AMURTEL opened the first “Gradinita Rasarit” in 1992 in the north of Bucharest, and later in 1995, it opened a second one in the Mihai Bravu neighborhood.
The kindergarten’s social objectives:
- To provide accessible, inclusive education for children with disabilities together with their typically developing peers.
- To develop an alternative, holistic approach to early childhood education, known as Neohumanist Education
The financial objectives of the kindergarten:
- To acheive financially independence and sustainability
- To contribute to AMURTEL’s management overhead costs
VEGETARIAN KINDERGARTEN ATTRACTS HEALTH CONSCIOUS PARENTS
AMURTEL has reached these objectives over the years, now enjoying full enrollments and high demand, especially due to its unique position as the first vegetarian kindergarten in Bucharest and the inclusion of organic vegetables cultivated in our own farm. It has become very appealing to health-conscious parents seeking to avoid exposing their young children while still in the delicate formative stages of life to overally refined foods high in sugar, fats and salt. They also want to protect their children as much as possible from produce that are treated with pesticides and chemicals and full of artifical preservatives and flavors. The kindergarten has been able to fill this niche, and is even considering plans for expansion into higher grade levels and a bigger space – in order to accomodate the increasing demand.
The kindergarten began with financial backing from the Swedish Infant Massage Association and international branches of AMURTEL, but it is now independent financially and able to sustain its own costs as well as contribute to the management overhead costs of AMURTEL.
NEOHUMANIST EDUCATION CURRICULUM
The teaching team at the kindergarten has also articulated the 19 years of experience in developing and applying Neohumanist education into an alternative curriculum which has been submitted to the Ministry of Education.
In order to further develop Neohumanist Education as a legitimate educational alternative, AMURTEL created a second, more specialized organization ‘AEN: Association of Neohumanist Education” which will focus on teacher trainings, designing didactic materials and overseeing standards and multiplication of the Neohumanist Education model to other kindergartens and schools.