Psychological Support Services
Psychological
Support Services offers counselling to women of the Cottonera area.
Therapists are working on a voluntary basis and are available for
individual support upon appointment. Furthermore the therapists offer
sessions for groups, e.g. single mothers or those affected by substance
abuse, in order to address their specific needs.
Arts & Crafts
In a normal school environment, with academic learning aleays given
priority, as well as at home, with parents becoming busier and busier,
children’s creativity and artistic expression is very rarely
encouraged.
For this reason, the second programme that started in
Centru Tbexbix was the Arts & Crafts Club. This is a favourite
programme with the children, and we have found many cases of children who
in academic learning are very indifferent, sometimes even to the point
that their behaviour is described as anti-social, become motivated and
concentrated. Some children who from as young as 6 years are already
losing their self esteem because they are “behind” in learning, regain
their confidence when they discover that their artistic talent is
appreciated and applauded. Children who cannot stay put for 5 minutes in a
“normal” lesson, given a paintbrush and some guidance, stay quietly
painting, and do not want to go home until their artwork is
finished!
There are no limits to what our volunteers plan in these
sessions. Everyone’s imagination climbs to new heights. The children
experiment with different media, from playdough to papier mache’ as well
as using natural resources like sand, seeds and leaves. In the spirit of
neohumanism and maximum utilisation we encourage recycling and re-use of
cardboard, plastic, and other used material.
Renowned artists
like Jason Lu and Michelle Borg were among those who volunteered their
time, and EVS applicants with artistic and musical talents get a headstart
in our volunteer selection process.
In 2010 we have also introduced
music and drama as part of the Arts & Crafts programme, and depending
on the talents and skills of our volunteers, these activities are
integrated to suit different themes as well as to give more opportunities
for the children to discover their potential.
Important to mention is
the fact that Arts and Crafts, as well as music, drama and so-called
non-academic subjects, are especially important for children with
different learning difficulties,
Sport and Games
In 2008 we started the “games and sports” programme in Centru Tbexbix.
One aim of this programme focuses on the health aspect of sport.
Although Centru Tbexbix is not suitable for outdoor sports, we take
advantage of the school playground being rather close and our volunteers
are regularly organising different outdoor sports for example ball games,
catching games to improve coordination, stamina, reaction and
sportsmanship. With different games our children learn how to behave as
good sportspeople and through several movements they discover their body
as well as their physical potential.
Learning how to deal with disappointment and success is an important
benefit of this programme, as well as taking better care of their own
body.
Indoor activities like yoga and gymnastics train the body and
relax the mind. Dance sessions help the children learn how to move to
music and feel the rhythm and in acrobatics they learn the importance of
teamwork and keeping their balance.
This programme also includes the use of positive and educational board
games and cooperative games to help strengthen the group feeling.
Reading Club
The Sunrise reading club was officially launched in November 2008. For
quite some time a small number of children with learning difficulties had
been attending an individual session of half an hour every week, apart
from the sessions of group activities. Gradually this progamme was
expanded to cater for more children who need help with reading and now
reading club occupies three slots of half an hour each every week. Each
child chooses a book and reads to the tutor who checks understanding and
writes difficult words on flashcards which are taken home to practice.
During reading club time, all hands on deck - Katherine and all
volunteers take a child each for a one to one session, except when there
are not enough volunteers to go around. The kids are very eager to read to
their tutor. All of them are happy to explore the joys of reading, each
choosing a space of his or her own, either in the garden, or sitting on a
cushion in the yoga room, or wherever they feel most inspired.
Children
are also encouraged to borrow books from our library to take home.
Athletics Nursery
From the beginning of 2009, a number of our children have been
attending weekly athletic training sessions at Matthew Micallef St John
Stadium in Marsa. The aim of this program was to introduce the various
athletic disciplines and their components and to practice each event in
its elementary form. According to our professional coach, Leandros
Calleja, the 7 to 13 year age bracket is the Golden Age for learning
different skills. Therefore, as with the main intentions of this athletics
program, the more variety of skills employed the more skillful and
coordinated these children get. In fact, most of the children that attend
have shown an improvement in movement, coordination, posture and other
basic skills. Some have also shown significant improvement in specific
events, although this is not the main intention of this program.
