SEED II represents the concrete follow up of the current SEED project. The motivation to launch a second phase of SEED project was due to the positive impact which is being currently manifested in the three communities in relation to the participation and inclusion of the target group, education institutions responsibility and responsiveness as well as parents support and involvement.
SEED II will further address the aim to spur the involvement, active participation and cooperation between Roma and Romanian youngsters. The project will involve 10 volunteers from 8 Programme Countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Portugal and Sweden), and will be implemented in Craiova for 9 months, in the same three locations as the SEED project: Mofleni, Popoveni and Catargiu
The general objective of the project aims towards Development of activities that stimulate the personal development of both volunteers as well as the target group and contribute to the further consolidation of the process launched and piloted by the current EVS project in order to increase the cooperation between Roma and Romanian Youngsters, raise local institutions awareness towards the Roma issues and further responsabilise them, break prejudices and raise tolerance.
SEED II will follow is to be divided in 4 main phases:
- A training and preparation phase (Pre Departure Training, Capacity Building Training, On Arrival Training),
- A cultural and organizational accommodation phase (Community Discovery),
- Community Activities Phase and a
- Monitoring and Evaluation Phase (Mid term and Final Evaluation, Monthly Evaluations and Weekly meetings)
The methods that are to be used during the project will focus on sport activities and non formal outdoor activities (games, camping, etc). An innovative method to be implemented is theatre forum.
Locations: Scoala n°26, Str. Banu Stepan nr.20, 200819 Craiova, Dolj, Romania.; Scoala n° 19, Str. Baraganului nr. 45, Craiova, Dolj, Romania. Scoala Generala Popoveni.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
HEALTH INSURANCE – AXA
All volunteers will be covered by a group insurance plan (AXA Insurance) specifically designed to protect participants in the European Voluntary Service programme during their period of voluntary activity. The health insurance is provided free of charge to the Volunteers. The purpose of this plan is to give volunteers access to an insurance network which can help them whenever a medical, dental, disability or liability problem occurs. European Platform for Youth Development took/ will take care of insuring all volunteers based on the requested document received from your hosting organizations. Furthermore, the volunteers will be placed under the care of a family physician throughout the entire period of EVS, doctor which will supervise their state of health and will guide them to a specialist consult in case of necessity. Emergency numbers and a 24h available person will be also provided in case of medical urgencies.
RESIDENCE PERMIT
Within three months from their arrival to Romania, it is compulsory for all volunteers (including the ones from EU member countries) to obtain a residence permit from the local police in Craiova. The volunteers will receive support from the coordinating association that will help them with filling the dossier with all necessary papers and accompany the volunteers to the police station.
All taxes incurred with obtaining the residence permit will be paid by EPYD
ALL VOLUNTEERS need to bring their Passports in order to apply and receive the residence permit.
TRAVEL COSTS
The EVS program covers 90% of the international transport costs of every volunteer from his/her living place to the new hosting place (Craiova) and return once – at the beginning and at the end of the stage. Starting from 2010, volunteers will contribute with 10% of these costs.
The sending organization will provide its volunteer/s the necessary support to arrange the best travel option considering the following:
For the volunteers traveling by plane:
- landing Airport: – Bucharest – Otopeni Airport (Henri Coanda International Airport); Baneasa Airport (Bucharest) can be an option as well
- hours of travel: please make all efforts to arrange for your volunteers a flight that lands on Bucharest Otopeni/ Baneasa Airport within the morning- afternoon period.
NOTE!!
For the volunteers arriving before/later than the 15th of February 2010 the transfer from the Airport to Craiova will fell in their responsibility. If such cases will occur, we will send them the necessary information to handle their way towards the destination.
For the volunteers traveling by train:
The final destination is Craiova Rail-station. It is approximately 220 km from Bucharest. You can find information about the trains schedule at http://www.mersultrenurilor.ro/ ; please write Bucuresti Nord as departure and Craiova as destination. From there we will pick you up by car and drive you to your accommodation place.
TRAVEL REIMBURSMENT
The reimbursement of the travel costs will be made accordingly:
- To the sending organization in case it was you to buy the ticket for the volunteer. The payment will be made 70% of the travel costs (but no more than the budget limit) upon the provision of original invoice, travel ticket and boarding passes, once the volunteers will arrive to Romania. The remaining 30% will be reimbursed at the end of the project, once the final payment will be done by the Romanian National Agency.
- To the volunteer – in case it was he/she that bought the ticket. We will reimburse 90% of the travel costs (within the budget limit) upon provision of the original invoice, tickets and boarding passes
To make sure that no problems will incur with the reimbursement of the travel, please instruct your volunteers to ask for the fiscal invoice from the travel agency (that bears the full cost – including taxes), keep the tickets and the boarding passes.
The international travel costs of the volunteers are covered only once (from his/her living place to Craiova and Return).
All additional travel costs incurred with the personal travel of the volunteer (such as vacations or other personal events) are not to be covered by the EVS project and will fall exclusively into the responsibility and expense of the volunteer.
ACCOMMODATION
All volunteers are to be accommodated in the outskirts of the capital city of the Oltenia Region, Craiova.
The volunteers will be split in teams and hosted within one of the 3 rroma communities in which the project will take place. These communities are about 5 km from the city center but the volunteers coming in the project should be aware that, although the 3 communities are neighborhood of the city Craiova they look like a rural community, and have problems like no sewerage and many of the roads are not asphalted(which means that sometimes there is a lot of mud). For this reason we can not guaranty that the accommodation will have a toilet indoors(most of the houses have the toilet outside separated from the bathroom).
The volunteers will live either with host families or share a living location together. The living location will meet decent living standards ( free access to kitchen and bathroom, current cold water with the possibility of providing hot water at least one hour/day, functioning heating system, clean and secure location).
EPYD will make all efforts to find the best accommodation location for the volunteers. All accommodation and utility costs (water, gas, electricity) shall be covered by the hosting organization.
All accommodation costs (including utilities) are to be covered 100% by the coordinating organization
NOTE!!!
The hosting family might be a rroma family. If you have preconceptions about this try to discuss with the coordinating organisation before coming.
NOTE!!!
The accommodations are not luxurious and provide no 5 stars conditions.
