The Romanian school year is pretty much over and the students are beginning a few months of summer holidays. There is a lot to work to try and do with the Caleb foundation over the summer to try and establish some sort of an education program for the children of the village.
Currently, the EU mandates integration of Roma children in local schools rather than them having their own separate schools (which is what had been successful at the Caleb Foundation in the past). This presents lots of different challenges, at the moment the most basic and essential one to address is getting the children to attend school. They might not go for lots of reasons like; because their parents don’t make them (what kid would go to school if they didn’t have to and they could just stay around home and play forever?), or they don’t like school because they are bullied, teased, made to feel different and less than worthy of their place in the school (because of their race/culture), or perhaps their parents take them to pick mushrooms with them to earn more money, or the older ones (7-12 years old) may need to stay at home and look after the younger ones while their parents go off for the day. For whatever reason, school attendance is a massive issue, and as you can imagine, as soon as a child gets a little bit behind, it’s pretty hard to catch up, especially when their parents can’t read or write to help them with any homework. So the alternative is that they don’t go to school, that means they’ll never get a formal education and they will most likely just follow in the ways of their parents and end up repeating the cycle with their own children (that are probably only a few years away from being born themselves).
These kids do not have any less right to a free and safe education than anyone else. Just because of their living conditions, socio-economic status, or their appearance, they still have the right to be children that go to school and learn how to read, write, spell, count, play with others, learn about their country and the world around them. It’s not their fault they were born into a Roma village, that their mother was most probably in her early teens, that their dad can’t help them with their school work because he can’t read or write either. The biggest problem is that the majority of the community don’t seem to understand the value that education can have in life.
Luckily for Tim he is never alone in this, Alina, for the Caleb Foundation, has been working there for a long time and is well loved and respected by everyone in the village as well as the teachers at the local school. There’s also Bill, an American who does some work for Roma in Slovenia whom we met at the NLI conference in Spain. He works with someone with a PhD in education and they are developing an educational program for the community they are working in that may have the potential to be used here.
There’s a long way to go, but every little bit helps and we’re so lucky to be here for this time, so thank you for all of your support of us!
Currently, the EU mandates integration of Roma children in local schools rather than them having their own separate schools (which is what had been successful at the Caleb Foundation in the past). This presents lots of different challenges, at the moment the most basic and essential one to address is getting the children to attend school. They might not go for lots of reasons like; because their parents don’t make them (what kid would go to school if they didn’t have to and they could just stay around home and play forever?), or they don’t like school because they are bullied, teased, made to feel different and less than worthy of their place in the school (because of their race/culture), or perhaps their parents take them to pick mushrooms with them to earn more money, or the older ones (7-12 years old) may need to stay at home and look after the younger ones while their parents go off for the day. For whatever reason, school attendance is a massive issue, and as you can imagine, as soon as a child gets a little bit behind, it’s pretty hard to catch up, especially when their parents can’t read or write to help them with any homework. So the alternative is that they don’t go to school, that means they’ll never get a formal education and they will most likely just follow in the ways of their parents and end up repeating the cycle with their own children (that are probably only a few years away from being born themselves).
These kids do not have any less right to a free and safe education than anyone else. Just because of their living conditions, socio-economic status, or their appearance, they still have the right to be children that go to school and learn how to read, write, spell, count, play with others, learn about their country and the world around them. It’s not their fault they were born into a Roma village, that their mother was most probably in her early teens, that their dad can’t help them with their school work because he can’t read or write either. The biggest problem is that the majority of the community don’t seem to understand the value that education can have in life.
Luckily for Tim he is never alone in this, Alina, for the Caleb Foundation, has been working there for a long time and is well loved and respected by everyone in the village as well as the teachers at the local school. There’s also Bill, an American who does some work for Roma in Slovenia whom we met at the NLI conference in Spain. He works with someone with a PhD in education and they are developing an educational program for the community they are working in that may have the potential to be used here.
There’s a long way to go, but every little bit helps and we’re so lucky to be here for this time, so thank you for all of your support of us!