The CONGRUENT project, implemented by the Docuart Association in partnership with the “Antonie Mogos” Gymnasium School from Ceauru village, Balesti commune, Gorj county, develops parenting and anti-bullying activities through film therapy, psycho-therapeutic services, entrepreneurship and financial education workshops, for the interethnic community of teachers, children and parents from Balesti commune. By the end of 2022, 400 teachers, parents and children will benefit from the programs within CONGRUENT. At the beginning of the project, in March 2021, the Docuart Association provided the technical infrastructure necessary to carry out the activities, by equipping a video projection room for primary and secondary school students within the Antonie Mogos School. Also, the CONGRUENT project envisages the activation of a Local Initiative Group for the organization of awareness campaigns, joint civic activities and dialogue actions.
About the activities of the CONGRUENT project
The CONGRUENT project developed by the Docuart Association aims, mainly, to improve the relationship between the three major actors of the educational process: teachers, children and parents. The parenting program methodology includes presentations, individual and group exercises, debates and role plays.
The categories of interethnic communities involved in the project are Roma and Romanians from Balesti commune, Gorj county, namely 200 children from the “Antonie Mogos” Gymnasium School, who will be involved in activities such as: mentoring, film therapy, psycho-therapeutic services, financial education workshops and children entrepreneurship, and 200 adults who will be involved such as parenting, mentoring, entrepreneurship training, consulting and mentoring, civic actions, information and awareness campaigns, social dialogue actions.
About identity and inclusion
“We have been going to Gorj County since 2016, with our Docuart Caravan project. So we already know the local authorities, high school students and children, parents and teachers. When we wrote the CONGRUENT project we also took into account the data from the census and the Local Development Strategy, the fact that we have students from disadvantaged backgrounds, families with poor financial situations, single-parent families and that we have a vulnerable interethnic community. But we also like people, we also like the history of the place! We want to show children, but also parents, that local pride is born by discovering the common history and the neighbours!
And I want to mention that the name of our partner “Antonie Mogos” Gymnasium School comes from the famous folk master with this name, << born on the day of Santa Maria mica of 1835, in Balcesti village in Gorj county and married to a girl from Ceauru >> – the very Alexandru Al. Tzigara-Samurcas, founder of the Museum of Ethnography, National Art, Decorative Art and Industrial Art tells us (source Art in Romania – Critical Studies by Al. Tzigara-Samurcas, Ed. Minerva, 1909, www.muzeultaranuluiroman.ro). He bought the folk master’s house in 1907, which is currently housed at the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest “, says Daniela Apostol, the initiator of the project and president of the Docuart Association.
“I already had the first meetings in the Antonie Mogos School with the fourth and fifth grade students and the children are very present: they are curious, nice and … they already know what bullying is, including verbal bullying; we have very interesting discussions! We were also pleasantly impressed by the feeling of community between the parents and the courage to talk about parenting issues within our group. I can’t wait for the next sessions!” (Alexandra Cojocaru, psychologist in the CONGRUENT project)

From the Archive of the “Antonie Mogos” Gymnasium School we find out that the village of Ceauru is one of the oldest in Gorj County. The beginnings of education in the area of Baiesti commune take place at the Tismana monastery, since the end of the 14th century. The oldest known work is written in Slavic language in 1758 by the teacher Ion Popovici, son of the priest Vasile from Stolojanii Gorjului, from 1968 became a village of Balesti commune. The appearance of the Organic Regulation, in 1831, makes the school become a state and address a larger social segment. The schools in the county seat cities become public or national.
“From a record called “Conscriptio districtus Syll Superioris” (Conscript of Gorj County) concluded by the Austrians in 1727, which includes the nomination of heads of families and their wealth, to be kept at the Hofkammer Wien Archive (a microfilm of it being storaged at the National Archives of Romania in Bucharest, Microfilms collection, Austria, roll 102, frame 441-550), we find out that the village of Ceauru in that year was owned by the Tismana Monastery and had in its composition a number of 49 families “, writes Mr. Dan Cismasu, in Revista Vertical Online.
https://congruent.docuart.ro
https://www.facebook.com/Congruent-by-Docuart
Partners: “Antonie Mogos” Gymnasium School, Radio Romania Cultural, Modernism.ro, National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Vertical Magazine, Gorjeanul, Emi TV
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“The project is carried out by the Docuart Association in partnership with the” Antonie Mogos “High School with financial support Active Citizens Fund Romania, a program funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants 2014-2021. The aim of the project is to increase the capacity of vulnerable inter-ethnic groups of children and adults in disadvantaged communities over a period of 20 months through inclusion measures, non-formal education, parenting, mentoring, anti-bullying, economic development through accredited workshops and courses in entrepreneurship, consultancy in the elaboration of own business plans, activation of aLocal Initiative Group, development of awareness campaigns and proposals to the local public authorities.
“Working together for an inclusive Europe”
#haide #ActiveCitizensFund #Romania #activecitizens #EEANorwayGrants
The Active Citizens Fund Romania programme is funded through the EEA Grants 2014-2021. The overall objective of the Grants is to reduce economic and social disparities, and to strengthen bilateral relations between 15 beneficiary countries and the Donor States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). The programme is administered by a consortium composed of Civil Society Development Foundation, Romanian Environmental Partnership Foundation, Resource Center for Roma Communities, PACT Foundation and Frivillighet Norge, acting as Fund Operator designated by FMO – Financial Mechanism Office of the EEA and Norway Grants. The objectives of the Active Citizens Fund Romania are to strengthen civil society and active citizenship and to empower vulnerable groups. With a total allocation of 46,000,000 euro, the programme pursues a long-term development of the civil society sector sustainability and capacity, stepping up its role in promoting democratic participation, active citizenship and human rights, while strengthening bilateral relations with organizations from the Donor States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. For more information about the Active Citizens Fund in Romania, please go to www.activecitizensfund.ro. For more information about the EEA and Norway Grants, go to www.eeagrants.org.