Асоциация Интегро

   The “Desegregation and Action for Roma in Education” (DARE) Network gathered for a three days exchange visit in Bulgaria to discuss successful practices concerning school desegregation and access to quality education for Romani children, which started with July 15 2013.

Integro Association, a Roma NGO from Bulgaria,sharedwith the  Network members their successful practices,experiences and projects for secondary school and reintegration of dropouts. The organizationsvisitedKavarna, Razgardand Vazovo (village from Razgrad region, where there is a Roma NGO)Roma communities, kindergarten and primary school and also Roma NGOs from these places which are working for integration of Roma people.

The first day of the visit (15 of July), the partners were in Kavarna, where they met local Roma people and with the local authorities in Kavarna.  They also visited the local kindergarten and the local school which are close to the Roma quarter

The next day of the exchange visit (16 of July) the partners visited Razgrad, where is the office of IntegroAssociation. They met Roma women volunteers from the Independent Roma women’s organization “Karmen” which is called also Mother Center (MC). The women from the MC shared their experience that they have gained during their work as a NGO which is working at the local level. “Karmen” works with the Roma minority in Razgrad especially with the mothers and their child. “Karmen” was established by Integro. The other goal of the volunteers from the MC is empowering of Roma women.

After the visitation of Integro’s office and the Mother Center in Razgrad the partners went to Vazovo where they met the people from the local Roma NGO – “Roma Vazovo 2007” and also Roma from the quarter. This NGO was registered as a Cultural centerunder the Law on Non-Profit Organizations. The missionof this NGO is to support the local Roma people and to create conditions for dialogue between local authorities and the Roma. The purpose of this visit was to exchange experiences and to learn about the work of other Roma NGOs from Bulgaria, who work at the local level.

During the exchange visit in Bulgaria the partners DARE network members are Integro Association (Bulgaria), Life together Association (Czech Republic), Antigone (Greece), European Roma Rights Centre (Hungary), Romani CRISS (Romania), as well as FXB Centre for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. The DARE-Net project succeeded to create a transnational network of Roma and non-Roma civil society and academic organizations to analyse practices and initiatives relating to Roma education and school desegregation of Roma children in Romania, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

More information on the project is available at:

http://www.romanicriss.org/PDF/Project%20description%20DARE.pdf

For further information, please contact:  Integro Association, www.integrobg.org, e-mail: info@integrobg.org