Sredets

Община Средец и Центърът за развитие на общността (ЦРО) са добрият пример за отлична работа на институциите за интеграция на децата от малцинствените групи и привличането им в училище. Това каза образователният министър Красимир Вълчев, който посети днес общината.

Министърът, кметът инж. Иван Жабов и директорката на Регионалния образователен инспекторат инж. Виолета Илиева бяха гости на ЦРО Средец, където бе отбелязан един от най-големите празници на ромите - „Василица“ –  ромската Нова година. Събитието бе част от дейностите, който се изпълняват по местния проект по Програма ЗОВ, финансиран от Българо-швейцарската програма за сътрудничество.

Децата от клуб „Музика и танци“ към проекта представиха богата програма по случай празника. Вниманието на публиката беше завладяно от играта на малките артисти, които представиха обичая „Посрещане на нова година – Банго Васил и сурвакане“. Програмата продължи с ромски легенди за празника, стихотворения, празнични песни и танци. Гостите бяха сурвакани от децата за здраве и успехи.

„ЦРО Средец е пример за това как могат да бъдат мотивирани децата да се включват в различни дейности, за развитие на различни умения. Днес е все по-трудно да убедим учениците, да привлечем вниманието им, но виждаме, че това е изпълнимо и Средец го показва", допълни министър Вълчев.

Обновеният по Програма ЗОВ център отвори врати през пролетта на 2017 и предлага комплексни услуги, свързани с образованието и здравеопазването на най-уязвимите групи от хора в общината.

Десетки деца посещават с ентусиазъм трите клуба по интереси – по спорт (120 деца), творчество (64 деца) и информационни технологии (64 деца), както и детската танцова формация.

Организират се допълнителни занимания в извънкласни форми и групи по интереси – индивидуална и групова работа за ученици от 1-4 клас. 192 ученика участват в допълнителни занимания по български език, водени от опитен педагог. Клуб „Отговорен родител“ подпомага развиването на родителски умения и консултиране на родители на децата от началните класове. Откакто заработи центърът са организирани 20 срещи на  клуба, посетени общо от 220 родители.

За периода от стартирането на проекта до момента образователните медиатори са направили близо 700 посещения при семейства, чийто деца са застрашени от отпадане от училище или вече са отпаднали. Като резултат от тази работа в клас са върнати 30 ученика. Над 200 родители са обхванати от информационни кампании да бъдат мотивирани да изпращат децата си на училище.

ЦРО Средец е притегателно място за честването на традиционни празници: Коледа, Василица – ромската Нова година и 8 април – Международен ден на ромите.

Близо 500 деца са преминали през Центъра за развитие на общността в гр. Средец за една година от създаването му. Сградата бе изцяло ремонтирана  и обзаведена в рамките на проекта на Община Бургас по Програма ЗОВ и бързо бе изпълнена със съдържание, със занимания за малчуганите и техните родители.

Координаторите в Средец успяха да постигнат устойчивост и в момента над 160 деца на възраст между 7 и 12 години редовно посещават Центъра.

Сформирани са четири клуба по интереси – „Инфо“, „Спорт“, „Арт“, „Музика и танци“. Сериозно внимание се обръща и на образованието и децата са разделени в четири групи, в които получават допълнителни знания по български език и математика. От откриването на обновената сграда през април 2017 досега бяха организирани близо 60 дискусии на здравна и образователна тематика.

Внимание се обръща и на родителите. В клуба „Отговорен родител“, участват 10 – 15 души, а над 100 са обхванати през миналата година. С тях се работи за повишаване на отговорността им относно възпитанието на техните деца. Над 360 родители са консултирани, за посещават децата им учебните занятия редовно и как да бъдат преодоляни честите отсъствия.

Затова и от Центъра за развитие на общността могат да се похвалят с добри резултати. Местните експерти заедно с образователните медиатори Марийка Рачева и Бинка Ангелова успяха да върнат в класните стаи 20 деца, които са отпаднали от  училище.

„Имаме трудности относно комуникацията, а и не винаги родителите ни сътрудничат, но с упорство и правилен подход постигаме резултати“, споделя координаторът на проекта в Средец Зюмбюла Маринова. Тя е убедена, че тези дейности трябва да продължат и след края на даден проект, за да се види ефектът от тях. „Иначе всичко, което сме постигнали досега, ще се обезсмисли“, категорична е Маринова.

