Region Burgas

Since September 2016, 25 children visit the fully refurbished full-day kindergarten “Alen Mak” in village Zvezdets. The facility is a one-storey building with partial ground-level space, of total area 327 sq.m.

The building was heat-proofed, the roof was replaced and a new air- and water heating system was installed. Playgrounds were organized with up-to-date playing equipment, and the area around the kindergarten was landscaped. The kindergarten has new furniture: children's beds, sideboards, bookcases, tables, chairs and benches.

Within the frame of the project we planned to repair the kindergarten in village Zvezdets but the activities involved virtually amounted to a newbuilding, given the scope of the work involved: new roofing, new steel plate to serve as foundation of the structure, repaired heating installation. The old building that was inacceptable as a facility intended to host and educate children 5 – 6 years old was, in fact, replaced by a new modern kindergarten.

As of 2016/2017 school year, 90 children of 5 and 6 years old and 55 children of 7 and 8 years old will be able to attend the full-day activities organized in the newly built annexe, intended for preschool and elementary-school classes in “Hristo Botev” Primary School in Pobeda neighbourhood in Burgas. The neighbourhood has never had a kindergarten facility until now and the rooms for extracurricular activities for pupils from the first school grades have been insufficient.

The building is of total area of 870.7 sq.m. The first floor hosts classrooms and a gym, which the school has never had until now. The second floor hosts the rooms for the preparatory-school groups, a medical office and teaching-consultancy room, speech-therapist and psychologist offices and a room for work with parents.

The members of the project team visited 150 families of Roma and Turkish origin, to motivate them to send their children to school.

Since April 2017, a Centre for Community Development has been operating in the town of Sredets. The building, erected more than 40 years ago, was entirely renovated and furnished under the ZOV Programme.  The Centre offers complex services in the area of education and healthcare, including working with parents and celebrations of holidays and cultural events for the most vulnerable groups in the municipality.

The children from the community have extracurricular classes, which complement their skills in Bulgarian language acquired at school; they also have dance lessons, sports activities, and computer lessons. The dances, sports activities and the computers attract the children to attend the centre, and develop their social and communication skills. The centre attracts the parents, too, through the „Active parent“ and the „Responsible parent“ clubs.

The Centre is also intended to provide health-education services and consultations to the parents, so that they have a basic health culture and hygiene habits, as well as to stimulate them to take care of their health – theirs and that of their children. This has all been carried out by pedagogical specialists, psychologists, doctors and health and education mediators, employed under the ZOV Programme, who work all together as a well-coordinated and enthusiastic team.

Three education mediators from the „Regional Roma Union“ Foundation were employed with a competition in the year 2017.  They are actively working in the Roma neighbourhood “Pobeda” to motivate as many children as possible to get enrolled in school and attend the classes regularly.

The mediators are people from the community and they easily find a common language with the parents; they are familiar with the problems of the families and they know how to stimulate them to send their children to the kindergartens and schools. The team of mediators has developed a plan and topics to be discussed during the meetings with the parents, which include the following:  rules at home and in school, discipline, responsible parenting, assistance in the preparation for school. 

 The first families in „Pobeda“ neighbourhood that they visited were families with children aged 5-6 years, according to the information provided by the Civil Registration Office. As a result, ninety (90) per cent of the children born in the year 2012 were enrolled in pre-school groups in the newly-built school building of  „Hristo Botev“ Primary School in „Pobeda“ neighbourhood. The rest of the children were enrolled in kindergartens in Burgas and were provided free transportation by the Municipality of Burgas. The active work of the mediators in „Pobeda“ neighbourhood continues.

Meanwhile, a hundred and fifty (150) new children aged 5 and 6 years were enrolled in pre-school groups in the new building of „Hristo Botev“ Primary School. Before the opening of the new building there were no opportunities for pre-school activities of the children in the neighbourhood.

The „Regional Roma Union“ Foundation works very closely with the schools, and the mediators attend the classes, invite teachers to the thematic discussions with the parents, resolve individual cases and conflicts.

The ZOV Programme supported the repair and renovation of Library meeting centre (Chitalishte) „Hristo Botev 1937“ in Burgas  and since the beginning of 2017 it has been a focal point for the residents and children from the Roma neighbourhood „Pobeda“, as well as for the people from the neighbouring residential areas, wherefrom children from Bulgarian and Turkish origin come to visit the centre.

Theatre and other performances are now regularly held in the library meeting centre (chitalishte) and the hall turns out to be too small to accommodate all who wish to attend them.

The information centre, equipped with computers, is available to the children. In another hall, they have the opportunity to get together, read books and meet with authors.

About 30 children actively attend the group for amateur and applied arts. Dance classes are also conducted regularly – folk and standard dances. Employed under the ZOV Programme was a teacher that leads the extracurricular activities like the reading groups, painting and computer literacy groups.

Those interest-oriented clubs engage the children and actually help them to communicate, to acquire communication and social skills, along with the knowledge they gain. They are those that lead to the final goal – integration!

In 2018, more than 100 pre-school children at the pre-school building in Pobeda - built under ZOV - showed excellent results in Bulgarian after only a year and a half ago hard work. The children are very active and take part in extra school work and even in language and math competitions. They participate in sports and arts clubs organized under the programme (35 children altogether).

