women are equal?

2. Do you think that men and women should have the same rights and responsibilities ?

3. Where can you see the differences between men and women?

4. What do you think about the violence commited on women?

5. Why are men better paid than women?

6. How do you like the position of the woman?

7. Do you celebrate the International Women´s Day?

8. What presents do you usually get for Womens´ Day?

Here are the results of the survey:
On question No.1 „Do you think men and women are equal?“ 7 respondents answered yes and 13 respondents gave a negative answer. The equal relationship between these two sexes still seems to be the „hot issue“. Most women respondents who answered „no“ come from the country and it means the traditions and gender differences in the country work stronger than in the towns or cities.

The answers on the question No.2 „Do you think that men and women should have the same rights and responsibilities?“ were following - 20 respondents answered yes. It means women in Slovakia know how important the human and women´s rights are and that it is necessary for women to have the same rights. These results might show the fact that women have a relatively good position in our society.

The question No. 3 „Where can you see the differences between men and women?“ was answered by most of the women respondents similarly. They say there are differences between men and women especially in strength, men are much stronger and ready to do harder work than women but women seem to be stronger in prolematic situations. Women tend to communicate more effectively than men, focusing on how to create a solution that works for the group, talking through issues, and utilizes non-verbal cues such as tone, emotion, and empathy whereas men tend to be more task-oriented, less talkative, and more isolated. Men have a more difficult time understanding emotions, while women tend to intuit emotions and emotional cues.

The question No. 4 „What do you think about the violence commited on women?“ was answered like this: Women think that most women who have been the victims of home violence, stay quiet because they are afraid of repeated attack of their partners and they are not ready to leave their homes and cruel partners or husbands because of the lack of financies for their new life. Some of the women said these women should contact specialized organizations and courts which could help them.

Question No. 5 „Why are men better paid than women?“ women respondents mentioned several reasons of this problem- 10 respondents said because the tradition – it has always been like that, 3 respondents said it is because women are not as productive at work as men, 3 respondents think it is because women are discriminated by emloyers and 4 respondents did not know why.

Question No. 6 „How do you like the position of the woman?“ has been answered by almost all women similarly, 19 respondents enjoy being a woman, mother, a loving partner, only one of the respondents answered she is sometimes tired of housework and her husband who always reads newspapers when he comes home from work and watches TV.

Question No. 7 „Do you celebrate the International Women´s Day?“ 15 respondents answered „yes“ and 5 respondents gave a negative answer.

Question No. 8 „What presents do you usually get for Womens´ Day?“ 10 respondents said flowers, 4 respondents get chocolate boxes or sweets, 2 women jewellery and 4 respondents never get any presents.

As we can see in the results of our survey women respondents think there are still differences in the position of women in the society but women in general feel fine in the positions of women, are self confident and proud they are women  and that is very positive :)

THINK PURE - THINK GREEN - ROMANIAN VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY

Forest month - April 2011
Students from National Pedagogic College, Constanta, Romania, on 14 th april 2011, involved in the Volunteer voices project organized interesting activitieswith the theme of protecting the nature. We celebrated the forest month involving volunteers –students organizing a workshop for their schoolmates giving them information about trees, nature, how we can protect the environment.
What was the most attractive path of our project?
Theesee contest was attached to some posters, drawings and paintings.
What was different from other ecological activities?
Well, we had had our students learnt about trees in Romanian history and what symbolaizes the willow. Our students told us different enchanting poems about the mistery and the natural life in a forest.

WE STAND FOR PEACE

Students of the “Business Academy” secondary school, Levice, Slovakia, gathered to add a new tree to their school’s Peace Alley. Planting a Peace Tree is a five-year old tradition organized by the school’s Human Rights Club and the students who work in the project VOLUNTEER VOICES.Students – volunteers organized a workshop for their schoolmates giving the information about world peace activities and efforts. Through these activities organized by the students themselves, boys and girls from Levice learn what human rights are and promote them in their hometown. “Peace and human rights are closely interlinked”, says the founder of the club, Ms. Mészárosová.
Planting the Peace Tree is a part of an annual workshop by the Club, expressing the students´ wish to create peace in the world. Learning about peace, its history and important figures, students have the opportunity to show the world how they care about peace.
“We organize such workshops not only to talk about peace; we’re here because we believe in peace. However, it isn’t enough to believe, we must work for it”, said Ján Seneši, a student organizer of the workshop. “Only with our active participation can world peace become a reality”, another student, Natália Ľahká.“If peace was here for all the time…,” the students sang at the end of the workshop.
This film which was done by the students themselves, shows their attitudes to the most important issue - the world peace.

