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Foundation Ethnocultural Dialogue
(Sofia, Bulgaria)

We come from Bulgaria and we represent “Ethnocultural Dialogue” Foundation. Bulgaria is a country with a history of 1300 years. Our country offers exceptional conditions for tourism and recreation. Bulgaria is famous for its rose oil and it is the homeland of the famous Bulgarian footballer Hristo Stoichkov.

The democratic changes in the social-political life of our country started 15 years ago. In the present moment Bulgaria is one of the candidate countries for membership in the European Union.

Here is an outline of the past and the present of the Roma community:

Centuries on end the Roma also have been living on Bulgarian land. The Roma in Bulgaria, as it is all around the world, are not a monolithic mass – they are internally differentiated into a number of groups and subgroups according to their lifestyle, the religion they are confessing, or the professional specification of the group.

After the democratic changes have set in, the Roma had and have the opportunity to speak freely their mother language, to study it at school, to create and write in their own language, to learn about their own history. There have been registered a great number of cultural-educational organizations, movements and foundations, which take part in the solving of problems, connected with social-economical issues. Those organizations were initiators also for the development and acceptance of a frame program: “For an equal-righted participation of the Roma in the social-political life of Bulgaria”, and also for the starting of the Decade of the Roma integration 2005-2015. On the 2 February 2005 Bulgaria was a hosting country of the opening.

Besides these positive changes, concerning the Roma community after the democratic changes, some unfavourable tendencies in the life of the Roma community in Bulgaria have been observed. In the first place, those are the problems, resulting from the unemployment, because many of the factories, which did not require professional training or special education, have been restructured and many Roma in an active age were left jobless, without means to earn their living, without the necessary means for their children’s school maintenance. That fact explains the high percentage of students, non-regularly attending or dropping out of school. ( Here we have to point out that there is also a small percentage of students, dropping out due to the ethnocultural specification of the Roma community.)

The data from the national representative survey, held in the period 11-16 December 2004 show that the percentage of the totally illiterate among the young Roma reaches 25%, and together with those, who share that it is difficult for them to read, the percentage reaches 60%(!).

These results show only the percentage of the illiterate; here the people who have not graduated primary or high-school education, or who do not have a qualification, are not included.

The employers are more insisting, when they hire or look for employees, on people with education and qualification, people who can cope with the modern technical equipment.

Left jobless and without means of earning their living, this group of illiterate Roma very often becomes part of the criminal contingent.

In order to overcome the illiteracy, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy organizes courses for literacy and professional qualification for unemployed people, responding to certain requirements, with subsidies from the European Union.

But, as a whole, we can say that there is no active state policy for overcoming the illiteracy.

Here we can point out that certain non-governmental organizations also work in this field, but their experience is not systematized, it is not generalized in order to be multiplied in practice.

I would like to note that in Bulgaria we can point out the work of the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association (IIZ/DVV) as particularly active in the sphere of adult education. Every autumn they organize Days of the lifelong learning in partnership with ministries, other state institutions, and non-governmental organizations.The Days of the lifelong learning give an opportunity to people who share this idea to meet, to exchange experience, to widen their partnership networks.

Thanks to this organization the first “Schools Second Chance” have been opened in Bulgaria. They attracted a lot of people, who want to get literate and to achieve professional qualification or to accomplish an educational degree. Another thing the organization did is the starting of a master program “Management of the adult education” in one of the Bulgarian universities. This program is attended by the students with interest and those people are the future maintainers of a more complete realization of the idea for a lifelong learning in Bulgaria.

ABOUT THE FOUNDATION

The mission of the foundation is to contribute for the development of the ethnical tolerance and the social adaptation of the Roma community in the conditions created by the democratic changes through a dialogue between the different ethnical communities, the state and municipal administration, and the NGOs.

An accent in the foundation’s activities are the educational and health programs, directed towards the representatives of the Roma community and aiming to help their socialization.

Being led by the mission and the accents in their activity, the team of specialists and volunteers of the foundation realized projects independently and in partnership with other organizations, which were pointed out as positive practices during the adult educaton.

In 2001 we organized a course for literacy and professional qualification for cook assistants for 15 young people (boys and girls), who grew up without parents and are accommodated in special boarding-houses. The project has been realized with the donor help of the Open Society Institute – Sofia.

In 2002 together with Bulgarian Red Cross – Capital Committee we realized a project: “Help and self-help for the community”. During this project 40 women (seamstresses) and 20 men (constructors) of Roma origin were trained and received professional qualification.

