Over 35,000 preschoolers from Botoșani, Galati, Olt and Vaslui benefited from reading sessions and books from OvidiuRO Association and UiPath Foundation

The OvidiuRO Association, the UiPath Foundation and the County School Inspectorates from Botoșani, Galați, Olt and Vaslui have implemented the Every Child Deserves a Story project in the 2021-2022 school year.

In the third consecutive year of the project, more than 24,000 picture books were given to children in both rural and urban poor areas, as well as to teachers and school units, to be used as teaching materials. At the same time, this school year, the project was extended to Olt County, where approximately 600 teachers received educational materials, and 4,500 children received books for home.

The teachers enrolled in the project received kits of illustrated books suitable for preschool age, from classic ones to those without text, graphic novels or comics, so that in kindergartens there is a diversity of materials that contribute to increasing the quality of the educational act . In addition to the actual books, the teachers also had access to pedagogical guides with handouts and suggestions for pre- and post-reading activities, and the children received homework sheets, where they could continue learning with their parents.

Within the Every Child Deserves a Story project, 10 online training sessions focused on literacy were organized for all female educators in the four counties. After the restrictions were lifted, OvidiuRO representatives also organized face-to-face meetings both for the purpose of training teachers and for evaluating the implementation of the project at the level of each county. More than 120 teachers participated in these meetings.

“Since 2019, we have been working with the OvidiuRO Association to facilitate access to quality early education for children from vulnerable communities. The partnership we developed together with OvidiuRO is part of our Early Education Forward program, designed to prevent educational gaps for children from vulnerable communities who, unfortunately, do not have access to quality early education. We are thus trying to contribute to the reduction of the functional illiteracy rate and give children from disadvantaged backgrounds a better start in life”, said Raluca Negulescu-Balaci, Executive Director, UiPath Foundation.

“After the experience of over 20 years of working in the territory, we know that to reduce the rate of functional illiteracy we need integrated interventions, on several levels, that’s why we work with educators, directors of educational units, parents and children alike. A multi-year partnership, as we have with the UiPath Foundation, has the extraordinary ability to enable us to work much more concretely with teachers from the most vulnerable communities, and at the same time follow their progress, giving them more resources and support to work with the little ones”, said Maria Gheorghiu, President of the OvidiuRO Association.

About the OvidiuRO

Association Since 2004, the mission of the OvidiuRO Association has been to facilitate access to quality early education for all children in Romania and especially for those from vulnerable groups. The association mobilizes public and private resources to ensure quality educational materials and the training of teachers and parents to use them in activities with children.