Roma minorities in our community

Roma minorities in our community. The objectives of the project were: raising awareness of the Roma community on the importance of education for Roma children; raise awareness of the success of Roma to serve as role models for other Roma children; improvement of school lives of about 60 Roma children; reduce prejudice against Roma and promote integration in the society. During the course of one year, we worked with 60 Roma children as part of the mentoring project and helped them create a safe and promising entrance into the school. These children were accompanied by successful Roma youths and learned to believe in themselves as well as develop interest in the school material. They were able to talk with the mentors about their professional aspirations and their future plans and were encouraged to believe in their dreams. Neither Roma parents, nor the school authorities had taken much care of the education of these children. State statistics, as well as investigations by NGOs and international organizations, show how much Roma are disadvantaged in education. The focus of the project was also to improve the access of Roma children to education. The human right to education was actively promoted by helping Roma children effectively achieve better school performance in order to gain better chances of higher education. Raising awareness of the Roma parents led them to send their children to school and not to deny them the right to education and not to force them into child labor or begging.