#10 Caritas & Autism Transylvania
A Catholic organization that has five different departments: Anti-Drug, Social Education, Disaster Preparation, Counseling and Disabilities and Home Care for Elders. While visiting they mostly spoke about the anti-drug program and social education . They have activities, games, trips, art therapy, music, dance and sport. Through this program they offer intervention in schools and a the church. When asked what seems to be the popular drugs they said, angel dust and crystal meth. However, one of there biggest problems is cigarettes. The government does not support of enforce cigarette selling laws. I noticed that where ever we went people smoked. Anti-drug programs are very new in Romania. Drug abuse is very new to Romania. There is also a high rate of school drop-outs. In there social education program they try to combat this. They currently have 50 children/families involved. There main focus being homework help and tutoring. They also help families with food, clothes and school supplies. This program is an after-school program as well as having activities that take place in the schools. While there we met with two volunteers. We were able to ask them questions and speak with them a bit. They told us that marijuana is becoming an increasingly popular drug and that no one does cocaine because its too expensive. They said that a lot of students drop out by 10th grade but as low as 5th grade. One quote which was really funny by one of the volunteers is, “That is McDonalds for you.” He was referring to dropping out of high school.
Autism Transylvania is one of if not the only autism school in Romania (don’t remember). They had just moved into this large modern beautiful building. They have come a long way with no assistance from the government. They receive their money mostly from a UK foundation. Currently, they have 35 children 5-12 years old. They offer counseling services to families and different types of therapy for the children. Autism in Romania is very new and not many people know much about it. Autism is difficult to diagnose because a physician is not obliged to screen child for symptoms. In schools, children with disabilities and without are clumped together. AT is trying to work with schools the have separate classrooms. Some of their students have aids in the schools with them. This was one of my favorite places to visit. It was really interesting to see how the school is set up. I have never been to a school like that in the U.S. so I have nothing to compare it too. But based on my observations AT seems to be top of line for autism education. We were able to meet with the assistant director? and her son who has autism. He was a very sweet and cute boy. He told us about the rules for being in a library. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication and we were unable to attend their family day festival. I wish I had been able to interact with the children more.
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