FIRST AID - HOW TO HELP PEOPLE

FIRST AID - HOW TO HELP PEOPLE
Student s of Business Academy involved in the project VOLUNTEER VOICES organize great activities aimed at activities which have a lot to do with FIRST AID. Students learn each other basic sof the first aid, which is needed when accidents happen, they obtain new knowledge, skills and experiences how to help people unworldly and not to ask reward for it.
They train how to treat for injuries, but they learn to use not only classical materials and bandages but also extemporaneous materials. I tis great, what great feelings Theky have, when Theky learn something new! The students learn to have fast and immediate reactions, because especially these are neceséry at car accidents when help is needed. The organization Red Cross is very helpful. But all activities are volunteer.

EVIČKA AND CHILDREN

EVIČKA – AND CHILDREN

Students of Business Academy in Levice, Slovakia have taken part in a volunteering activity called „Evička and children“. These activities are aimed at small children in the kindergartens or elementary schools, who are led by volunteers to humanity, fellowship, tolerance. The meetings with children are aimed at the attention of small children to save their health and the possibilities of the first aid by accidents, or in the situations when children are hurt, they lead children to respect to their health, to be careful in dangerous situations. Lecturers – students of Business Academy lead children how to react in different situationshow to dismantle their stress and panic and stimulate them to communication and keeping good interpersonal relationships.
And who is small Eva – Evička??? I tis a ficitive friend of the members of the RED CROSS organisation, who goes to a kindergarten and has the same worries and cheers like small kindergarten children – her peers.
Small children were very glad to have their big partners and teachers – volunteers from Business Academy and they learnt very quickly what was necessary, and mastered all the experience how to become more communicative and allthe instructions they were listening very carefully and it has been a very positive and useful experience for both students and small children :).

CLIMATE CHANGE CAMPAIGN

THE CLIMATE CHANGE CAMPAIGN MADE BY STUDENTS OF BUSINESS ACADEMY LEVICE
Students of BA Levice support a lot of activities aimed at the environment issues and they think that it is possible to help our environment by supporting campaigns to help our nature. They agree with words of St. Francis of Assissii who said:

„START BY DOING WHAT´S NECESSARY,
THEN DO WHAT´S POSSIBLE
AND SUDDENLY YOU ARE DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE.“

Michal Adami organized the „Climate change campaign“ at the beginning of March at secondary school Business Academy in Levice for the students of this school. The students were told that „Climate change is a global problem, and yet each one of us has the power to make a difference. Even small changes in our daily behaviour can help prevent greenhouse emissions without affecting our quality of life. In fact, they can save us money. We can control climate change and pledge to become responsible citizens by reducing our CO2 emissions through making small changes to our daily behaviour.

A LIST OF THESE PLEDGES WAS OFFERED TO STUDENTS TO CHOOSE to be greener and to do something positive and good for themselves and human society at all:

A) You should decrease the temperature at home by 1 Celsius and turn off the lights whenever you don't need them.

B)You should not leave your TV, computer or stereo in a stand-by mode, switch them off when you don't use them.

C) Change your classical light bulbs into energy-saving bulbs.

D)Change your electricity into one that uses renewable resources.

E)Don't waste in vain - prefer to fix and repair rather than buy new

F) Sort your waste and recycle whenever possible

G) Use products that have as little packaging as possible.

H)Use public transport and walk or bicycle instead of driving a car.

I) Eat local food and less meat.

J) When you buy food use a bag or an old plastic bag.

K) Favour environmentally labelled products.

L) Plant a tree and ask your friend to do the same.

And this is really what all of us can do, small steps, which can do big diference! Students should not forget: THEY SHOULD START BY DOING WHAT´S NECESSARY, THEN SHOULD DO WHAT´S POSSIBLE
AND SUDDENLY THEY ARE DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE.“ And Michal Adami did not forget these wise words, he planted a tree in front of the school Business Academy in Levice where he was doing his campaign. It has been the first step to show the student show to behave to become greener and a good model for young people.
The film made by the student Michal Adami about the Climate change campaign you can find on You tube or here. He also planted the tree.

