Projects

Animal Welfare Theater Project

Animal Care Austria, in tandem with , The The Red Panda Association in Bucharest and with The National Library Association of Romania, supports an important project geared toward improving human and animal relations. Animal Care Austria has already sponsored the pedagogically instructive animal welfare theater project in Bucharest, Craiova, Targu Mures, and Brasov. Many more performance throughout Romania are planned. In "Confessions of a Dog", four actors and two musicians combine acting, singing and dancing to express the importance of every person's responsibility toward our best friend, the dog, in a show that is light-hearted as well as poignantly moving.

This educational project is a good way not only to impress upon young people the importance of animal welfare, but also to show them the possibilites that each of us has to bring about an improvement in human-animal relations.

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Premiere in Bucharest, 6. December 2012

The performance

Carol interviewing the representative from the Cultural Ministry for the animal welfare video

After the performance, the children received informational brochures given by Nancy Janes of Romania Animal Rescue on the topic of animal welfare.

Carol spoke after the performance to some of the interested children about what they can personally do on behalf of animal welfare.

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Brasov, 30. January 2013

The performance in Brasov took place on 30. January 2013 in the City Library. The hall was completely full.

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REPORT ON PLAY THEATRE “CONFESSIONS OF A DOG” IN BUCHAREST SCHOOLS

Sponsored by ANIMAL CARE AUSTRIA
Implemented by RED PANDA & REPLIKA THEATRE COMPANY

On 14th and 15th of June 2016, the children’s adaptation of the play, “Confessions of a Dog”, followed by an educational workshop, was presented to two schools in Bucharest.

School “Mircea Santimbreanu” (project implemented on 14th of June) is located in Bucharest, district 5 (on one border of Bucharest). It is a large school, and its’ pupils come from the large, local community, where the standard of living (education, incomes, and general welfare indicators) is characterized from medium and under medium, to poor and very poor. As it happens in such communities, the largest majority of families have many dogs and cats (fertile animals that reproduce and generally roam), but these people are lacking in education and knowledge regarding responsible pet ownership. Under these circumstances, the implementation of this animal welfare educational school project in such an environment was much needed.

Two representations of the theatre play “Confessions of a Dog” and two educational workshops were presented in School “Mircea Santimbreanu” to a total number of approximately 240 children (8 classes of primary school children, with the average number of pupils per class being between 28 and 32 children).

The children were impressed by the theatre play, laughing and crying in play’s key moments, understanding the concepts and ideas. The educational workshop was also very well received.

School “Lucian Blaga” (project implemented on 15th of June) is located in Bucharest, district 2 (on another border of Bucharest, towards the exit to highway A2). It is also a large school, educating a large community of children coming from medium, under medium, poor and very poor level. Being mostly a house neighborhood, almost all families have pets. Here there is also much lacking in the education regarding responsible pet ownership. On an ad-hoc survey, we found out that in all children’s homes, dogs and cats give birth to puppies / kittens a minimum of 2 times a year, which obviously highlights once again the drastic need of both education projects, as well as free spay-and neuter campaigns). It is extremely important to target the children coming from such environments as benefactors of our educational animal welfare theater project.

Two representations with the theatre play “Confessions of a Dog” and two educational workshops were presented in School “Lucian Blaga” to a total number of approximately 250 children (9 classes of primary school pupils, with the average number of pupils per class being between 25 and 30 children).

The children here were also very receptive to both the theatre play and the educational workshop. Many of them asked for details about volunteering for animal welfare. Animal rescue stories were shared, and extra-time was spent with the children talking about animals.

In both schools, teachers were positively impressed by the project and stated its importance for animal welfare, as well as for the people’s welfare, and for the good of the local communities.

The project team recommends the continuation of the project, as it clearly has a positive impact on children’s mentality and development, and also raises interest of their educators towards topics that are fully neglected by the regular educational system and the informal education that a child receives outside of school.

Photo gallery from the performances in "Mircea Santimbreanu" School & “Lucian Blaga” School, Bucharest, Romania, 14. und 15. June 2016

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