On October 26—31, 2013, during the autumn school holidays Center for Children and Adolescents “Evrika” (CCA “Evrika”) organized conducting of the educational training “Volunteer Movement” within the framework of the annual outdoor school for refugee children. The purpose of the training consisted in education in behaviors of adolescents of moral guidelines, development the senses of empathy and mutual assistance. Afghan children at the age of 7—17 years who are refugees participated in the training.
During the training in the form of a game teenagers received extensive information about the history of volunteerism, areas of volunteer activities and familiarized with the motives that encourage people to volunteer and unpaid activity. Interest of the participants of the training to this subject and a desire to help motivated the children to create their volunteer organizations. Independently children chose the target group which they would like to lend a helping hand and, on the basis of their real opportunities, developed some support programs, and created social videos.
It should be noted that during the training, many children were not only able to open a new qualities and develop teamwork skills, but also learned to listen to each other what is important in the work of volunteers, and in building effective communication with peers. A number of training exercises contributed to achieving these objectives: collective creative work “Supervolonteer”; thematic game “Tree of volunteer plans”; role-play “Country of blind”; game programs “My Hand”, “Cherished Desires” and many others.
The important result of the educational training “Volunteer Movement” is the awareness of the teenagers whose families have refugee status, that besides their families there is a large percentage of people, children, animals in the world who need support, and they, as teenagers, can offer their assistance.
Organization of such outdoor schools by CCA “Evirka” promotes better integration of refugee children in the Belarusian society, tolerance, and also helps children from an early age to manage the relationships with friends and loved ones in everyday life.