Alytus District Mayor Rasa Vitkauskienė visited children’s day care centers in Pivašiūnai, Butrimonyi and Rimėnai, where she met with social workers and more than 70 children who visit day care centers almost every day.
“Children not only spend their free time here, but also learn to live. Eats, prepares lessons, socializes. I wanted to assess with my own eyes the conditions in which children spend a lot of time, to understand how children and employees feel here, to talk about what kind of help is lacking, what we can do,” said mayor R. Vitkauskienė.
Motivates not for behavior, but for good deeds
Social workers showed the infrastructure of day care centers to the head of the Alytus district: kitchens, educational spaces, sanitary facilities. He also introduced them to organized activities, free time employment, meal arrangements, social psychological assistance, and the development of social hygiene skills.
The mayor of Alytus district was most surprised by the shop installed in the closet of the Pivašiūnai Children’s Day Center of the Society of SOS Children’s Villages in Lithuania. It turned out to be a means of encouraging children. “We do not encourage good behavior – after all, the experiences of these children are very diverse. We encourage good deeds, such as tidying up toys, sweeping the floor and others. After doing a good job, the child receives a token, which can be used to buy what he most wants or needs in this store-closet. The choice is quite wide, from toys to hygiene products”, said Eglė Valatkevičienė, Head of Services of Children’s Day Centers of SOS Children’s Villages in Lithuania.
“I really appreciate the work of all social workers. They are like second mothers: they care, comfort, play, solve problems, teach, encourage. Their work is priceless. I am glad that the district develops full-fledged personalities, develops children’s independence, and develops the most important social skills. This is very important,” said Alytus District Mayor R. Vitkauskienė.
He dreams of becoming a mayor
The mayor, who visited the children’s day center in Rimėnai, tried a new method of printing eggs together with the children, and participated in soap-making education in Butrimony. “This is a completely new experience for me. We didn’t just make soap or print eggs in an unconventional way, but we also talked about friendship, family, free time, wishes and dreams,” said R. Vitkauskienė.
The children told the mayor that when they grow up, they would most like to be policemen, photographers and… mayors. “Why mayor?” Because we could be as good as you”, said the children and presented the district mayor with their drawings with wishes to visit more often and not get sick.
The head of the Alytus district gave all the children what they needed most for the creative workshop: paints, cotton bags on which the children could draw, 12 kg of soap base and scented oils for soap production, and delicacies.
Currently, 23 children attend the Pivašiūnai Children’s Day Center of the Society of SOS Children’s Villages in Lithuania, 17 attend the Butrimonii Children’s Day Center, and 36 attend the Rimėnai Children’s Day Center.
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