Upon arrival, a representative of EPYD and the volunteer will go through the accommodation and check everything, and then Liability Agreement will be signed. Damages brought to the initial state of the things will be handled by volunteers
FOOD
Buying and preparing the food is to be the sole responsibility of the volunteers. For preparing the food the volunteers will have free access to an equipped kitchen.
The hosting organization will provide each volunteer with a monthly food allowance - 80 euros - from which they shall cover the alimentation costs. The allowance is enough for insuring a good living standard (being higher than the amount an average earning citizen from the region spends for food). However the allowance will not be enough for ensuring every day eating in a restaurant or bistro.
Pocket money
Each volunteer is entitled to receive a 60 Euro monthly allowance – pocket money, which they can spent as they choose/want.
LOCAL TRANSPORT
The volunteer’s local transportation will be covered 100% for the travels made for the benefit and in direct relation with the EVS project.
The personal transport of the volunteer within or outside the community is to be covered by the volunteer from his/her own financial resources – pocket money or private money
The local transportation of the volunteers necessary for the activities implementation will be covered by the project.
TRAINING AND SUPPORT
Pre Departure Training: Each volunteer from a Programme country will be attending the Pre-Departure Training organized by the respective NA. The participation of each volunteer to such training session is crucial for his/her preparation, as far as the volunteer will be informed about his rights and obligations, general administrative and technical aspects connected to an EVS project as well as various inputs and advices
In what concerns the volunteers coming from EECA countries the pre- departure preparation will be inured by the sending organization.
In case the selection of the volunteer is made after any pre-departure training is available, the sending organization in close cooperation with EPYD will make their best in compensating the absence to this training session by preparing the volunteer as much and better as possible: informing the volunteer oh his/her rights and responsibilities, giving him/her the most relevant information about EVS, prepare the volunteer for a cultural shock or potential conflict.
On Arrival Training. The coordinating organization will insure the participation of all volunteers to the On arrival Training organized by the Romanian NA.
Capacity Building Training - is a two weeks intense skills and abilities development programme that is to be organized in the first month of the project and which will include a series of sessions on Non formal Education. The Capacity Building Programme will take place for 2 weeks, in two phases: The first phase, of one week, will take place upon the volunteer’s arrival and will stress on: technical aspects; project objectives, activities, roles and responsibilities; cultural and language accommodation; introduction in non formal educational tools.
The second phase, also of one week, will take place after maximum one month from the arrival, once the volunteers participated in the On Arrival Training and had an experience with the hosting community. The second phase will focus on strengthening skills and abilities of the volunteers according to their specific needs and the communities they are being hosted.
Language Training. Sessions of Romanian Language will be provided for all volunteers by a language tutor with certified education in languages. The language sessions will be provided in a digressive manner: intense coaching in the first months and less classes towards the end of the project. The language training aims to give the volunteers enough language skills to fend for themselves in the community (in a shop, rail/ bus station, etc).
Weekly evaluation meetings will take place in between the volunteers and their coordinators with the aim of checking the current state of the planned activities, the results or the failures.
Monthly Evaluation Meetings Along the project, the monitoring and evaluation process will consist in monthly meetings of two working days between the team and all volunteers, meetings that along the analysis of the previous month activities will comprise coaching and support in planning for the next month, provide solutions to eventual problems, share best practice examples, offer working tools and instruments, etc.
Reinforced mentorship. Additional personal support and coaching will be provided to the volunteers with fewer opportunities.
In addition to all the above mentioned methods, EPYD will provide further support to the volunteers also after the project shall end, by giving recommendation for the volunteers to whomever might be of interest.
VOLUNTEER’S TASKS.
Amongst the concrete tasks of the volunteers we mention:
Attend all the preparatory (Capacity Building Programme), training (On Arrival, Thematic trainings, Language sessions) and evaluation meetings (weekly and monthly evaluations) organized during the EVS project and directly related to it.
Prepare themselves for each meeting with the requested materials (for example: filling on time the monthly evaluation forms)
Learn about the Rroma cultures, customs, way of life, etc
Preparation, implementation and evaluation (assisted by the team staff) of the non formal educational activities for the Rroma and Romanian Youngsters according with the activities already implemented during the SEED project ( see more about activities on: http://www.yesforevs.eu/seed.php - activities )
Help prepare a Summer Campus for a mixed group of youngsters
Record all their activities in a monthly electronic journal
Assist in working with the youngsters; propose activities, discussion topics, share opinions, cultural and traditional customs, etc.
Openly communicate with the mentor, his/her peer volunteers and the EVS coordinator
Display a decent and common sense behavior in relation to the organization, the youngsters, local stakeholders and the local hosting community in general
Contribute to the visibility of the project in the community, especially amongst the target group (youngsters) as well as the local actors (public administration, education institutions, media, etc)
Be responsible and meet one’s tasks accordingly.
Examples of proposed activities: language lessons, painting, drawing on thematic subjects complementary to class thought subjects, walks in the parks, etc. Sport Activities (volleyball, football, kickboxing, dancing, etc), Humanitarian Actions, Green Activities. Outdoor Games, Free Discussions, Theatre forum, etc
Organizing large events such as: Europe’s Day; Roma Day; 1st June – Children’s Day, Summer Camp, Intercultural EVS Campaign .
PROFILE OF THE VOLUNTEER to fit the project
We are looking for a person willing/able to:
be prepared for challenges. He/she should be communicative and be used to deal with children, young people and also other adult people. We expect tolerance, helpfulness and the intention to learn the Romanian language.
work with children, being aware that he/she should relate also with the parents (family)
Continue the work done up to now (see http://yesforevs.eu/seed.php - activities) and improve in any way he/she considers it opportune
make with the mentor/EPYD staff a plan to fit his/her and children’s interest and to follow it
develop leisure activities. sport classes, art and crafts, music & drama (acting) classes, language classes, first aid classes, trips, after school activities, environmental activities, etc.
Work with the community and plan activities concerning different age segments;
Cooperate in the environmental and other projects of the community as sport contests, dramatic performance, symposiums, debates, etc.