In 2003/2004 we realized a project called “School Second Chance with the financial aid of IIZ/DVV. During this project 16 men and women of Roma origin were educated and professionally oriented, 16 men and women of Roma origin graduated 8th grade, i.e. accomplished their primary education and gained professional qualification. All of the 32 course-attendants were taught social skills and citizen education.

During the same period, being partners with the foundation “Citizen Education”, we realized the project “New integrated social services” according to the PHARE program of the EU. During this project 32 men and women were professionally trained for bakers and drivers.

In 2004 together with IIZ/DVV and another partner organization we realized a project called “Second chance – social integration through education”. 150 men and women became literate thanks to this project, which was financed by the PHARE program of the EU.

The results from this project were nominated as an example of a good practice of the EU.

The realization of the projects mentioned above helped for the increase of the team’s professional experience in the adult education (in this case I use the word “adult” conditionally, because there were also course-attendants at the age of 19-20 years among the people who were being educated). We have come also to some conclusions, which I would like to share with you.

• The educational courses must be combined also with training in social skills and citizen education. The training in social skills gives the students opportunities for better social contacts, and this is crucial when people from the Roma community look for and are hired to work. The training in citizen education broadens the range of knowledge and views of the Roma attending the courses about their own history and culture, and also about the social-political events, taking place nowadays. The classes in social skills and citizen education are the most loved by the course-attendants.
• The education courses and also the education for accomplishment of an educational degree must be combined with an education, providing professional qualification, which gives opportunity for a better job realization on the labour market. The offering of professional qualification additionally stimulates the course-attendants to enter the training classes willingly.
• When we realize educational projects, connected with adult education, we have to look for a broader range of partnership with state and municipal administrations, with the employers’ unions and other organizations, which results in a broader social consensus about this cause. This also helps the hiring to work of the graduated course-attendants.
• Our practice showed that “Schools Second Chance” are a particularly attractive form of a continuing education, but it is necessary that we look for international partnerships for the opening of more schools of this kind.
• The management of the educational projects and the education of the course-attendants has to be assigned to specialists, trained in the respective sphere.
• We have to monitor the quality of the knowledge, obtained by the course-attendants; this has to be done by an incoming, medial and final test; the medial and the final tests being held by outer evaluators.
• After the finalization of each educational project, connected with education or graduation of an educational degree, there must be done a detailed analysis of the results and together with the other didactic materials a collection has to be issued, which can also be used by others, dealing with these problems.
• The opportunities given by the media have to be used for the popularization of the idea for continuing education as a factor for a better social integration of vulnerable groups of people.

ABOUT MYSELF

My name is Adela Stoyanova. I belong to the group of “horahane Roma”. It is specific for my group that we do not speak Roma language; an estimation marker for belonging to the Roma ethnic group is our own awareness.

I have graduated higher pedagogical education, my subject being preschool and primary school pedagogy. Later on I specialized in intercultural dialogue. At the moment I attend a master program “Management of the adult education”.

I work in the sphere of formal and nonformal education. In the formal education sphere I work with students in compulsory school age (up to 16 years old), in the nonformal education sphere I work with their older brothers and sisters, and very often also with their parents, who are illiterate, without a profession, or have not graduated an educational degree and at one point have realized the need of studying.

I participate willingly in theoretical and practical seminars and conferences, dealing with the problems of education. I take part in working groups for development of programs, connected with education. Since 1994 till now I have also been working actively in the non-governmental sector, I participate in the creation and realization of programs, connected with education, as an educational consultant, coordinator, or program instructor. The participation in these programs broadens my professional range of knowledge in the sphere of education and I feel more adequate at my working place.

I accept the work among the people from my community as a vocation, which gives me moral satisfaction. I am convinced that education is the way, which will lead the Roma community out of the misery and suffering, and will integrate them in the common European home, which is a Home of the knowing and the capable.

ABOUT MY COLEAGUES, WHO ATTEND THE WORKING MEETING

Mrs Slavka Yotova is a member of the Managing Committee of the “Ethnocultural Dialogue” Foundation. She is a teacher by profession. She is loved by her students and respected by their parents; she teaches the students at school, and after that she continues her work with their parents, not only as a teacher, but also as their tutor in life, in the course of 37 years.

She willingly accepted to take part in this project, because she believes she will learn something new about adult education, which will enrich her experience, and when she goes back to Bulgaria she will apply the things she learned.

Miss Marina Karchinova has graduated philosophy at Sofia University, and now she attends a master program in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. She hopes her participation in this conference will help her understand better the problems of the different ethnic groups and communities and the great need for dialogue between cultures. This dialogue will surely contribute for the due respect towards these cultures and, hence – for their preservation.