A Roma educational centre was opened in Sumy with the support of Chirikli. Roma children and women will be able to get the knowledge they missed at school or learn to read and write. This was reported by “Suspilne Sumy”.
The opening of the centre was attended by Roma with children who want to join the education. For example, 24-year-old Albina said that she has two primary school classes:
“I went to a couple of classes, literally, and that was it. I had a brother there, and I looked after him, helped my parents with their trade, and that’s how life happened. I stopped going to school, my father is literate, he finished 11 grades, and when he had free time, he taught me how to count, write, and all that stuff”.
Another Roma woman, Raisa, is 29 years old. She also completed 2 grades at one time:
“We didn’t go to school before, our parents didn’t send us. Education was not considered as important as it is now. People had jobs, got married, whatever. Now it’s a completely different life, a different world. Now we need to have education, to have a job,” Raisa explained.
The head of the Roma women’s organisation, Olha Mykhailenko, said that there are many people in the Sumy Roma community who cannot read or write at all. This is due to ancient traditions:
“I never had this opportunity before, and I didn’t want to. My parents said: “Why does a woman need to study, she’ll get married”. Now, on the contrary, we want to develop, we want to be independent, we want people to understand that we are people too, that we can do something,” she added.
A Roma educational centre was opened in Baranivka, a place of compact Roma residence in Sumy. The centre will operate on the basis of school No. 5. The school’s principal, Borys Bohodushko, has been heading the institution for about 20 years. According to him, today Roma make up 27 percent of the total number of students.
Approach to learning
The centre will have an individual approach to each student, depending on their knowledge, with an emphasis on socialisation. The grant for the development of Roma children and women provides for the acquisition of missed knowledge, preparation for school and literacy training. Two groups of 25 children and 15 women have already been formed.
Albina sent her 7-year-old son to school to prepare him for school:
“I want my son to achieve more than I did in this life, to be a successful person, to have an official job, to be able to write, read, and count. Everyone wants to be well read, to be literate. I think it all depends on the parents. If parents want their child to study, they will do everything for this. For example, me. I want my son to develop, to learn – I will do it,” she assured.
We are grateful to the Roma Women’s Congress “Manusha”, which proposed to create this centre and made significant efforts to implement this initiative! The opening of this centre took place within the framework of the humanitarian project Diakonissalaitos.