THE EARTH DAY 22 APRIL

In 1963, former Senator of the USA Gaylord Nelson began to worry about our planet. He wondered why more people weren't trying to solve these problems. He talked to other lawmakers and to the President. They decided that the President would go around the country and tell people about these concerns. He did, but still not enough people were working on the problem. Then, in 1969, Senator Nelson had another idea. He decided to have a special day to teach everyone about the things that needed changing in our environment. He wrote letters to all of the colleges and put a special article in Scholastic Magazine to tell them about the special day he had planned.
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment,it was first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, it became international in 1990 and there were organized events in 141 nations. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.
People all over the world make promises to help the environment. Everyone got involved and since then, Earth Day has spread all over the planet. People all over the world know that there are problems we need to work on and this is our special day to look at the planet and see what needs changing. Isn't it great?
One person had an idea and kept working until everyone began working together to solve it. See what happens when people care about our world – our planet will be greener and also healthier. Students of Business Academy in Levice organized on Earth Day activities for pupils of 4th Elementary school in their home town. There were a lot of various and interesting activities organized for these children.
The pupils were doing activities to clean their environment, they were picking up the litter in front of their school and surroundings, they were learning about separating and reusing the litter, they learnt about the recycling process and much more. They learnt a lot of new informatíon about our planet, fauna, flora, environment issues and what kills our nature. There were a lot of competitions and knowledge quizes organized for pupils, children were painting environmental pictures on the pavements.
Both students of BA and Elementary school were glad to organize this great event and it is sure they did something good for their planet, environment they live in. They made first steps to help our planet to become healthier.

DAFFODIL DAY

Daffodil Day 2011
If you have a mother, father, sister, brother or best friend, there’s every chance your life will be touched by cancer. No matter who you are, Daffodil Day is for everyone. It’s a day for all of us to give hope for a brighter, cancer-free future for ourselves, and for those we love. Student sof BA in Levice Slovakia supported thi day. They organized several stalls and
sold fresh and artificial daffodils to family, friends, teachers and schoolmates. This volunteeractivity to help on one of our Daffodil Day stalls, or donate to Daffodil Day. Your support will help many people to maintain the hope the daffodil symbolises to the thousands of cancer patients diagnosed each year. Student sof this school became part of the biggest event of its kind. Daffodil Day was first held by the Canadian Cancer Society in the early 1980s, and by the NSW Cancer Council in 1986. Established as an Australia-wide event in 1992, Daffodil Day has become the largest fundraising event of its kind . Our students have collected almost 1500€.
WE ARE PROUD WE COULD HELP!

WE SUPPORTED CHILDREN´S RIGHTS - Solidarity and fellowship can help poor, ill and uneducated children

Solidarity and fellowship can help poor, ill and uneducated children
2.1 billion. That is the total number of children, who represent 35% of the world population. However, this number is only approximate. About 33 children from 100 haven´t got the birth certificate and it means, that they don´t exist indeed.

How many children will have the good luck to become the adult in the future? Every twelfth child will die until he can blow out five candles on the cake because of illnesses that can be prevented. But these children live in the localities where vaccines and medicines are taboo.

Every morning when we get up, we switch the TV on and then we read what is new on the Internet. But on the other end of the world, there are children who wake up every morning knowing, that hard work is waiting for them. In developing countries every fourth child aged 5-14 works. They do not know how it feels to sit careless or they do not even know what holidays are. How could they know it? 75 million of them do not go to the school. This implies decreasing of literacy of young generation in developing countries. 14 children from 100 will never learn how to read and 25 children will not get higher that the 5th grade. They will never come home and say to their parents, that they get good mark or they won a competition at school.
However, most of these children would like to say “hello” to their parents. But they are not given the opportunity to do so. There are children who go to bed every evening with the feeling that their parents aren´t next to them. Most children didn´t see their parents because they died before the children were noticing them. 13 million children are orphans because of HIV infection.

If we do not slike the food, we´ll throw it away into the dustbin. It is not surprising. We waste the food unnecessarily. Children suffering from the malnutrition would give anything to eat. African children haven´t got big tummies because they eat too much. Their tummies are inflated because of the malnutrition. They wouldn´t scorn the food we don´t like. They would eat it. We have to realize how unthankful we are. Many children don´t have the access to the safe drinking water. And often we don´t know which bottle of mineral water we should choose.
40 million children under 15 are the victims of the different types of violence. 1.2 million children per year are constuprated and 2 million are killed in war conflicts.
It is sad that for many children it is witheld to grow up. For many it is witheld the right to be born, so the primary right of people - the right for life. Others do not know how entertaining it is to be young because they work. Becauce we live in countries, which are considered to be advanced countries we can not imagine how hard life do these children have. So we should appreciate what we got because somewhere far away there are children who will give anything for life we got.
These are alarming numbers, alarming fates of innocent children in developing countries. We – young educated and free people can help these children by different volunteering activities. We are here to tell the others to help them and that is why the STUDENTS OF BA LEVICE SLOVAKIA organized the workshop joined with the exhibition of the photos of children in developing countries, for children at local elementary school in Levice to let them know, that there are the children in need and there is the way how to help them. We should support different kinds of activities organized for them via Word children´s organizations like UNICEF and their campaigns e.g. Blue button. SOLIDARITY and FELLOWSHIP is the way for all of us to support millions of children in need.