Prepare materials for the activities anytime necessary,
support to the planning, realization and evaluation of events or conferences aiming at promote EVS in universities, high schools, Informing Youth Centers of the Municipality of Craiova, etc.
realization of general EVS promotion activities (production of materials such as leaflets, multimedia material to be showed online on the association website, or to be spread through local partners as other associations, communities, or through media such as local televisions, radio, local newspapers and free-press);
organization, realization and evaluation of activities for the diffusion of results, promotion and visibility of his/her own EVS experience ;
cooperating with EVS candidates of the host organization with a special concern on EVS promotion realized by describing his or her own experience.
prepare celebrations (traditional celebration, birthday or moving in day,...). A volunteer could for example help to organize a party or something like that. The volunteer gets an idea about culture and habits of Craiovean life. New ideas are always welcomed.
IV. SELECTION
10 volunteers from Europe:
Age: 23 – 30 years
- Ideal profile Youngsters with genuine interest and motivation in working with Roma community. Education in Sociology or relevant experience in the field is to be an advantage in the selection process
- Interest in working with children with the support of non forma educational tools
Language Proficiency: - at least basic level of English (being able to make herself/himself understood by the others – able to communicate)
knowledge of Romanian can be an advantage – however it is not a selection criteria
Other requests: interest in intercultural and minority integration issues, moreover adaptation ability
OTHER ASPECTS
Logistics
The volunteers will have an working office inside their community that is equipped with everything needed in the implementation of the activities(computers, internet access, printer, scanner, ). The working office will also serve as a location for some of the activities with the children.
WHAT TO BRING.
Clothes for winter, spring and summer.
The temperature in the winter time can drop during the night even to – 20 Celsius degrees.
Spring is really nice, with warm weather, sometimes going even over + 25 degrees.
The Romanian summer is really dry and hot. The temperature can reach even + 38 degrees in the shade.
Personal Items:
Towels, bed sheets, tooth brush, raiser, etc
Looking forward to working together.
I am fully confident that we shall have a fruitful and professional cooperation from which the main beneficiaries to be the volunteers.
For any further questions, clarifications or suggestions please contact us.
Nagy Serban
Project manager
European Platform for Youth Development
+40 766.670.465
Serban.nagy@epyd.eu
Skype ID: syn4u2
The Rroma communities have always been subjects of controversy, conflicts, prejudices and exclusion. The aim and at the same time the challenge of the project is to raise the level of involvement, active participation and cooperation between Rroma and Romanian youngsters through non formal education.
A number of 10 volunteers from different European countries will be working basically in three schools from Craiova where the percentage of Roma children is high or even represents a majority. The three schools are: Scoala n° 26 in Mofleni; Scoala n° 19 in Catargiu; Scoala Generala from Popoveni.
The following chapters will present a description and an analysis of each one of these communities, structured on the following points:
• The status quo of these communities ( focused on youngsters )
• The main problems with an impact on Rroma youngsters
• The opportunities to implement an EVS project
1. Lascar Catargiu
2. Mofleni
3. Popoveni
Lascar Catargiu
I. Status quo of the community
I. Status quo of the community
Catargiu is a neighborhood located in the outskirts of Craiova, in the South part, near the biggest space for leisure in town, called ,,Parcul Tineretului” ( The Park of Youth” ). There are means of transportation from down town: bus n° 14.
The population of Rroma people is significant in the neighbourhood – a quarter of the total population. The neghborhood has the appearance of a village, with contrasting ,,landscapes” like poor, small houses near large, luxurious houses, and partially paved streets. Only a few streets in the neighbourhood have sewage so the living conditions are difficult.
The Rroma people earns their living by practicing crafts which are not so profitable, like: collecting unuseful objects from iron and selling them; collecting old clothes and selling them; repairing metal objects and others. A real tendency regarding the economical aspect is the migration of Rroma families and youngsters abroad, to work, mostly in domains like constructions and agriculture. Therefore there are notable economical differences between them: some of them living in poverty, misery, beneficiaries of social help and another part of them –those who work abroad- with a good financial situation, being able to build big houses and to buy expensive cars.
Most of the Rroma families in this neighborhood are still traditional ones. One of their most known and controversed custom is early marriages – the youngsters get married from early ages like 14, 15 years old or even earlier in some cases, and the marriages are arranged by parents. The Rroma families are characterized by solidarity and hierarchical organization: the man has the power of decision and particularly the old men.
The traditions of Rroma people, their way of living and their difficulties to adapt it to a modern society led to many prejudices and labeling from the Romanian people, like:
- the name of ,,gypsy” is often used as a pejorative one, associated to some negative features that the Rroma people are believed to have ( they are believed to be lazy, thieves, dishonest ); some of them feel offended when they are called ,,gypsys’’, and on the contrary some others feel offended when they are called ,,Roma” sustaining that ,,gypsy’’ is their traditional name )
- it is believed that most of Rroma people are criminals and especially thieves
Generally, the collaboration and the cohabitation of Roma and Romanian people in this neighborhood is good but it is evident to some extent, the mistrust regarding gypsys and the tendency to judge them on the one hand, and on the other hand it is also evident the resistance of Rroma people to changes coming from outside their culture.
In Lascar Catargiu is located only one school, namely School with classes I-VIII nr. 19, “Lascar Catargiu” for children aged between 7 and 14 years old. The school is located on street BARAGANULUI number 45, it has between over 300 students of which almost 100 are rroma.
II. The main problems with an impact on Rroma youngsters
The Rroma community in Lascar Catargiu –and not only- is confronted with a series of problems with an impact on youngsters:
Poverty
– for many of them the main source of living are the social aids and school allowances
- there are a lot of cases when the Rroma children are stimulated to go to school only because they receive a student allowance
- most of Rroma adults don’t have any professional qualification working in low- paid jobs such as salubrity or practicing ambulatory commerce
Migration
– a significant number of Rroma people migrate abroad for jobs better paid
- the adults either take their children with them abroad, interrupting their studies, either leave them at home to take care of younger brothers or old members of the family, which also leads to the situation of interrupting the studies
Tradition
- there is a significant number of cases when the rules of tradition supersede the need for education : by the age of 11 years old or 14 years old, the girls are already engaged and they have to interrupt school for getting married; the boys are allowed to continue their studies but there are a lot of cases when they interrupt their studies by the age of 16 years old
- the adults don’t perceive the education as a benefit and opportunity to develop but as a threat to their traditions
Education
Level of schooling; school drop
The school with classes I-VIII nr. 19, “Lascar Catargiu” has 1/3 Rroma children. Although the attendance rate in general is high – 90%- the school attendance rate among Rroma children is fluctuating. The main cause seems to be the migration. The parents enroll their children at the beginning of the school year and after a while they take their children, interrupting their studies, to leave abroad.
