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Romania: Deutsche Telekom Stiftung and Progress Foundation cooperating in STEM Volunteer Readers Project / Ora sa STIM

Bonn/Bucharest. Deutsche Telekom Stiftung is broadening its international involvement by engaging in cooperation with Romania’s Progress Foundation (Fundatia Progress). The two organizations are jointly creating a low-threshold offering aimed at strengthening interest in STEM topics among children in Romania with the aid of volunteer readers.


The “STEM Volunteer Readers” project has been running in Germany with great success since its launch in 2015. It is based on scientific studies which show that especially at elementary school age, dealing with mathematical, scientific and technical topics and questions can foster children’s speaking and reading skills. Researching generates a keen interest in linguistic and other means of communication as the children have the need to name and describe the phenomena under investigation and express their thoughts and conjectures. 


Concrete implementation of the project under the title “Ora sa STIM” in Romania will be handled by the Progress Foundation. As a first step, trainers of the Progress Foundation will instruct 130 librarians at the Romanian National Library in Bucharest in ways of supplementing the reading of age-appropriate, STEM-themed children’s books with exciting follow-up activities. The next step will then be for the librarians to give weekly STEM readings for children aged from three to ten in their libraries. To assist them in this, they will be supplied with materials developed by the Progress Foundation that offer media and activity suggestions, along with cost-free book boxes. The project will be conducted in 12 of Romania’s altogether 41 counties: Arges, Bihor, Dâmbovita, Gorj, Harghita, Hunedoara, Ialomita, Mures, Neamt, Salaj, Vâlcea and Vrancea.
The cooperation project will run initially until June 2019. The knowledge gained from it will be used by both foundations for the further development of their project activities. Further information can be found online at www.telekom-stiftung.de/volunteer-readers and www.facebook.com/orasastim/.