Together we can beat poverty - the video supporting the campaign "Stand up!"

Campaign „Stand up and do something to end poverty now!“

Campaign „Stand up and do something to end poverty now!“

Students of BA supported the UN campaign „Stand up and do something to end poverty“ which has been founded by the UN Secretary General Koffi Annan 8 years ago to support Millenium Developing Aims. The campaign has a great popularity in the world and has a lot of supporters every year. Students of Business Academy are among them and almost one hundred volunteers from this school supported the campaign by expressing their voices. They loudly and creatively reminded the world leaderst their promise from the year 2000 – Millenium Declaration of Developing Aims. Students in their campaign said: „We won´t sit or be quiet and look at poverty in the world! We want the world leaders to work hard and try to beat poverty in the world!“
Students had a workshop about the issue of poverty, created the videofilm with their acoustic attitudes. They also prepared the radio programme for the students of the school and showed everyone that they are familiar with problems of the world and that their heart beats for Millenium Developing Aims.

The Global Campaign for Education - Send my friend - sister to school

This is the volunteering activity - campaign of young people all over the world who support 67 million young children who cannot go to school because of the different reasons. Most of them are girls.
More girls miss out on education than boys and that's just not fair! In 2011 our focus is on girls. Every extra year that a girl gets in school has a great impact on her future, helping her to earn more (and escape poverty), keeping her safe from HIV/AIDS infection and reducing the risk that her child will die in infancy.

We want to support these children and we took the action – both schools Business academy Levice, Slovakia and the Pedagical Colegium Constanca in Romania registered our schools and decoated the bodies of girls and boys and wrote our messages to support the children without education.

We think our activities can change the situation, these bodies and our messages will be sent to world leaders who can financially support the children withou education and send them to school.

WE THINK IT IS GREAT TO HELP PEOPLE WHO NEED OUR HELP! ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE CHILDREN ! 

The Global Campaign for Education - Send my friend - sister to school

Slovak students made the film about the Globala campaign for education and motivated young students to take part in the campaign to support 67 million children who are out of educaion

ESSAY COMPETITION

This is the essay written by a Slovak students Monika Škvarková, Zuzana Demeterova and Tareq Al Harbi. Enjoy it.

Volunteering gives us an opportunity to change lives, including our own

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously (2 Corinthians 9:6).

Having announced the year 2011 to be the European Year of Volunteering the interest of many people to step in and become a volunteer has increased. But it is necessary to say - what is not sufficiently publicized and written on dozens of the Internet web sites, it is like it would have never really existed. Voluntary work has not officially existed since the January 1, 2011. It has been around us for much longer time.

Although the number of volunteers has been increasing, it is not so rapid. If you asked young people if they wanted to become a volunteer, their answer would probably sound: “NO!“ And why? It is obvious that for doing voluntary work, you do not get paid. The only thing that you can get is a feeling of satisfaction. The most frequent thing that comes to young people’s mind when thinking about voluntary work is: “What do I have from a great feeling of having done work perfectly?, or “Why then to do unpaid work and spend the priceless time?” To be sure, the time is money and no one has enough of it.

It is not true of all young people. There are such ones, who do not expect anything for doing voluntary work, who like helping the others in need and they do it with passion. There are young people who understand it is necessary to help, they do not expect any appreciation or reward, they do voluntary work because they know it is needed. We never know when we will need some help.

There is deriding, which can also be a reason, why some young people do not want to do voluntary work. What if someone finds it out and tells everyone? The others will jibe at those active ones then. It is not a shame to help disinterestedly to someone. Vice versa, the shame is to keep sitting without doing anything, to mope and wait for the best.

According to the volunteering law the volunteer is a person or a group of people, who provide voluntary acts to disabled people, former prisoners or other tortured people or just people in need. Paradoxically, right disabled people are the ones, who are most often the volunteers. Someone can say, it is so because no one wants to employ them, because they are discriminated. Yes, it is so because of that reason in certain cases, but in general it is so because only disabled people can understand best, the actual need of a volunteer, as well. Their rich experience shows them what it is like, when no one is ready to help them and vice versa they know what it is like when someone helps and does not expect any reward. These people do volunteering not because they have to, but because they want to.