Therefore the Rroma children have serious gaps in their knowledge: many of them don’t learn to read and write until 10, 11 years old. The graduation rate is also smaller among Rroma children. The teachers have tried to do an afterschool in 2008 to help the Rroma children to recover gaps but they didn’t succeed because of lack of finances to sustain this programme. The school is facing also situations of school drops more frequently among Roma children than Romanian ones. School drops usually happen for several reasons: parent’s lack of interest for education; early marriages; poor material situation.
The school is collaborating with representants of Rroma people, councillor from the County Council and other representants from the local public administration to prevent school drops. They organise symposiums and round tables where they discuss these issues and where preventive measures are proposed.
Segregation
The school is facing the situation in which the parents of Rroma children don’t respect the official enrollment period. They enroll their children later; therefore classes with a majority of Rroma children appear. It can not be said that the segregation is imposed. The teachers are making efforts to mix the classes during the school year by gathering Romanian children and Rroma children with a similar level of knowledge.
III. The opportunities to implement an EVS project
It is evident the need to improve the level of education of Rroma children and to increase the level of cooperation between Roma and Romanian children.
An EVS project can be considered an instrument that can respond to these needs.The SEED EVS project offers an option to the classic education and curricula using non-formal education, youngsters working with youngsters, a rich cultural environment and flexibility to adapt activities to needs and possibilities.
The opportunity to implement an EVS project in a community like Lascar Catargiu and particularly in the school number 19 can be described in terms of:
Human resources:
- the director of the school Jifcu Mariana, the former director of Predus Daniel, together with a teacher for primary school, Ms Ecaterina Ilie and one of the English teachers, engaged themselves in supporting the project during it’s implementation. They have already the experience of the previous EVS project in which they performed their support tasks very well.
- the support offered by the teachers consists in: helping the volunteers to integrate in the school; talking to parents and children and explaining them the purpose of the project in order to intermediate the contact between them and the volunteers and win more easy their confidence; helping the volunteers to organize the groups of children and activities
Infrastructure/ Material resources:
- the school has a sports room; a festivity room and one laboratory of informatics with internet connection
- there is a sports field in the school yard
- the courses schedule is from 8 a.m.to 12 p.m.- the primary school and from 12 p.m. to 19 p.m.- the gymnasium but there are available daily, three unoccupied classrooms that can be used for extracurricular activities
- only a small part from the budget allocated for school needs is used for extracurricular activities because the budget is small
- the school managed on several occasions to obtain sponsorships from companies for activities with children ( festivities, contests ) and for some necessary equipment
Extracurricular activities/ Partnerships:
- there is a group of dances formed by a teacher from the school in 2008; the group is mixed- Rroma and Romanian children- and has participated in contests of ethnic dances
- the teachers and the children celebrated in 2009 The Day of Rroma people
- there is a football team, formed 4 years ago and trained by the sports teacher; the team has a mixed group of children and participates in contests, championships between schools
- the school has a sports association called JIEN, that supports the football team and the dances group
- the school has several partnerships with other schools from the town and from outside the town; it is noteworthy the partnerships with school number 3 Rasnov-Brasov and school number 4 from Sibiu, ( Brasov and Sibiu are two big cities of Romania ), based on exchanges between teachers and children
- partnership and good collaboration on educational projects with the organisation Romani C.R.I.S.S.- an organisation that fights for Rroma people’s rights and integration
- partnership with the organisation ,,Terre des hommes”, an organisation working mainly in the human rights field; through this partnership the teachers participate at courses of improving their teaching skills using animation
Opennes/Expectations:
- the teachers don’t have much experience with European programmes because they couldn’t acces any of them; The previous EVS project implemented here(SEED) has raised their awareness and made them more willing to get involved.
- the teachers from the school, in general, are interested in new educational programmes
- the teachers are open to a possible collaboration with other schools where the number of Rroma children is significant
- as an expectation of the teachers: they would like from volunteers to offer to the children examples of new teaching and learning methods, more modern, active and practical ones that will attract more the children in schools
-the teachers believe that they, together with the volunteers through the children openness and interest in extracurricular activitites, will obtain the parent’s openness too
The level of openness, the desires and the needs of children have been tested through questionnaires. The research team spread the questionnaires to children with ages of 10 to 12 years old and 13 to 15 years old. The respondents were Rroma and Romanian children.
The results were the following:
• for children with ages from 10 to 12 years old
- for the question: ,,What do you like to do in your free time?’ most of answers indicated activities like playing games and preference for outdoor activities ( walk in the park with family and friends )
- for the question: ,,Where do you meet your friends?” most of them said that they have as a meeting place the park ( the park is near the neighborhood )
- for the question: “What do you usually do when you meet your friends?” the majority answered that they play games ( especially sports ) and discuss
- for the question:,, Would you like to take part in recreational activities after classes?”, the answers were 100% affirmative for this category of ages
- for the question: ,,Do you have a computer with internet connection at home?”, half of the respondents of this age answered ,,no”
- the children had to choose from a list of themes and activities that they would like to develop after classes. The most answers indicated preferences for: sports ( football ); art ( dances, theatre, music ); health issues (hygiene, prevention of certain diseases ) and ecology
• for children with ages from 13 to 15 years old
- for the question:,, ,,What do you like to do in your free time?” the majority of answers indicated activities like practicing sports ( volleyball, football, tennis ) and spending time on computer
- for the question: ,,Where do you meet your friends?” most of answers indicated as the most common meeting places the streets where the children live and the school when they come to classes
- for the question: ,,What do you usually do when you meet your friends?” the majority answered that they like to play games ( mainly sports ) and to discuss with their friends
- for the question:,, Would you like to take part in recreational activities after classes?” the majority of answers were affirmative although a significant number of children from this age answered negative
- for the question: ,,Do you have a computer with internet connection at home?” the answers indicated that a high number of children from this category of ages have a computer with internet connection
- the children had to choose from a list of themes and activities that they would like to develop after classes. The most answers indicated preferences for: sports ( football, volleyball ); artistic activities ( dances; theatre, music ); health issues (hygiene, prevention of certain diseases ) and culture ( learning foreign languages; learning about cultures and tradition of other countries).
