Darius and Lola Smolokowski
Darius and Lola Smolokowski
“Dar Kids Academy” is an extension and a long-time planned development of a charity initiative, “Dar Kids”, which in turn is a children-centered project of a Spanish caritative non-governmental association, “DAR”.
The idea of “Dar Kids” charity – named after autistic boy Darius Smolokowski – came to life in 2017, when its founder – Lola Smolokowski – came across realization of how children with special needs from expat communities are underserved in Marina Alta area, and in Spain in general.
While Spain is great in supporting Special Need Education, it is only doing so for the public and correctional establishments, where the main language of education is Spanish or Valenciano. The educational offer for children with learning challenges in English, French, German, Russian or other languages is virtually non-existent in most regions of Spain.
For 5 years “Dar Kids” project used its charitable outreach programs and techniques to relocate some of the leading foreign experts to Spain, thus facilitating the inclusion process of non-Spanish kids in their local schools, covering a large area between Valencia and Alicante.
During those years of volunteering in the field of Special Needs Education, it became obvious to the founders of the association as well as parents of the expat families involved, that an institution which encompasses the excellent education of neuro-typical children along with their neuro-diverse peers – is an utmost necessity and will be a great enrichment to the international community of our region.
Thus came to light the idea and a vision behind “Dar Kids Academy”, where every child is given the environment and opportunity to thrive, where wellbeing is held an equal importance as the IQ, where mental health goes hand-in-hand with academic achievements of each student.
Member of “Education Finland” governmental cluster.
There are school-partners in the following countries: