Harmanli Refugee Camp Play School
Donation protected
About Us
Harmanli Refugee Camp Play School was set up in November 2014 by 2 unpaid and unfunded volunteers from England. Gil Clasby is a qualified nursery nurse and Sadie Clasby is a qualified primary school teacher; both have qualifications and years of experience in playwork. Their aim has been to set up and run a centre for play based learning and play therapy in which refugee children can relax, have fun and thrive! They also aim to introduce children to the structure and style of European schooling.
Both Gil and Sadie also spend hours every day emailing, discussing, organising, collecting, sorting and distributing donations of clothes, shoes and toys for refugee children who live in Harmanli Camp.
Our Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HarmanliRefugeeCampPlaySchool/
The Refugee Camp
Harmanli Refugee Camp is located in the south east of Bulgaria, 20 minutes from the Turkish border. The refugees in this camp are usually mostly from Syria but are also from Iraq, Iran, Palestine and Afghanistan. Most have had their homes and all their possessions destroyed by war, many have lost family members and all have experienced extreme trauma and hardship. They have reached Bulgaria in hope of finding a safer life in Europe.
The camp can house up to 4000 refugees. Currently there are around 2000 but this changes all the time. Typically about a quarter of the refugees in the camp are children. They have no other consistent schooling, no playground and spend a lot of their time listening to parents and others talking about war and their fears for the future. All children show signs of trauma and many are grieving for lost family members.
The Play School
Currently the play school caters for up to 200 children across 3 sessions, on 3 days each week, but we would like to increase this to 4 days a week. There is no other consistent school or activities of any kind provided for the up to 500 children in Harmanli Refugee Camp and many of these children have either never been to school or have been out of school for 3 or 4 years. Our play school is split into 3 age groups; ages 4 - 7, ages 8 - 10 and ages 11 - 13. Each session begins with an hour of free play where children can choose from a wide range of art and craft activities, a mix of both educational and less educational toys and games, reading in the quiet area, sensory play and role play. This is followed by a 20 to 30 minute lesson where basic English and maths are taught through games and songs. We are an inclusive school, many children who attend have specific special educational needs including downs syndrome, cerebral palsy and hearing/sight difficulties. All children who attend have experienced differing levels of trauma in recent years.
The school has been a big success over the last 2 years! It is very popular with both children and their parents, we have been told by many children and parents that the school is the only good thing about being in the camp. Some even say that it is the only good thing about being in Bulgaria due to their bad experiences in this country. When children first start coming to our school they are often very quiet, shy and frightened, they cling to siblings and stick to one area of the room. After just a few weeks attending our school they have made lots of friends, developed their confidence, social skills and ability to communicate with others who speak a different language.
When children of Harmanli Refugee Camp are not attending our school they are either inside listening to stressed parents discussing war, money worries, future worries or are outside playing with broken bits of plastic and stones. We witness children fighting outside our classroom every day that we are in camp but we rarely see this behaviour in our classroom. Our school provides a safe, therapeutic environment in which children can play, relax, learn and forget about the grown up worries that they spend so much time exposed to. They are taught or reminded of the learning behaviour expected inside a classroom, to prepare them for school in the country they will finally settle in and learn skills to help them communicate and integrate with people from different cultures. They learn basic English, which will help them in any European country they eventually settle in, and develop their understanding of numbers.
GoFundMe
We have approached many charities for help but have received nothing. This is mainly because charities will not support work in a European country. However, we are sure that you are aware that Bulgaria is a very poor nation and is still struggling to come to terms with this huge influx of refugees arriving from neighbouring Turkey.
Our first year was funded by ourselves and a few kind donors. Our second year was funded through GoFundMe. We are now entering the third year of Harmanli Refugee Camp Play School and would like to be able to continue running the school and increase the amount of days the school is open per week.
Last year we raised £5000 but this year we would like to try and raise £5500 as the number of refugees has increased and many of our resources are running low/need replacing. £5500 would not only pay for a qualified primary school teacher to run the school until the end of July 2017 but would also pay for all travel costs involved and 11 months worth of school resources!
Thank you for your time and support :)
Links:
We are an example of good practice on the European Commission's website on integration:
https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/index.cfm?action=furl.go&go=%2Fintpract%2Fharmanli-refugee-camp-play-school
We won an award for our humanitarian work:
http://www.humanoftheyear.org/novini/adv-daniela-mihajlova-e-chovek-na-godinata-2015/
A Bulgarian article about our play school:
http://blog.timeheroes.org/post/121908174662/klasna-staya-bezhanski-lager-harmanli
Appearances on Bulgarian TV:
http://www.haskovo.net/videos/192069/Novini-14-10-2015
http://novanews.novatv.bg/news/view/2015/10/08/126560/безплатно-училище-за-деца-на-бежанци/
Harmanli Refugee Camp Play School was set up in November 2014 by 2 unpaid and unfunded volunteers from England. Gil Clasby is a qualified nursery nurse and Sadie Clasby is a qualified primary school teacher; both have qualifications and years of experience in playwork. Their aim has been to set up and run a centre for play based learning and play therapy in which refugee children can relax, have fun and thrive! They also aim to introduce children to the structure and style of European schooling.