What has been done
In the district of Catargiu, where Olga, Rita, Alessandro and Tina worked, the situation that the volunteers faced was pretty much like this: The teachers from School no. 19 have tried to do an afterschool in 2008 to help the Roma children to recover gaps but they didn’t succeed because of lack of finances to sustain this programme. The school is facing also situations of school drops more frequently among Roma children than Romanian ones. School drops usually happen for several reasons: parent’s lack of interest for education; early marriages; poor material situation. The school is collaborating with representatives of Roma people, councilor from the County Council and other representatives from the local public administration to prevent school drops. They organized symposiums and round tables where they discuss these issues and where preventive measures are proposed. The school is facing the situation in which the parents of Roma children don’t respect the official enrollment period. They enroll their children later; therefore classes with a majority of Roma children appear. It cannot be said that the segregation is imposed. The teachers are making efforts to mix the classes during the school year by gathering Romanian children and Roma children with a similar level of knowledge.
Olga, our volunteer from Czech Republic started her activities in School no.19 in Catargiu with handcrafting activities such as: drawing flags of different European countries, manufacturing animal figures from paper shits, coloring traditional costumes or painting representative international images. After the children got to know her and she became popular in the school, together with Rita, the volunteer from Latvia, they divided the approximately 120 children that showed interest in working with them in small groups )based on the children’s preferences: kick-boxing (conducted by Olga) or line-dancing (Rita’s activity).
Olga worked in Catargiu 4 days per week teaching the children the basic moves of kick-boxing and how to be coordinated and to work as a team.
The reasons for which she choose to teach kick-boxing (besides her personal affinities for this sport) are wisely related to the project’s objectives: forming mix groups (of Roma and non-Roma children) and teaching each member to repeat, simultaneously, the same moves, contributed to a more self-disciplined, organized, responsible attitude and helped infusing a group awareness, consolidating the existing friendly relationships or forming new bonds between children coming from different ethnic groups.
Line-dancing classes in Catargiu
Rita, from Latvia, had experience in line-dancing so she decided to base her activities on that. She worked with children (mainly girls) from 7 classes, 4 days per week, succeeding to teach them 3 modern dance routines.
Her activity became really popular in the school and even though her target group consisted on children aged 7-11 years, teenage girls took part to her dance workshops.
She was able to infuse a team feeling into the groups, to teach responsibility and discipline through a fun, age appropriated activity.
After 2 months, one of the girls assume the leader position in teaching the others the dance routines and Rita became the proud coordinator of the hole activity.
From September, Tina took over Rita’s dance activities.
Tina about her experience in Catargiu:
“In general there is to say that working with Roma children is not totally different from working with non-Roma children, except for some differences depending on the community. You have to be very patient with them, since in some cases the education at home is not appropriate and therefore the children are not able to behave and follow the rules which are required from them. Also the sad truth is that you have to make a lot of compromises. If you have great idea this does not mean that you can put it into practice exactly the way you want to.
In many cases it's the contingency plan which is working and you have to prepare for that. This requires a lot of flexibility and the ability of understanding. Learning by doing is probably the best description for it.
In my case, working with Roma children was not much different from working with German children.
My children were both Roma and Romanian and while working with them I did not face any difficulties except for the language.
Only the fact that the Romanian school system is not working the way I was used to was not so easy to accept at the first place. And that is sometimes very frustrating.”
Photo gallery
Take me up!
Mofleni
Introduction
School n°26
The oldest documents of the school are talking about the school in Mofleni, dating from around 1894 - from the first day, the school keeps the transcript with those students who were enrolled in the classes I-II, the school year 1894-1895. Starting with 2010 the school has been put under the authority of school 13.
Currently the school functions with classes I - VIII, a single number, and school population is heterogeneous, predominantly Roma students.
School with classes I-VIII n°26 is located in a peripheral area. The neighborhood has a heterogeneous population (Romanians and Roma, the latter represented by the year 1990, the majority population) and socio-cultural as a medium. The role of the school is very important and at the same time difficult, as the family environment is not educational, being influenced by material situation.
I. Status quo of the community
Mofleni is a a peripheral neighborhood located in the south-west of Craiova City, situated close to the ,,Parcul Tineretului” ( The Park of Youth” ), at a distance of maximum 5 km away from the zone 0 of the city.
There are means of transportation from down town: bus n°14 and bus n°29.
Mofleni has 1.745 inhabitants of which 800 persons are Roma.
Mofleni neighbourhood has the appearance of a village, with contrasting ,landscapes” like poor, small houses near large, luxurious houses, and partially paved streets. The main street has asphalt, but the side streets are not paved. Also, on the side streets, (like Street Abatorului), people are very poor, living in misery. There are also cases when 12 people live all together, in one small room.
There is no network of running water, and people are using water from wells dug in the ground.
Roma population in Mofleni includes only traditional Roma. They are mostly, brick makers, but they have abandoned the traditional job. Only few still practice traditional trades.
There are few Roma with stable jobs.
In Mofleni neighborhood Roma population earn their living from occasional work, work in the market (selling second-hand clothes), collecting unuseful objects from iron or plastic and selling them. Many of them are beneficiaries of welfare and to this is added children's allowance.
Lately, the financial situation of community has improved due to migration of young people working abroad.
Most of the Rroma families in Mofleni neighbourhood are still traditional ones.
The biggest problems facing Roma youngsters are discrimination, lack of education and early marriage.
The traditions of Rroma people, their way of living and their difficulties to adapt it to a modern society led to many prejudices and labeling from the Romanian people, like:
- all Roma people are criminals and thieves
- Roma people are responsible for the bad image of Romania
Marriages are usually between the ages of 13 - 17 years.
Even if there are some Roma people who use to “sell” their daughters, Roma people from Mofleni practice marriage without asking for money.
Civil marriage is made in years if absolutely necessary for some family interests, the youngsters can live together from the day of the traditional wedding.
Roma people have their own traditions for marriage and their own Roma trial, where they solve everything, except for murder.
Generally, the collaboration and the cohabitation of Roma and Romanian people in this neighborhood are good but it is evident to some extent, the mistrust regarding gypsies and the tendency to judge them. The neighborhood is actually split into two pieces: in the first half (close to The Park of Youth) Roma people live, and in the other half (close to the bridge), the Romanians live.
Roma people do not really collaborate with the school, seen as an institution that can destroy their tradition.
Educational process faces the following issues: early marriage, migration abroad, labor exploitation of children, some parents do not allow children to go to school, high absenteeism, low level of living.
As a result of the lack of referential patterns in the educational system, most young people in the neighborhood migrate, thus reaching the level of early school drop-out.
In Mofleni is located a general school, namely School with Classes I-VIII n°26, and Orthodox Theological Seminary, with classes IX-XII, but only in School n°26 Roma children are present in large numbers.
School with Classes I-VIII n°26 has a long tradition in this neighborhood, dating from around 1894.
The school has two buildings (one for classes I-IV and one for classes V-VIII), has a lab and internet access.
In the school there are mostly Roma children; there are only two non-roma children.
The teachers are mostly non-roma. There are two Roma teachers, and one of them is teaching Romani language (Roma language).
II. The main problems with an impact on Rroma youngsters
Roma youngsters constitute the most marginalized group in Romania. Raised under very difficult socioeconomic conditions and the striking pressure of the society, it is very hard for them to integrate into the social and cultural life of the country. Their involvement in professional courses, cultural activities and various training seminars would influence the improvement of their situation.
The low educational level is the most serious problem, impeding the integration of this community towards the majority society.
Many Roma children are illiterate. Some of the factors influencing this situation are the poverty in their families and sometimes the wrong mentality of their parents.
If Roma children have no possibility to complete a certain educational level, it means that their future is in danger. When adults, the children with no education are offered to do ordinary jobs, such as cleaning streets at night or during the day, collecting garbage or cans and finally, using their oldest profession: begging.
In Mofleni neighborhood, the role of the school is very important and at the same time difficult, as the family environment is not educational, being influenced by material situation.
In School n°26 there are few children going to school every day. They are not used to timetables, not to say extracurricular activities. The children often go to school two or three hours a day, and then they go home and start working in their houses.
Also, they don´t have community life or group space. Usually children live in their own families without deep contact between them. They don´t spend time together like a group or a community apart for the traditional events like weddings or funerals.
Even if Roma people are said to have no education, the percentage of children that promote school in Mofleni is high, 98%-99%.
In School n°26, there are only two non-roma children, but they get along very well with Roma ones.
In kindergarten, the situation is different. Roma and Romanians are present in equal percentage.
These different situations occur, because the non-roma parents agree with sending their children in kindergarten along with roma children, only because they are afraid of letting them to go alone in another kindergarten from another neighborhood (a kindergarten without Roma children), because of the long distance and the age of their kids (5-6 years old). But when the children grow, the situation changes, and they go to schools in other neighborhoods.
The school in Mofleni neighborhood is not sufficiently supported by the Local Council or the City Hall in terms of educational initiatives. The school doesn’t have a sports field, only a small room for physical education, and during the summer when the temperatures are very high, the atmosphere is hardly bearable.
General school from Mofleni has an active group of teachers ready to involve in a project, ready to support any activity, but the problem is that they are not speaking English. There is only one English teacher in the school.
Another big problem of the school and indirectly of the Roma children is that there is no budget for extracurricular activities and there are no sponsors. Without money, non formal education has no chance in changing the future of these youngsters.
Not only that in Mofleni and in Roma communities the level of education is very low, but they also don’t receive any kind of support in implementing projects for promoting non-formal education or for raising the awareness about the importance of the education in general. Also the school doesn’t have a sports field, or a celebration hall. All these aspects affect Roma children, their future, and the process of reducing discrimination against Roma population.
III. The opportunities to implement an EVS project
Non-discrimination does not apply always in real life, especially when it comes to Roma population. An explicit example is Mofleni a segregated neighborhood of Craiova where children are not motivated to go to school, they don’t have a group of friends, or an idea about the concept of after school classes.
In School n°26, there were some extracurricular activities, like a dancing team, and all kind of social, and ecological games. Now the kids here are have experienced 2 EVS. So, the school has some experience in relation with European projects, like Learning by Doing implemented by EPYD and other projects with NGOs like Vasiliada and Terdezom.
Also this school from Mofleni has partnerships with ISJ, TRUST, EPYD, Vasiliada Associasion, Terdezom Association, Amaro Sumo, Speranta Baniei Association, ROMANI C.R.I.S.S. and others. Mofleni neighborhood is a mixed one – young, medium and older.
Regarding the number of children aged 0-7 years the situation is the following:
- between 3 and 5 years - 32 children
- aged 5 - 7 - 25 children
- between 0 - 3 years - 35 children
These youngsters from Mofleni are disadvantaged, with low opportunities. For them, the unemployment, social and economic exclusion, depression, substance abuse and crime are just some characteristics of their future.
Disadvantage is not inevitable. While a disadvantaged young person has grown up with a lack of opportunities and resource, this doesn't have to be the story of their adult lives. Through comprehensive programs and scholarships, organizations like EPYD can help provide disadvantaged young people with educational support, employment skills and confidence to negotiate this vital stage of life.
The key of changing this situation is non-formal education.
Non-formal education can enhance their overall knowledge, can help them integrate what they have learn in school to what they know about the environment.
The European Union supports non-formal education opportunities for young people through transnational voluntary service which directly and actively involves young people in activities designed to meet the needs of society in a wide range of fields.
In Mofleni, there are a lot of problems to work on, and the school provides us with the support and the place to do it.
There are teachers in Mofleni who really want to involve in every project that can help children. Romanescu Alexandra is a young English teacher who offered, along with Vladut Mirela, a sports teacher, to support the volunteers and the projects.
Roma population is well known for migrating in countries like Italy, Spain or Germany. So, even if they don’t speak English, they can speak Spanish, Italian or German. There are two girls in the community who speak Spanish fluently, and there are a lot of youngsters who speak very good Italian.
In this S.E.E.D II project, TRUST organization will be supporting all the activities.
TRUST “Tineri Romi pentru Unitate şi Transparenta” is an association, dealing with monitoring human rights violation and belongs to ROMANI C.R.I.S.S.’s network. Particularly, through a strategic plan against discrimination, in the last four years they have been working in the field of school segregation in Craiova in order to ensure same quality and same opportunities of education to Rroma children.
