Tulip Foundation started working on a project ”Empowerment of Roma Women for Roma Children Education”.
Partners in the new project are the European Roma Information Office (ERIO), Brussels; the Know How Centre for Alternative Care at the NBU; Gavroche Association in Varna. Opportunity and Protection Association Haskovo is the lead partner.
The objectives of the project are to encourage the empowerment of Roma women to support the education of Roma children; to promote good practices in Roma integration in the area of education on national and EU level and to foster interaction between education, child protection and other relevant institutions, and Roma community to coordinate their activities related to education of Roma children.
The planned activities include development of an Educational package for Family Group Conferences (FGC) and “School for parents”; organisation of 3 workshops in Varna, Kustendil and Haskovo to promote the benefits of the two models for family support and create a supportive environment for their application; training of 51 professionals, working with children for independent coordinators of FGCs and trainers in School for parents; conducting 30 Family Group Conferences to involve Roma women in solving educational problems of their children and to improve their interaction with the representatives of schools; organizing 30 “Schools for parents” aimed at enhancing the skills of Roma women to support the education of their children; community work with 450 representatives of Roma community – consultations, meetings, discussions – to raise their awareness of the benefits of education for the future development of the children; dissemination of project results on national and European level – a national conference, final conference in Brussels, website, a project brochure and impact assessment of project activities.
The period of implementation of these activities is from September 2018 to August 2020. The project is funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) of the EU. The total budget is 182 109 Euro.
For nearly 2 years the partnering organisations were engaged with activities in support for the full value inclusion of Roma children in the educational process and their mothers and families. The approached included facilitation of Family Group Conferences and School for Parents. Trainings for local professional and presentation of the models for family support took place in Haskovo, Varna and Kustendjil. The concept was to involve Roma women in the process of dealing with problems with the education of their children and improvement of their communication with the school and the educational system. Some 30 School for Parents for positive parenting and acquisition of skills for supporting the education of children and 30 Family Group Conferences have been organised. The colleagues have worked with a substantial number of families from the Roma community in the form of consultations, meeting, discussions.
Malina Slavova from Opportunity and Protection Association presented the aim and the activities of the project. Illiana Toteva, pedagogical advisor and referrer to FGC, told about the development and the effect of the model starting with the words of a mother „Miss, I have come to ask about my child. As we have a plan, haven’t we?”. Gergana Encheva from Gavroche Association spoke about the use of School for Parents in Varna and the opinion of the parents „we want our children to do well, to have money, to be good”. Arso Ganev from the KHC shared about his work in the community in Kustendjil. Maria Petkova from Tulip Foundation presented „The significance and the effect of the application of the FGC model in the fried of education“. The presentation of the evaluation and the impact of the project, made by Antoaneta Mateeva, was interesting. In the last session Maria Gineva from Future for Children Association in Kazanlak, presented the experience of her organisation in working with parents for the early childhood development of their children in a universal type of Sure Star House.
Partners in the project are the European Roma Information Office (ERIO), Brussels; the Know How Centre for Alternative Care at the NBU; Gavroche Association in Varna and Tulip Foundation. Opportunity and Protection Association Haskovo is the lead partner. The project is funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) of the EU with a total budget of 182 109 Euro.
