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Volunteer Work in Care Homes

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Help disadvantaged children volunteering in Romania care homes

GapGuru offers opportunities to volunteer in Romania, where we work in partnership with the local child protection services to support children from the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society.

These include orphaned and abandoned children and young adults who live in care homes in the absence of their own families. Gap year volunteers can contribute to this volunteer project by providing childcare and working in care homes.

The care homes on this gap year programme try to create supportive and familiar homes for disadvantaged children and young adults, where they are encouraged to make the most of their limited educational opportunities and improve their future prospects. Volunteers interested in volunteer childcare can contribute to this process by stimulating learning (often through play) and by exploring the children’s hobbies and talents, which are often left undiscovered.

Gap year volunteer role: Those travelling to volunteer in Romania can attach themselves to one or more of the care homes, and are asked to act as mentors, teachers and friends to the children. The homes generally accommodate 8 children or young adults, so there is a real opportunity to get to know the individuals very well, and to see progress in a relatively short amount of time.

While working in the homes, the role of a gap year volunteer can be very varied and might include tutoring English and other subjects, helping with homework, care work, extra-curricular activities or arranging special events.

Those volunteering in Romania should anticipate that communication can be difficult with the children in the first few days due to the language barrier. However, GapGuru volunteers always find a way and note that an English-Hungarian phrasebook is extremely useful as Hungarian and not Romanian is the first language in the Transylvania!

Your gap year experience: This is a great opportunity to spend your gap year in Romania improving the lives of disadvantaged youths in a developing country. Romania is still struggling to recover from the severity of communist rule and some of its social, economic and humanitarian issues can be at least partially addressed by volunteer work.

By taking part in this project, volunteers on gap years can gain experience of social work and childcare abroad, while working with young people in a friendly, responsive and rewarding environment. This voluntary programme offers unique opportunities for personal development and allows you to make a difference to underprivileged orphans and young adults in Romania.