They will provide cultural trainings and information of volunteers in what regards the Rroma culture, their traditions and habits, making them better prepared in approaching with success the target group. They are well seen in the community and they can be mediators of the relations between the community and the volunteers working here.
The school will be the place for developing each activity.
In School n°26 from Mofleni, there are small classes, a lab with internet access, and a small room for physical education. They are now building a celebration hall, and looking forward to seeing the moment when they will start building the sports field.
There are teachers ready to help, and most important, roma children who need help in these activities.
Also, teachers agreed with having the volunteers assisting the classes, and observing how the process of formal education works in Romania.
The school in Mofleni and the community itself is used to foreigners. The school had developed some projects with Romanians like social education, ecological games, human rights, and only one EVS project, with two Spanish girls.
When working in the Rroma community in Craiova, Mofleni you will know the problems affecting Rroma daily life, like access to housing, employment and health care and this experience will make them face, on the local level, the violation of human rights.
The Roma children know almost nothing about how a normal child should act, learn or play. That is why they are happy with small actions, routine actions for us, new and exciting for them. Having Roma children, and also the Roma community of Mofleni involved, maybe in the future we wouldn’t be talking about school drop-out.
These non-formal activities will help children realize the importance of the school and also the importance of sport, fair-play and a healthy life.
In order to find out the needs and wishes of the Roma children from Mofleni neighborhood we applied a survey, from which it results that children with ages between 11 and 14 years old, like to practice sports and hang out with friends into their spare time. There are also kids who like to listen to music and also reading. The children like to spend their free time into the park, or at the stadium. The park is really near Mofleni and it is a new park, being an attraction for all children and youngsters from Craiova.
The favorite activities of the Roma children from Mofleni are sports and listening to music. These children are active, and music is a strong part of their culture and tradition. Being asked if they would like to participate together with other youngsters after classes to some extracurricular activities, all the children responded affirmatively. They are very interested in knowing new people and learning new things.
Roma children from Mofleni neighborhood are interested in computers and internet, but due to financial situation, less then half of the families have a computer connected to the internet. All the children preferred as extracurricular activities sports, artistic activities like dancing, painting, theatre, and also ecology. They had already developed an ecology project, and this theme sound interesting to them.
What has been done
Mofleni has been the involved in two of the projects that EPYD implemented so far:
The Learning by Doing project
Sara and Nuria came in Romania for a six months project named “Learning by doing” implemented by EPYD Organization. They are working in Mofleni with children from 7 to 14 years old, twice a week from 3 to 5. They have games, dancing, and workshops. Also, Sara now is teaching 3 boys how to read and write, because these kids, even if they are 12 years old, they have never went to school. They are making progress but she is concerned about this situation – there are children that never go to school in Roma communities. She hopes that she will encourage children to go to school, and also that her project would be continued.
Because they were the first volunteers working in Mofleni, they had some difficulties at the beginning, and they also have some now too.
They would never expect the children to be waiting for them in the school at 3 o’clock.
Before 3 PM, they go door by door in the community, announcing and also presenting their project to the Roma children and parents too. For them this was also good because now they can understand better the community, see where and how every child lives and how is the project seen by the parents.
These girls have managed to attract children with some “free time activities”, like painting, dancing, and also learning about European Countries and culture.
The SEED project
Afterschool Handicrafts in Mofleni
In School n°26, there are only two non-Roma children, but they get along very well with Roma ones. Another big problem of the school and indirectly of the Roma children is that there is no budget for extracurricular activities and there are no sponsors. Without money, non formal education has no chance in changing the future of these youngsters.
Francesco, from Italy, helped by Jack, Jakob, Ken and Girts soon discovered that if you want to convince the children to attempt the school and to participate at the volunteers’ activities, they will have to go day by day to their houses and bring them to school.
They quickly became very popular in the community and received the support of the parents in implementing their activities.
In Mofleni, the volunteers choose handicrafts: building maracas and other musical instruments, music & film projection to teach the children how to behave. The ecological theme was often use in Mofleni by the volunteers as base for their activity (the children received information about recycling and the handicrafts sessions teach them how to build different objects from used materials like empty bottles, old cardboard boxes and so on).
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Popoveni
I. Status quo of the community
This district, located in the South of Craiova, is populated with a total of 1,000 people of which about 70% are Rroma ethnics.
There are means of transportation from down town: bus No 24, 1.
Roma community in this area is located in the area known as "Canal", following the canal that passes right through the middle of its community over a distance of about 2 km.The neighbourhood has the appearance of a village, with poor, small houses near partially paved streets.
The main street has asphalt, but the side streets are not paved. There are also cases when 12 people live all together, in one small room. There is no network of running water, and people are using water from wells dug in the ground.
Rroma population in Popoveni includes only traditional Rroma. They are mostly, brick makers, but they have abandoned the traditional job. Only few still practice traditional trades.There are few Roma with stable jobs.
In Popoveni, Rroma population earn their living from occasional work, work in the market (selling second-hand clothes), collecting unuseful objects from iron or plastic and selling them. Many of them are social aid beneficiaries adding to this children's allowance.Lately, the financial situation of community has improved due to migration of young people working abroad.
Most of the Rroma families in Popoveni are still traditional. The biggest problems facing Roma youngsters are discrimination, lack of education and early marriage. The traditions of Rroma, their way of living and their difficulties to adapt to a modern society led to many prejudices and labeling from the Romanian people, like:
- all Rroma people are criminals and thieves
- Rroma people are responsable for the bad image of Romania
Marriages usually take place between 12 - 17 years, engagements are made 7-8 years earlier. Even if there are some Rroma people who use to “sell” their daughters, Rroma people from Popoveni practice marriage without asking for money.Civil marriage is made in the years after if absolutely necessary for some family interests, but the youngsters can live together from the day of the traditional wedding.
Rroma people have their own traditions for marriage and their own Rroma trial, where they solve everything, except for murder.
Generally, the collaboration and the cohabitation of Rroma and Romanian people in this neighborhood is good but it is evident to some extent, the mistrust regarding gypsys and the tendency to judge them.
