Establishing “Active Parents” Club in Stolipinovo and Kuklen

2017-10-01

Since July 2017 an Active Parents club is working in the Roma neighborhood of Stolipinovo. The club was created within the framework of the ZOV Project implemented by the Municipality of Plovdiv. The club organizes monthly activities involving both parents and children. A similar club was established in the town of Kuklen by activists from the Indi Roma 97 foundation.

Stolipinovo is the biggest Roma neighborhood in Europe and has a large number of issues accumulated over the years. In the two major aspects of its work – education and health – the ZOV Programme relies on parents’ awareness and active involvement in the educational process.

Roma parents, who took part at the club’s founding meeting, said that one of the major problems for both them and their children is the poor fluency in Bulgarian language. Therefore, part of the activities at the Active Parents club will be directed towards language integration of the parents; these include, among other things, visiting cultural and sports events outside the neighborhood, participation in public readings, organized for both parents and children, and providing assistance to those parents who would like to continue their education. Two-hundred parents from Plovdiv and Kuklen have been involve in these activities since the program’s start. Two-hundred children have been visited by the educational mediators, hired under the project; the same number of children participated in the extracurricular activities held in Lilia Kindergarten and the two primary schools "Kiril Nektariev" and "Nayden Gerov".

Currently, there are three educational mediators working in Stolipinovo and Kuklen. All of them are very well received by the local communities and are familiar with the existing problems of the local Roma families. Zinaida Karagiozova, one of the educational mediators working in Stolipinovo, is trying to convince Roma parents to enroll their children from an early age in the kindergarten. Another crucial moment in her daily work is the prevention of early school dropout. The second educational mediator in Stolipinovo, Ramis Sharif, was employed in September and is working with primary school students. The educational mediator Zlatka Yordanova works in the town of Kuklen with the local Roma children to facilitate their further integration into the educational system.

More result of direction

Refurbishment of “Alen Mak” Kindergarten in village Zvezdets

2016-09-15

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.

A new building for “Hristo Botev” Primary School in Burgas

2016-09-30

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.