Aim of the project: To create sustainable support for the moral and spiritual development of children and youth.
Target groups: School students from 4th to 11th grade in primary and secondary schools.
Duration: 10 months, from September 1st 2015 until June 30th 2016
Area : The Project includes 13 schools from Sofia City, Sofia Region, and the towns of Gabrovo and Veliko Tarnovo
The project provided support for existing Virtues clubs created during previous Blagotvoritel Foundation projects as well as the establishment of new clubs.
Main activities:
Activity 1 – Launch of a competition for selecting 10 school project proposals – a competition with clear-cut rules, criteria and procedures was conducted for the selection of 10 projects by schools that already have Virtues clubs created during previous Blagotvoritel projects. The selected project proposals were the ones made by the following schools: 119 “Academician Mihail Arnaudov” Secondary School, 120 “Georgi Sava Rakovski” Primary School, 104 “Zahari Stoianov” Primary School, 20 “Todor Minkov” Primary School in Sofia, Samokov “Otets Paisii” Secondary School, Etropole “Hristo Ysenov” Secondary School, Gorna Malina Village “Hristo Botev” Secondary School, Botevgrad “Hristo Botev” Professional High School, Slivnitsa “N. Y. Vaptsarov” Professional School.
Activity 2 – Consolidation and sustainability of the 10 selected clubs by carrying out activities in them. Each club conducted the activities laid out in its project proposal with which it applied for the competition.
The eligible activities were: selection and training for students who are going to teach virtues to their classmates during the homerooms; elaboration of a study programme during the school year and ensuring the organization of the programme’s start; training and accountability; launching workshops, roundtables, exhibitions, festivities and other initiatives; involvement of the parents in the club’s different activities; exchange of experience with other clubs.
Activity 3 – Training of three teams for the establishment of three new Virtues clubs in secondary schools in the towns of Gabrovo and Veliko Turnovo. 21 students completed specialized training on how to teach basic human virtues aiming at the future creation of Virtues clubs in Staroprestolna High School of Economics in Veliko Tarnovo, Aprilovska National High School and “Academician Ivan Giuzelev” High School of Maths and Sciences in Gabrovo.
Three school counselors also took part in the training in order to coordinate and give support to the young people in the process of teaching virtues in homerooms in the course of 6 months.
Teaching virtues – peers teach peers
In the beginning of November the young trainees started teaching their coevals during the homerooms a minimum of 12 virtues twice a month.
Achieved results:
- 10 improved clubs on Virtues in schools;
- 3 new Virtues clubs will have been created;
- A minimum of 100 students have undergone training in teaching virtues and practicing them;
- At least 21 students and 3 school counselors were submitted to a 3-day specialized training;
- 13 schools conducted virtues classes and activities involving the whole schools;
- More than 4000 students participated in the virtues classes;
- The teachers enriched their professional competence in the moral and spiritual education of the kids;
- Improved relations between classmates, students and teachers in the schools.
The successful implementation of the project helped 13 Virtues school clubs to improve their performance and sustainability. Club members enhanced their competences in presenting basic humans virtues to their classmates in accessible and attractive ways. For all participants, the activities related to character qualities such as honesty, patience, respect, determination, joy, love, tolerance, purity, bravery, generosity, etc. can be valuable fulcrums for bringing up self-confident, compassionate and responsible people. The project encouraged youth to believe they have the power to change their lives, and thus, to contribute to a real change in society.
