Press Release DARE (Bulgaria)

The “Desegregation and Action for Roma in Education” (DARE) Network gathered for a three days exchange visit in Bulgaria to share successful practices concerning school desegregation and access to quality education for Romani children, starting from the 15th of July 2013.

DARE network members are Romani CRISS (Romania), Integro Association (Bulgaria), Life together Association (Czech Republic), ANTIGONE (Greece), European Roma Rights Centre (Hungary) and FXB Centre for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. The DARE-Net project has created a transnational network of Roma and non-Roma civil society and academic organisations to analyse practices and initiatives related to Roma education and school desegregation of Roma children in Romania, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

Integro Association, a Roma NGO from Bulgaria, shared with the Network members its experiences and projects for secondary school and for reintegrating children who have dropped out. The organisations visited the Kavarna, Razgrad and Vazovo Roma communities, a kindergarten and a primary school in the Roma neighborhood of Kavarna and attended meetings with local authorities as well as with representatives of Roma NGOs who are committed to the empowerment and integration of Roma people.

The visit started the 15th of July in Kavarna, where the mayor introduced the partners to the Roma community of the town. In particular, the mayor guided the group to the kindergarten and the primary school, part of the furniture of which has been funded by European Union, and to the local government representation of the Roma neighborhood.

The next day the partners moved to Razgrad, headquarter of Integro Association, where, after have been introduced to the projects that Integro is carrying out, they visited the Independent Roma women’s organization “Karmen”, also called Mother Centre (MC), which has been established by Integro itself. The commitment of MC is focused on the empowerment of Roma women and to give support to mothers and children in need.

After the visit to the Mother Center in Razgrad, the partners went to Vazovo, a small rural village in the Razgrad region, where the Roma represent the 50% of the population and the mayor is Roma. In the village the partners have been welcomed by the mayor and some representatives of the Roma community, among which some members of the local Roma’s Association “Roma Vazovo 2007” which acts both as cultural and community centre. In particular, the Association is committed for the integration of the Roma, to find solutions for social and health problems that affect the community and to make the parents feel responsible regarding their role in respect to the children.

As activity of DARE-Net project, an exchange visit in each partner country has been planned. The exchange visits represent a privileged occasion to share good practices and successful facts, and to formulate ideas on how to act at national level to promote the integration of the Roma communities in the social fabric. The integration of the Roma is among the priorities of the Eu therefore, the activities aimed at desegregation and qualitative education for Roma children, results to be the concrete implementation of the European policies themselves.

More information on the project is available at:

http://www.romanicriss.org/PDF/Project%20description%20DARE.pdf

For further information, please contact:  Integro Association, www.integrobg.org, e-mail: info@integrobg.org