Rroma people do not really collaborate with the school, seen as an institution that can destroy their tradition.Educational process faces the following issues: early marriage, migration abroad, labor exploitation of children, some parents do not allow children to go to school, high absenteeism, low level of living. As a result of the lack of referential patterns in the educational system, most young people in the neighborhood migrate, thus reaching the level of early school drop-out.
School Nr. 36 was opened in 1992 and in terms of infrastructure is new. In terms of teachers, all staff are qualified. Since 2000 to this school was subordinated structure Popoveni-School Nr. 27.School classes I-IV Popoveni is located out of the city of Craiova and looks like a house with 3 bedrooms. The building is made out of 4 rooms: lounge, the office and 2 classrooms. The toilet is located outside and still running. This building shelters 75 students, all Rroma. Distance between the two structures is about 1, 5 km.
II. The main problems with an impact on Rroma youngsters
The Rroma community in Popoveni is confronted with a series of problems with an impact on youngsters:
Poverty – for many of them the main source of living are the social aids and allowances
- there are a lot of cases when the Rroma children are stimulated to go school only because they receive a student allowance
- most of Rroma adults don’t have any professional qualification working in low paid jobs such as salubrity or practicing ambulatory commerce
Migration – a significant number of Rroma people migrate abroad for better paid jobs
- the adults either take their children with them abroad, interrupting their studies, either leave them at home to take care of younger brothers or old members of the family, which also leads to the situation of interrupting the studies
Tradition - there is a significant number of cases when the rules of tradition supersede the need for education : by the age of 11 years old or 14 years old, the girls are already engaged and they have to interrupt school for getting married; the boys are allowed to continue their studies but there are a lot of cases when they interrupt their studies by the age of 16 years old
- the adults don’t perceive the education as a benefit and opportunity to develop but as a threat to their traditions
Education
Level of schooling; school drop
The school with classes I-IV nr. 27, “Popoveni” has 100% Rroma children. Although the official attendance rate in general is high – 90%- the real school attendance rate among Rroma children is lower and fluctuating. The main cause seems to be the migration. The parents enrol their children at the beginning of the school year and after a while they take their children, interrupting their studies, to leave abroad. Therefore the Rroma children have serious gaps in their knowledge: many of them don’t learn to read and write until 9, 10 years old.
Even though the graduation average is above 90%, Rroma children come out of the educational system with real blanks in where knowledge and competences are concerned. School board has alerted already the city council and the city hall, but no concrete answer was received, nor any help.
Segregation
School 27 is a subordinated structure of School 36, so segregation is given by location. Rroma children in Popoveni go to primary school here and then make up mix classes with Romanian pupils. Teachers have created interaction between the children organising sports events, dancing groups and scenes play with the children.
III. The opportunities to implement an EVS project
It is evident the need to improve the level of education of Rroma children and to increase the level of cooperation between Roma and Romanian children.
The opportunity to implement an EVS project in a community like Lascar Popoveni and particularly in School 27 can be described in terms of:
Human resources:
- the director of the school , Mr. Marica Ion, together with the deputy director Mrs. Carmen Dragomir, the coordinating teacher for primary school Popoveni, Mr Georgică Constantin and one of the English teachers, Mrs. Dumitru Adelina engaged themselves in supporting the project during it’s implementation
- the support offered by the teachers consists in: helping the volunteers to integrate in the school; talking to parents and children and explaining them the purpose of the project in order to intermediate the contact between them and the volunteers and win more easy their confidence; helping the volunteers to organise the groups of children and activities.
Infrastructure/ Material resources:
- there is a sports field in the school yard
- the courses schedule is from 8 to 11:30 - 1st and 2nd grade and from 11:30 to 15 – 3rd and 4th grade, but there are available daily, 2 unoccupied classrooms in the kindergarten that can be used for extracurricular activities after 12 o’clock when small children go home.
- only a small part from the budget allocated for school needs is used for extracurricular activities because the budget is small
- the school managed on several occasions to obtain sponsorships from companies for activities with children ( festivities, contests ) and for some necessary equipment, but the principle said is becoming more and more difficult to get funds.
Extracurricular activities/ Partnerships:
- there is a group of dances formed by a teacher from the school in 2008; the group has participated in contests of ethnic dances
- the school has several partnerships with other schools from the town and from outside the town; it is noteworthy the partnership with Organizatia Tinerilor cu Initiativa din Arad who is implementing the project ECO GROUPS financed by the Youth in Action Program
Opennes/Expectations:
- the teachers have experience with only one European programme(the above mentioned partnership ); so implementing an EVS project would be a good occasion to learn more about these programmes
- the teachers from the school, in general, are interested in new educational programmes
- the teachers are open to a possible collaboration with other schools where the number of Rroma children is significant
- as an expectation of the teachers: they would like from volunteers to offer to the children examples of new teaching and learning methods, more modern, active and practical ones that will attract more the children in schools
- the children are open to extracurricular activities
-the teachers believe that they, together with the volunteers through the children openness and interest in extracurricular activitites, will obtain the parent’s openness too.
What has been done
Afterschool Handicrafts and music in Popoveni
They also developed different handicrafts in Popoveni. Presenting parts of Craiova, Romania and the countries they are coming from and then drawing them in colors is another good method for children to memorize important geographical facts, but also the enlarge their idea of the world they are living in. Being together raises team spirit and the sense of interculturality.
Ken, Jakob, Girts, Jack and later Fridolin constructed their activities in Popoveni following a few guidelines. Noticing serious gaps in children’s basic knowledge and abilities, they divided their 7 months activity in thematic sessions: geography, visual art, music and gentility lessons.
Through puppet theatre, handicrafts, music (Jack and Fridolin played guitar and harmonica) and a lot of perseverance, the volunteers succeeded in keeping the children motivated and interested enough not only to attend their classes but also to actively participate.
Here are Girts thoughts about his experience in Popoveni: ,, Of course there are a lot of stereotypes about Roma people, and in some kind of way they were a little bit also in my head, but when we started to work there were no problems, they are like all other people, with their own traditions, language and thinking.
Challenge is more connected with language, and also it’s harder to get trust from Roma families. We just went there, made activities at school, we knew that we need to make them simple, basic things, as the education in schools are bad, and the education for the kids are not so important.
So we went to schools, try to get know the kids, speak as much as we could, try to get their trust, to become their friends.
Went around in community so that we saw how they live and so that the other people in community saw us.”
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