STEP IN Bulgaria

The project took place in Varna, the local area is called Maksuda. The Roma community here lives in segregation. Many are poor.

The Target group
Two thirds of the children belonging to this Roma minority Chorachane are Bulgarian Muslims, who speak Turkish. One third speaks Romany. They are orthodox Christians. The youngsters targeted in this project were in the 6th, 7th and 8th year in the Otez Paisii School, Varna. This school is attended for one hundred percent by children from the local Roma communities. Overall, 15 young people have been involved in the project. In the beginning the group changed several times
because some children did not attend the project regularly and left. The children in the group were between 12 and 15 years old, with a strong majority of girls. As the group was rarely complete, the project was opened for children from the 4th and 5th year who were present at school every day and who wanted to join the project activities. As the Bulgarian state offers extra-curricular classes after the of.cial school time for younger children, they were already used to staying at school in the afternoon, whilst many older pupils had already given up staying in school after school hours. Together with these children, the group counted 20 pupils in total.

The local project
In Bulgaria the STEP IN project focused mainly on motivating and helping Roma-children with the educational contents of the Bulgarian curriculum. Furthermore, it focussed on social and cultural integration through extra-curricular activities.
The project activities aimed to support children with the following subjects: Bulgarian (language and literary), mathematics, chemistry, history, nature and physics and biology. The support was necessary as the young Roma involved in the project often had missed out on basics taught in .rst year, even though they had been registered at school during this time.
Complementary activities carried out within the project realms were:
- Learning free subjects like English (which is not taught at school for children of this age), computers, health education, religious traditions pupils rights and duties Roma culture
- Sports
- Creative work (workshops in writing, painting, singing and dancing)
- Excursions and cultural activities: going to the museum or to the theatre and reading famous Bulgarian literature together
- Professional orientation
- Getting to know public institutions in- and outside their segregated local area
- Meetings with parents about the importance of the activities of the project, the importance of education and discipline and discussions about what role the parents could play in the education of their children
- Food support (one warm meal per schoolday)

Negative points / difficulties:
The school is in the segregated local area and is only attended by Roma children. Gage and children who are not pupils of the school are not allowed to be present in the building on a daily basis. Therefore it was not possible to build up an intercultural group. Another difficulty was the irregular attendance of the children at school and at the project. To overcome this problem, employees of the project as well as teachers of the school made visits to the children homes and helped parents to .nd ways of solving their problems. The parents had an open attitude towards them.
Studying, training and educational activities should not be started with a perspective shorter than 10 years. The development of trust and success in life cannot take place in two years. Gaps experienced in childhood cannot be repaired in two years. It is important to assure sustainability of these kinds of projects and activities.
The Ethnocentricity in the Bulgarian school-system, as well as the lack of intercultural training and understanding at school for other cultures, including the Bulgarian culture, formed a big setback of the project.
The contents of the schoolbooks, as well as the teaching methods and the schedules at school were not suf.ciently adapted to the life-style of Roma children. Food in the school canteen could only be given to those children whose parents could pay it. Books for elderly pupils had to be bought by the parents as well.

Positive points / strengths:
The school had a long experience in working with children of Roma origin. It was open to new projects and looked for different ways of leading the way for children to become equal citizens in civil society. All pupils involved in the project finished their school year successfully. Their performance really improved thanks to the project; their marks ranging from very good to average. None of the children received bad marks.
An important success was also achieved with a group of pupils of the 8th year, the last class of compulsory education.
Some of them did not attend school regularly, others had little success and were sometimes absent. Thanks to the daily work of the project with them and their parents, the school was able to keep them involved till the end of the year, which meant they could finish their 8th year with success. An important incentive for keeping them at school was the free lunch provided, sports, excursions, computer- and English-courses and various cultural activities. The activities involved for job orientation were also seen as helpful. Some pupils will go on to attend a vocational training course, such as hairdressing, others are thinking of going into secondary school.
Experience has shown that many of the project extracurricular elements helped in motivating children to attend
school, especially the creative and outdoor learning activities. These activities motivated the children to behave better and to obtain better marks at school with the result that the teachers became more attentive to the pupils difficulties and joys.
The fact that the team of the project was intercultural (Bulgarian, Bulgarian-Roma, German) was enriching. The Bulgarian-Roma mediator of the project, and the author of the book the world and the gypsies, was born in the segregated local area himself and stepped in educational, social and cultural life of society. He is an example that integration
- even if he does not like the word! | AND preserving the genuineness and authenticity of Roma-culture is possible, provided we give a chance to each child to choose his own way!
The networking with other institutions in the framework of the project meant having the possibility to .nd reliable allies, to strengthen the network for children in Varna and to apply together for new projects. The foundations Liebenau and St. Franziskus Heiligenbronn will guarantee the continuation of the project till the end of the school year 2007/2008, to enable the pupils of the 5th and 6th year to end up in the 8th year so as to be prepared to enter a secondary school. The older pupils will be supported and guided with their training, education and employment from now on.

Download (.zip 860 .jpg) some pictures showing the ghetto in Varna, the school and some work done by the young Roma.