Both Gil and Sadie also spend hours every day emailing, discussing, organising, collecting, sorting and distributing donations of clothes, shoes and toys for refugee children who live in Harmanli Camp.
Our Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HarmanliRefugeeCampPlaySchool/
The Refugee Camp
Harmanli Refugee Camp is located in the south east of Bulgaria, 20 minutes from the Turkish border. The refugees in this camp are usually mostly from Syria but are also from Iraq, Iran, Palestine and Afghanistan. Most have had their homes and all their possessions destroyed by war, many have lost family members and all have experienced extreme trauma and hardship. They have reached Bulgaria in hope of finding a safer life in Europe.
The camp can house up to 4000 refugees. Currently there are around 2000 but this changes all the time. Typically about a quarter of the refugees in the camp are children. They have no other consistent schooling, no playground and spend a lot of their time listening to parents and others talking about war and their fears for the future. All children show signs of trauma and many are grieving for lost family members.
The Play School
Currently the play school caters for up to 200 children across 3 sessions, on 3 days each week, but we would like to increase this to 4 days a week. There is no other consistent school or activities of any kind provided for the up to 500 children in Harmanli Refugee Camp and many of these children have either never been to school or have been out of school for 3 or 4 years. Our play school is split into 3 age groups; ages 4 - 7, ages 8 - 10 and ages 11 - 13. Each session begins with an hour of free play where children can choose from a wide range of art and craft activities, a mix of both educational and less educational toys and games, reading in the quiet area, sensory play and role play. This is followed by a 20 to 30 minute lesson where basic English and maths are taught through games and songs. We are an inclusive school, many children who attend have specific special educational needs including downs syndrome, cerebral palsy and hearing/sight difficulties. All children who attend have experienced differing levels of trauma in recent years.
The school has been a big success over the last 2 years! It is very popular with both children and their parents, we have been told by many children and parents that the school is the only good thing about being in the camp. Some even say that it is the only good thing about being in Bulgaria due to their bad experiences in this country. When children first start coming to our school they are often very quiet, shy and frightened, they cling to siblings and stick to one area of the room. After just a few weeks attending our school they have made lots of friends, developed their confidence, social skills and ability to communicate with others who speak a different language.
When children of Harmanli Refugee Camp are not attending our school they are either inside listening to stressed parents discussing war, money worries, future worries or are outside playing with broken bits of plastic and stones. We witness children fighting outside our classroom every day that we are in camp but we rarely see this behaviour in our classroom. Our school provides a safe, therapeutic environment in which children can play, relax, learn and forget about the grown up worries that they spend so much time exposed to. They are taught or reminded of the learning behaviour expected inside a classroom, to prepare them for school in the country they will finally settle in and learn skills to help them communicate and integrate with people from different cultures. They learn basic English, which will help them in any European country they eventually settle in, and develop their understanding of numbers.
GoFundMe
We have approached many charities for help but have received nothing. This is mainly because charities will not support work in a European country. However, we are sure that you are aware that Bulgaria is a very poor nation and is still struggling to come to terms with this huge influx of refugees arriving from neighbouring Turkey.
Our first year was funded by ourselves and a few kind donors. Our second year was funded through GoFundMe. We are now entering the third year of Harmanli Refugee Camp Play School and would like to be able to continue running the school and increase the amount of days the school is open per week.
Last year we raised £5000 but this year we would like to try and raise £5500 as the number of refugees has increased and many of our resources are running low/need replacing. £5500 would not only pay for a qualified primary school teacher to run the school until the end of July 2017 but would also pay for all travel costs involved and 11 months worth of school resources!
Thank you for your time and support :)
Links:
We are an example of good practice on the European Commission's website on integration:
https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/index.cfm?action=furl.go&go=%2Fintpract%2Fharmanli-refugee-camp-play-school
We won an award for our humanitarian work:
http://www.humanoftheyear.org/novini/adv-daniela-mihajlova-e-chovek-na-godinata-2015/
A Bulgarian article about our play school:
http://blog.timeheroes.org/post/121908174662/klasna-staya-bezhanski-lager-harmanli
Appearances on Bulgarian TV:
http://www.haskovo.net/videos/192069/Novini-14-10-2015
http://novanews.novatv.bg/news/view/2015/10/08/126560/безплатно-училище-за-деца-на-бежанци/
Organizer
Sadie George
Organizer
