Helping Children in Croatia

We are a group of high school students who want to help the disadvantaged children in Croatia. In this June, we are undertaking a service/charity project in Croatia at a children's home and an equine therapy centre for children with disabilities. We will be helping the children there by accompanying them, playing with them, organising extra-curricular activities for them and improving their living environment.

The children in Croatia and we really need your help! Please donating for our project, for the children, for making this world a better place!

The money you donate will be used for funding our project, including a fun day-trip for the children with us. The part of donation exceeding 700 euros will be donated directly to the children's home and the equine therapy centre in Croatia.

We would appreciate your help very, very much!

Detailed Description of Our Project

This project will have 2 parts. During the first half of the week, our group will be working at the children's home in Lovran. Located in the beautiful small town of Lovran, the children's home services the local community by providing support for children who are in need. The reasons for the children being there are diverse: some are full-time residents, some are weekly boarders, and some just need a place to be after school. The children are looked after with love and warmth by the team working there, and feel a sense of real belonging and pride in their home, taking an active part in fundraising as well as benefitting from the facility. The students will be involved in organising extra-curricular activities and interacting the residents of the children's home. The activity program will be a joint program with our school and will be developed in conjunction between the staff at the home and the staff accompanying us. Ideas for possible activities during the week include:

* «Getting to know you» activities with the Croatian children
* Special project work to improve outdoor/indoor space at the home (some of which will be joint projects working together with the Croatian children) including horticultural work
* Preparing items for sale at craft market to raise funds, for example ceramic pieces
* Baking activity
* Fun day out with Croatian children funded by us through their fundraising
* Sports afternoon
* Pizza evening

During the second half of the week, we will be working at the Pegaz equine therapy centre. The main aim of organisation is development of equine assisted therapies and activities for disabled in Primorsko-goranska County and in Republic of Croatia. Organisation conducts equine assisted therapies daily since 2001., providing safe and quality individual and/or group work for direct users interested in this kind of rehabilitation and recreation. The main programme of organisation is pedagogical riding for children or youth with various disabilities and/or behaviour problems (Cerebral Paralysis, vocabulary problems, reading disorders, ADHD, autism, syndrome Down etc.). The target group includes around 200 persons - children and youth (age 5-25) with various disabilities and/or behaviour disorders. More information about the association can be found under: http://www.pegaz-rijeka.hr/kdj-pegaz-2/
As volunteers, we will be taking part in numerous theoretical and practical workshops and have the opportunity to work with handicapped children as well as help with the maintenance of the centre. We will also have the opportunity to visit Rijeka and get to know a little of the culture and history of the city.
In preparation for our trip, we will collect funds for both organisation and teach ourselves about the culture and history of Croatia.