After-School Clubs: "A Big Family"

After-School Clubs are about more than helping with children’s schoolwork. It is also about the investment that older role models have in their unlocked potential. So what does this look like?

A dream for future generations

Kirilka is a teacher at one of our After-School Clubs in Krupnik, Bulgaria, where she also grew up.

“We grew up next to the Roma suburb in our village,” Kirilka said. “My father was a miner and served as a pastor in our small church in the village. My mother was a seamstress. As children, we helped at home and worked on the field – but our education came first.

“I’ve wanted to work with children since my early teenage years. I started volunteering in the Sunday school of the local church where most of the children were from a Roma background.

“I noticed that these children had great dreams and didn’t want to be overlooked because of the colour of their skin. They are often neglected or rejected by their teachers at school here. The widespread notion is that they’re not as capable as children from a non-Roma background.”

So when Kirilka was asked to take charge of the new After-School Club in 2017, it was an opportunity not only to use her university education and training to become a teacher, but also her passions.

Transformation that shines from the inside

The children who attend the After-School Club – which runs 5 days a week – come from vulnerable backgrounds where their parents are unable to help them with homework, lacking a proper education themselves. It is easy for their children to follow in these footsteps, falling behind at school, feeling discouraged, struggling financially, and dropping out.

But here at the club, they receive support for their schoolwork and are welcomed into a safe atmosphere that builds their self-confidence.

“The After-School Club is like a second home for the children,” Kirilka said. “They show up eagerly every day and we are like a big family – the children share their personal thoughts with us because of the trust we have built up with them. My goal is to motivate them to move forwards, working hard to fulfil their dreams; to become reliable people, and to mind their parents.”

And now many children, like Emanuil and Sedefka, have experienced something very different to what they were used to.

For Emanuil, education was completely unknown to him before he went into first grade, having not attended any schooling before. He struggled to adapt, lacking basic knowledge, like colours and seasons, and basic hygiene habits.

“Now Emanuil is in third grade and he’s doing really well at school. His favourite subject is Bulgarian language and he continues to attend the after-school project with great enthusiasm,” shared Kirilka.

For Sedefka, when she first joined the club she was shy and reserved, having rarely experienced contact with other children. She was behind in her development and struggled to keep up with learning due to her dyslexia. After one-on-one work with Kirilka, who also consulted a psychologist and speech therapist, she finally came out of her shell.

“Sedefka is now in fourth grade and the change in her is very noticeable – she is more open and sociable with other children and she’s very confident. She does very well at school and she even takes part in the celebrations organised by the school, which she didn’t dare do before.”

It is because people chose to invest in the vision of children having access to life-changing education that these children can now stand out in a different way: not only in their grades, but their behaviour, confidence, and hope for the future.