16 parents with kids who do not attend school regularly received additional coaching by mediators of the partnering organizaion Regional Roma Union.

In the period January – June 2018, 2 trainings for 20 teachers from the elementary school  "Hristo Botev" in Pobeda and 10 teachers from "St. St. Cyril and Methodius" Secondary School in Sredets were held. In Sredets, 172 students altogether received help and additional classes in the newly functioning community center. 24 children attended Bulgarian language classes, 16 – attended sports classes and 82 participated in culure events.

40 children made educational trips to Burgas. In Malko Tarnovo and the village of Zvezdec, 27 new children were involved in the kindergartens and motivatinal work was carried out with 10 parents.

Number of children in kindergartens (3-6) in newly established groups under ZOV, including groups for Bulgarian lessons - 569

Number of pupils (1 - 4 grade) in newly established groups under ZOV - 372

Number of participants (children and parents) in events - theatre, cinema and other culture & sport events – 1 268

Number of children in extracurricular activities (children & parents clubs, green schools, trips, museums) – 1 911

Number of parents in campaigns and consultations on education – 2 927

Note: Data covers the period 2016 – 2018.

Series of three-day trainings in first-aid providing intended for Roma and other vulnerable groups from the three municipalities were organized in Burgas and Malko Tarnovo in the summer of 2016. The trainings were attended by 100 participants – predominantly parents, but there were children, too. Contests in first-aid providing for 200 participants will be organized at a later stage for the parents and their children. The contestants will be teams composed of family members. The contests will be organized on a drill ground and will include realistically simulated incidents.

These trainings are especially important for the Roma community because of usually delayed visits to the doctor, frequently inaccessible first-aid services and common occurrences of crisis situations. Apart from these reasons, the activity aims to improve the understanding on the benefits of prevention. These indirect results will expand the health awareness and culture of the Roma population. The joint participation of parents and children is a good idea because it contributes to the building of a shared perception for help providing and educates that reaction to a health issue is practically possible.

A total of six health mediators were trained in 2016. Three of them work in Burgas, another one works in Sredets and two other work in Malko Tarnovo. For a couple of months the mediators identified 450 Roma and Turkish families in risk and consulted them on the matters of health insurances and access to healthcare. 84 children of Roma and Turkish origin were directed to immunization. 86 Roma received support for the purchasing of medications and for observance of doctor’s prescriptions.

There is a huge necessity for such mediators across the country. We, the members of ZOV team working in the Burgas area, are satisfied that we have been able to identify persons that are well-suited to perform the function of health mediator in the three towns where the programme operates. Mediators play a key role so that Roma can rely on comprehensive services – healthcare, education, administration matters and establishing contacts with physicians and hospitals.

Mediators’ work is financed by ZOV Programme but the three local governments have undertaken the engagement to employ the mediators once the project is finalized.

Since the beginning of 2017, there have been regular gynecological examinations of young women, as well as consultations of pregnant women and mothers from „Pobeda“ neighbourhood – Sredets. Medical aid has been provided to uninsured women as well.

In order to respond to the need for regular examinations, the Municipality of Sredets organizes transportation to the Diagnostic and consultative centre „El Masri“ for those examinations to be carried out. They include gynecological examinations of uninsured pregnant women from the Roma community and application of free intrauterine spirals (50 spirals since the beginning of the project). By the end of June 2017 gynecological examinations were carried out to 167 health uninsured women from the town of Sredets. Of them, eighty-eight women were pregnant.

During the period January-June 2017, two hundred (200) prophylactic medical examinations were carried out.

The health mediator, employed under the ZOV Programme, helps in the organization of the prophylactic examinations and immunizations, directs the uninsured pregnant women to a gynecologist, and supports the implementation of the doctor’s prescriptions.

With the help of the two health mediators, since the start of the activities for conducting gynecological examinations (December 2016), eighty-one (81) women from „Pobeda“ neighbourhood in Burgas have been examined by a gynecological specialist. Over 400 individual consultations on various health topics have been carried out by the health mediators in the neighbourhood. They also delivered eight lectures on the topic of Hygiene and health during the last reporting period.

Since the start of the examinations in the end of 2016, with the assistance of the health mediators, fifty-five (55) women from Malko Tarnovo have been examined by a gynecological specialist. Sixty-eight (68) uninsured people from the target group have undergone prophylactic examinations by a general practitioner. The mediators have conducted two health campaigns among the community on the topics of family planning, unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

In the period January – June 2018, more than 1,400 individual consultations on different health topics were conducted by health mediators in the 3 project locations – Burgas, Sredets and Malko Tarnovo; 310 gynecological consultations were carried out under ZOV programme in the 3 locations.

Общи медицински прегледи, извършени от общопрактикуващите лекари и педиатри и скрининги – 1 539

Специализирани медицински прегледи, вкл. гинекологични прегледи – 605

Медицински тестове - вкл. ХИВ, сифилис, PAP – тестове (цитонамазки), кръвни тестове за кучешки  тения – 156

Здравни консултации (вкл. здравна  медиация) – 3 918

Поставени вътрематочни спирали - 201

Бенефициенти на информационни кампании и събития, групи за здравна подкрепа на жени и младежи  - 3 191

Бележка: Данните се отнасят за периода 2016 – 2018 г.