Additionally, the children are developing a positive attitude towards
running, jumping and throwing both individually and as a group. They are
also learning to show respect for one another especially when one of them
is leading the group as for example during stretching. Some of these new
athletes are showing interest and in fact competed in organized athletic
activities. The plan is to continue practicing through repetition with the
goal of rectifying the skills obtained and to start taking part in the
KIDS Athletics meetings and Aggregate meetings organized by the Malta
Amateur Athletic Association. However, the latter will be an additional
target but it will not replace our primary aim. Learning to run, jump and
throw will still remain the main focus, at least until the children have
achieved a skill level high enough to become competitive youth
athletes.
The Athletics programme is sponsored by Woman2000
(http://www.gurukul.edu/gknetwork/Issue28/www.woman2000.net)
Summer Club
Summer Club was founded with the aim to provide Centru Tbexbix children
with a valuable activity even during the summer-months. From the beginning
of July until the end of August the children are at the centre from 9am
until noon. The decision to have the children at the centre three hours
every day sounded like a daring step to take before the first Summer Club
started in 2008. After two years we can acknowledge that even though
planning of the daily activities requires a lot of work Summer Club is an
activity we don’t regret to have started. With our enthusiastic and
ingenious foreign and local volunteers we manage to offer a number of
different activities every day, for example dance-classes, language games,
arts, crafts, drama, yoga and of course a lot of outdoor activities. The
activities are always planned with the purpose to make the sessions as
enjoyable to the children as possible, while at the same being educational
and socially developing.
A main theme linked to Neohumanism is
following the activities throughout Summer Club. In different summer clubs
we focused on environmental awareness, caring for nature and doing
service.
At the end of August all the parents are invited to the
closure when they can see some of the things their children have learned
during the past two months. It’s an evening full of singing, dancing,
drama, acrobatics and other performances by the children, often connected
with that year’s main theme.
Yoga Shoots
The yoga shoots venture had been in our mind for a long time.
Considering that we cannot be a full-time school, we want to use all our
resources to benefit as many children as possible. Previously our
attention was focused on planning different after school activities for as
many children as possible from Cottonera. Now the time had come to start a
programme for children from other schools with the aim of introducing yoga
for kids to both children and their teachers, as well as bringing children
from all around Malta to Cospicua, thereby indirectly exposing the
richness which Cospicua has to offer on different levels.
The
participation and feedback of primary and secondary schools is very
encouraging.
The programme is planned to cater for a maximum of 25
children every time, accompanied by two teachers, and consists of one and
half hours of yoga for kids, half an hour presentation about healthy food,
half an hour creativity / co-operative games, and another half an hour for
an intercultural presentation.
A lot of preparation goes into these
sessions. Volunteers with previous experience in teaching yoga for kids
contribute a lot to the success of the programme together with other
volunteers whose interesting activities add variety in the programme as
well as introduce the children to as many aspects of neohumanistic
education as possible.
Short power-point presentations about different
countries prepared by our EVS volunteers, introduce the participants to
new cultures, and the children are keen to write messages to overseas
children on handouts prepared for this purpose. By now various messages
from Malta written by participants of our Yoga Shoots programme have been
exchanged with messages sent by schoolchildren from Denmark, Germany and
Turkey.
A short presentation about healthy eating introduces the
children to a vegetarian meal consisting of their choice five different
cooked or fresh vegetables on a bed of pasta or rice, with tomato sauce or
bechamel. Fruit yogurt and cheese are also in the menu!
Before lunch, the children are asked whether they prefer to eat in a
disposable plate or in a ceramic one. “If you choose a ceramic plate you
will have to wash up after you eat, but if you choose a disposable plate
you will be adding to the waste, which harms the environment.” All the
children, without exception, choose to wash their own plate.
Other activities include computer courses, stress management
skills and healthy living courses for women as well as seminars on
vegetarian cookery and personal development. We are also introducing short
basic courses in different languages, according to the nationality of our
EVS volunteers. At Centru Tbexbix there is always scope for new activities
according to the needs of the participants.
