World Reach - Romania

Special School No. 11
Bucharest Romania
Rodica Comardici

Comments by Gary W. Singleton, Ph.D.

Rodica award The 2006 Shaklee Program Award recipient is Special School Number 11 in Bucharest, Romania. The school is represented by Rodica Comardici, Director of Education and teacher for children with special needs.

Rodica tells us that Special School Number 11 is a public school serving approximately 300 students with a variety of disabilities. Most of the children come from either foster care or low economic households. Many of the children reside full time at the school, while others go home on the weekends. The school facility and the learning materials are aging with no budget to replace or replenish them. Occasionally their utilities are shut off for lack of funds to pay the bills. Teachers have worked together to supply the students with the materials needed to make their classrooms ready to provide a functional curriculum that will enable the students to be more highly valued in their communities when they leave school. Despite the financial restraints, the students at Special School have won many awards through Special Olympics and Art Contests.

Rodica and her colleagues are creative and determined in their efforts to provide good training to the students at Special School Number 11. The students recently completed a project with the Child and Art Foundation in Holland. Paintings produced by the children will be used to decorate the offices of Sandd Postal Company. The revenue from the paintings will be used to purchase kitchen equipment in order to teach food management skills to the students. Another project Rodica has shared is her dream for a small computer lab for the students to access. She says that they have someone trained, a room set aside and internet access, but they are still searching for ways to acquire 10 computers.

The staff and students of the school feel very isolated and lonely. Beyond the meager government stipends for the school, they receive virtually no support from the government or the community. No one comes to help, no one comes to visit. At one Christmas, the staff and students sent out 600 invitations to members of the community to come join them in a Christmas celebration, and no one came. Rodica describes her school as “these are the walls. Behind them, teachers and students are fighting for survival in the world much too indifferent and most of the time, hostile.” With courage and love, they truly fight to give children a chance, and we are honored to have them share this evening with us.