The snow is back, and Christmas is approaching. Once again, it’s time for AISB students to bring a little warmth to Berceni. Next Friday, on the 7th of December, all participating students will stuff the bus with bags of food to send to the disadvantaged families in the village.

Students from EC2 to Grade 6 will be provided with Mega Image bags and lists of food items to buy in their advisories/homerooms. Although not mandatory, older students can also participate in this event as well, by taking a bag and a list from Ms. Hofman’s office (first floor, next to the secondary office).

The approximated cost for buying all food items on the list is 90 lei. Items must not be close to expiration dates.

Students should bring the filled bags back to their advisors until next Thursday, the 6th of December.

Berceni is an impoverished village near Bucharest, located about an hour drive away from AISB.

What happens in the village?

The stuffed bus will arrive at Second Chance, a community center in Berceni that will help distribute the bags to locals at their annual Christmas party. AISB also works in cooperation with the mayor of Berceni and local police to make the process more efficient.

Why are we doing this?

For more than 10 years, our school has been helping families in Berceni through Stuff the Bus. AISB Service Learning coordinator, Margritha Hofman, explains that this service event has a positive impact on both the students of AISB and people of Berceni.

“The people in the village have a feeling that nobody cares about them… [but because our school is helping out] they realized, hey, people are caring about us, now we should do something for ourselves,” says Hofman.

She adds that in the past 10-12 years, Berceni has elected “a new, brilliant mayor,” who understands the need to help the village. The town has also built a new community center, and established a local badminton team who won first place at the Romanian National Badminton Championship last year.

Hofman also emphasizes the positive impact the event has on our students. “Our school does little school-wide events […] this is one of those moments where all of the school comes together to bring the feeling of unity.”

 

If you have any questions, please find Ms. Hofman at her office or contact her through email at mhofman@goaisb.ro.

*Special thanks to student service group, Making A Difference (MAD) for organizing this event.