Older people who could enjoy their pension also like taking part in voluntary activities and work, also the people who did not feel the parents´ love in the childhood and spent their early years in the orphanages like being involved in volunteering. It is interesting, those people who had had a lot of obstacles and problems in their lives are willing to help. But those who have enough of fortune and happiness are not interested in volunteering.

It is not needed to have a fully filled agreement of voluntary activities and help. It is quite enough to help someone in your neighbourhood and you will have a better feeling. There are many civic associations established, which try to help weaker, older and disabled people. On the Internet, there are many web pages, which contain offers for people, who decided to help the others. All you have to do is just click and smile at someone, whom you have never seen before.

All in all, it is admirable and marvellous, how many good people have been found so far. How many of these people have already devoted their time to do voluntary work. They have made friends while doing group volunteering work, which are not based on slanders, insults, gossips and lies, but on honesty and understanding to help the weaker. People should always remember that if they help someone and make them happier, it comes back, then when they will not expect it at all. As an unknown author said: “Our happiness is like a pearl necklace consisting of many tiny pearls, which are our small pieces of happiness. When you give even one small pearl to the other who needs it, you will be given it back. The more time you spend giving help the others, the more of what you have handed round will return to you to make you happier!” And we should not forget about it.

ESSAY COMPETITION

This is the essay of Michal Adami, a Slovak student, who written this essay about volunteering. Read and enjoy it:)
The best things in life are free…
Who pleasure gives, shall joy receive…
Think about being a volunteer! There are several definitions of volunteering and a volunteer itself. Generaly a volunteer (latin - voluntarious – willing) is a person who invests his free time, energy, knowledge and abilities to do some kind of activity without being paid for it. Reward for volunteering is spiritual, what means that a volunteer gets the character and professional growth, good feelings, sometimes new friendships and life experiences.
You can be a volunteer almost everywhere, you can help people in your neighbourhood, the area where you live or work, anywhere. For example, you can help your sick neighbour with shopping, tidying up in front of your flat, house or in the park. Everybody has abilities and energy to do some kind of voluntary activity. It depends only on how willing and able the person is to do a certain service.
Another way of voluntary activities are organized by the non-governmental, public and non- profitable organizations or schools and churches. So that we can divide volunteering into severel categories:
• Volutary activities: various irregular activities of people for various organizations based on verbal agreement.
• Voluntary services: activities with clear time bounds, aim, content, tasks, legislation and social protection based on verbal or written agreement.
• Voluntary self-help: mutual help beetwen neighbours, group of children and youth and interest groups that is based on reciprocal agreement out of the organization.
Voluntary organizations are organizations that are based on voluntary work and cannot operate without volunterees. Voluntary organizations engage various types of areas of voluntering according to aimed groups for example: social culture, ecology tasks and so on. Then they are devided according to local, regional, national and worldwide level and according to time of the activity it could be one-shot, regular longterm or occasional co-operation. Based on the aimed group and area of work they make conditions and rules collaborating with volunteers. Altogether they organize volunteersthemselves and thein activities. The perfect example of voluntary organization is GREENPEACE.
There are barriers of volunteering. Voluntary work and activities are still realized by our public as something special. The main barrier of developing the voluntary work is passivity during searching and gaining volunteers. Some other barriers are:
bad or not sufficient organization of volunteers, no demand for volunteers, concerns from injury, load pattern and much more..
And what supports volunteers? There are a lot of supporting moments:
• They have feeling that they are evaluating
• They have hope for a change and progress
• They gain appreciation from public either personally
• They realize that they help mean something
• They have feeling of fellowship and teamwork

• And much more...
In these times of wars,world hunger,natural disasters etc. necessity for voluntary work is much more noticable than in the past. This is what the EU realizes and set the year 2011 as the European Year of Volunteering. The EU is trying to mobilize people by doing campaigns which inform how to become a volunteer and what advangates the status of the volunteer has. If you are able and have a chance to do some voluntary work – try it. You will see that even the good feeling of helping someone is worth it! The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

I AM A CHILD LIKE YOU - VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY FROM ROMANIA

The pupils from the Pedagogic Impact Club organized a volunteer action at the Antonio Center named : “I am a child like you”.
The two volunteer actions which will be developed in this project are: giving gifts (toys, books, clothes, sweets) and organizing some fun actions for the children without parents.
This project is wished to be an active implication exercise in the community life which is supposed to be the transfiguration of the democratic and humanity achievements (civic responsibility, giving, sensibility at human problems).
The project started from the ideea that for children without a home any kind of help physic or psyhic is welcomed.
Those who benefit from this project are the children from the Antonio center aged between 6-14 years.
Indirect beneficiars are the members of the Pedagogic Impact Club, the stuff of the Center and the community.