Activities with the children

Together with the Romanian volunteers, we have activities with children aged between 4 and 14 from Monday to Friday. As they are currently on summer vacation, AIST offers weekly summer camps for children. On Monday mornings, we plan the activities for the week. From Monday to Friday, we are in the AIST building in the afternoons, teaching in different groups, which are mostly divided by age. For example, last week we had a group learning German at AIST. Because of this, Robin, a German volunteer, and I conducted a 'Germany Week' with the children. We talked about the different states in Germany and the 'typical things' from different regions. For example, we had a quiz about East Germany or learned a Bavarian dance. In addition, we conducted role-playing games about civil courage and stereotypes.

In the mornings, from Tuesday to Friday, we are in the surrounding villages, where we also have various activities. We always include games that promote cooperation and solidarity, as well as various creative tasks. Since our project is about conveying different democratic values, we try to implement them in games and creative tasks. This can be achieved, for example, through cooperation games or exercises that demonstrate the similarities and diversity of the children in their personalities, as well as the different countries of the volunteers. However, since the children are often still quite young and do not speak English very well, it often simply about providing the children with a 'meaningful' occupation. It is usually an experience for the children that volunteers from different countries come to their small village.