Такъв ангажимент е поет и от Община Средец, която ще продължи да финансира дейностите по приоритетите „Образование“ и „Здравеопазване“ и след края на проекта по Програма ЗОВ.

The Centre for Community Development in Sredets was officially opened today in "Pobeda" neighbourhood in the town of Sredets. The centre, whose building was entirely renovated and furnished under the ZOV Programme, will offer complex services related to the education and healthcare of the most vulnerable groups of people in the municipality.

The ribbon-cutting during the opening of the Centre was done by the Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Sredets Nikolina Dambulova and the team leader of the ZOV Programme Irina Faion. The guests were welcomed by the talented children of Sredets, who performed and cited Bulgarian and Roma songs and poems.

The building was erected in 1971 as a neighbourhood club for cultural activities. Over the years, only partial repairs had been made but now the Centre has been completely repaired, all premises have been furnished and equipped with funds provided by the ZOV Programme.

„The Municipality will be entirely responsible for the maintenance of the material base in the newly-renovated building”, said the Deputy Mayor Nikolina Dambulova. „The functioning of the Centre will be funded by the municipal budget".

"What we do in Burgas, Sredets and Malko Tarnovo is part of a larger strategy and vision of the Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Programme for integration of the Roma people through education and healthcare, and improvement of the quality of their life“, pointed out the team leader of the ZOV Programme Irina Faion.

The Centre for Community Development is not going to be just a renovated building, it will be filled with content”, added Magdalena Yapadzhieva, senior expert in "Education and Demographic Issues" Directorate at the Municipality of Burgas and manager of the project of Burgas Municipality under the ZOV Programme.

Sredets Centre

"On the first floor, there are three offices for the centre’s team, a computer room, a hall for trainings and cultural events. They were furnished and equipped with funds of the project. On the semi-basement floor there are two large halls. One of them is intended for extracurricular activities of the “Sports” Club, while the other one will be used by the newly-created dance group", explained Project Coordinator for Sredets and Coordinator "Education and integration activities" in the Municipality of Sredets Zyumbula Marinova.

The Centre will offer activities, which will complement the teaching of Bulgarian language in the schools, the development of computer skills and work habits, as well as the socialization of the children through games and arts. The team will also work with the parents, in order to motivate them to send their children to school and encourage them to be active in class. The Centre was designed to provide health and 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 and that of their children. A health mediator will ensure the link of parents and children with a general practitioner and a gynecologist. It will all be carried out with the support of pedagogical specialists, psychologists, doctors and mediators, employed under the ZOV Programme, who are people from the community.

Integrated services

The idea of integrated services, concentrated in Roma communities in the form of centres, is not a new one. Similar programmes in Bulgaria have been funded also by the World Bank, UNICEF and under EU social projects, in order to improve the quality of the services related to social and health problems. Such integrated services are offered in many places in the countries with compact Rom population - Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Spain. It is increasingly necessary to use the efforts of municipalities and non-governmental organizations for the provision of this kind of integration services, primarily in the area of education and employment in the countries from the European Union that accept Roma immigrants – Germany, Scotland, Belgium, France.

„The ZOV Programme is not an exception to this tendency and contributes to the improvement of the work in the social sphere, engaging, though, the municipalities further to take over the management and sustainment of those centres“, said the team leader of the ZOV Programme Irina Faion. „This combination between providing support with know-how, integrated approach, positioning in the Roma community itself and sustainability, is the ultimate goal that we are aiming at and hope to achieve. This is the uniqueness of our approach in our work under the ZOV Programme“.

Sixty-six teachers from the towns of Burgas, Sredets and Malko Tarnovo recently took part in a second training under the Integrated Project for Social Inclusion of Roma and Other Vulnerable Groups, implemented by the Municipality of Burgas in the framework of the ZOV Programme.

One of the topics covered in the training was the mapping as an interactive approach for working with children and students in a multicultural environment. „The teacher should plan the whole activity and give detailed guidance to the children about what they are going to do. For example, a tour as part of the “Environment” lessons, getting to know the school or the neighbourhood... And after the tour everyone should draw up a map based on their observations. At the end, we get different maps, the result of different perceptions“, tells the lecturer Assoc. Prof. Maria Aleksieva from Burgas Free University. She is convinced that this approach yields interesting results, because the children are active and want to explore the world in their own way.

