The groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of new full-day kindergarten “Prolet” in Roma neighbourhood Kosharnik, an activity under the ZOV Programme, took place today.

Over 980 thousand BGN will be invested in the construction of the kindergarten and for its furnishing, said Mayor of Montana Zlatko Zhivkov at the official ceremony. He underlined that this is the first kindergarten to be newly built in Montana for the recent forty years.

The construction is expected to finish around New Year’s. The building will meet all modern standards and will host about 100 children. Three full-day groups and one half-day group will be organized.

“Currently we have about 80 children attending the kindergarten in Kosharnik. We have organized them in two full-day groups and one half-day group. Because of the high birth rate in the neighbourhood, we need a more spacious building,” said kindergarten director Emiliya Kotseva. The building, which currently hosts the kindergarten, has not been designed for this purpose and does not fully meet the requirements. According to the operative regulations, each child should have at least 6 sq.m. of gross built up area. Currently the kindergarten area does not exceed 120 sq.m., which means that each child has about 1 – 1.5 sq.m.

The new kindergarten is expected to start functioning around March 2017; for this purpose, new staff of qualified teachers and a psychologist will be employed.

Sixty children from three schools in Ruse will be holidaying in a one-week summer camp in Uzana vicinity near Gabrovo. The pupils from primary schools “Nikola Obretenov,” “Aleko Konstantinov” and “Bratya Miladinovi” are aged between 7 and 11 and come from the three ethnic groups in the city: Bulgarian, Turk and Roma.

The three schools are partners to the local government in the project “Integrated approach of Ruse local government for the integration of Roma and other vulnerable groups in the municipalities within the District of Ruse” funded by the Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Programme.

Every day the children join in diverse educational, sport and hiking activities. The objective of the summer camp is to support the families of children from the target group through the providing of suitable conditions for entertainment and recreation, to facilitate the communication between all ethnic groups and to contribute for the integration of Roma in the Bulgarian community.

A special program was developed for the children, to fully engage and involve them in learning games and sport activities.

The health mediators from the project “Comprehensive approach to the inclusion of Roma in Montana Municipality” conducted an awareness raising campaign in Ogosta neighbourhood.

“The purpose of the campaign was to enhance the role of mediators in Montana Municipality so that they become a resource of impact and support for the vulnerable groups in the implementation of project activities. This campaign is a preparatory stage for our forthcoming work in the Roma neighbourhoods. I believe that the trust in us will open the doors to the mapping activity scheduled to take place this autumn,” said Petar Tsvetanov. He is chairman of the Managing Board of the National Network of the Health Mediators, which is partner in the project. The mapping is intended to establish the health state of Roma, morbidity rate and health risks.

Brochures of health facts were distributed at an improvised information stall. A health mediator calculated the body mass index on the spot and the people in risk were consulted on the prevention of cardio-vascular diseases and the consequences of hypertension. Alongside, the project and its forthcoming activities were promoted: mapping, work with young people and families, free medical examinations. The consultancies for young mothers on the preventive benefits of immunizations were found to be very useful.

The four health mediators: Petar Tsvetanov, Valeriya Belova, Elizabet Kamenova and Sonya Rumenova visited certain households and provided consultancies on particular cases.

Two information campaigns in two more locations are scheduled to take place in Kosharnik neighbourhood and in village Gabrovnitsa, both of compact Roma population.