The belief in the need for innovative approaches in the social inclusion of the children is also shared by Radostina Botushanska, assistant principal of „Hristo Botev“ Primary School. The school is attended by children of Bulgarian, Turkish and Roma origin and there have been many cases when some of them crossed the threshold of the school with a very limited vocabulary of Bulgarian words but then graduated with good marks.

And all that happens due to the teachers – to their efforts and the innovative approaches they apply. Yet, this is not the only factor.

There are now education mediators involved in the project activities. Three of them work mainly in the newly established „Responsible parent“ and „Active parent“ clubs in Pobeda neighbourhood in Burgas. Their purpose is to motivate parents to send their children to school. The ambition of the project in Burgas is to cover about 300 parents. The mediators will soon start working „on the terrain“– visiting the parents’ homes.

“What we have started is not easy and the results cannot be expected to take place right away”, tells Desislava Teneva, one of the mediators. “There is no „magic wand“, but we can already notice the positive signs.” The mothers in the neighbourhood started bringing their friends to the meetings of the „Responsible parent“ Club.

Two education mediators are also working in Sredets already.

It is expected that after the end of the project the mediators could possibly be employed permanently at the municipal administrations.

With the financial support of the Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Programme, the local government of Sredets will build a Centre for community development as part of the project implemented by ZOV Programme.

“The Centre will meet the needs of the community,” said Sredets Mayor, Eng. Ivan Zhabov. “The Centre will provide healthcare, educational and social services and will organize information and culture events. The Centre will render support for the children to facilitate their learning process”.

At the presentation of the project, Zyumbyula Marinova, Coordinator for Education and Integration Activities in Sredets municipality said: “Currently, the municipality does not have such Centre intended to provide services for comprehensive development of the community.”   The need for such Centre has been proven on the grounds of analysis conducted to identify the needs of the community.

“Roma is the largest ethnic minority in the municipality. 15.5% or 2063 individuals in Sredets identify themselves as Roma but their number is over 3500, according to expert estimations. The major issues defined by the preliminary analysis concern healthcare and education. The project will work with Roma women: they will be scheduled for gynaecological examinations and, through information campaigns, their health awareness will be improved and contraceptive aids will be dispensed. “Overall, we introduce measures intended to facilitate the access to education, healthcare and social activities,” said Zyumbyula Marinova.

The building in Pobeda neighbourhood of Sredets will be entirely refurbished and equipment will be provided for the team’s offices. The building has not been renovated on such large scale for nearly 25 years. Until now, the facility has been functioning as a Club for the neighbourhood residents where they could celebrate Roma holidays or attend culture events.

The contractor company POLISSTROY EOOD from Yambol has been selected in a public procurement procedure. The contract has already been signed and the works will start at any time now. The construction should be finished in three months. The building and installation works will cost 280 000 BGN, VAT included. The funds have been provided by the Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Programme with 10% co-funding for the building works provided by the local government of Sredets.

A team consisting of a team leader, teacher and two educational mediators will work in the Centre for Community Development.

The Centre will become a venue for extracurricular activities and will host groups organized by interests; it will provide individual work for pupils from the first to fourth school grades. Textbooks and learning aids will be supplied for 30 Roma pupils (from the second and third school grades) for the duration of two years. The “Responsible Parent” club will develop parental skills and will provide consultancies for parents of pupils from the first to eighth school grades. Consultancies with a pedagogue will be organized for children having difficulties in learning the Bulgarian language. Clubs by interests will be organized: “Physical education and sport,” “Creativity,” “Information technologies,” as well as clubs for music, dances and culture.

The project foresees free medical prevention checks for the residents of Sredets without health insurances. A health mediator has already been trained. She will work for the local government in the community. Lectures on health topics will be organized and brochures intended to improve the residents’ health awareness will be spread. Contraceptives will be dispensed to individuals of low income. Obstetric monitoring for pregnant women, as well as free medical tests for 100 pregnant women without health insurances will be provided in the next two years.