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Meetings with successful Romani people

Two meetings between successful Romani people and students from primary school “Kocho Chestimenski” took place in the community centre “Probuda” in Dinkata in September and October. The events are part of activity 6 of Project “Overcoming negative societal attitudes based on ethnic identity and cultural identity” whose goal is to mitigate negative societal attitudes based on ethnic identity.

The first meeting was with Kalina Vasileva. She is from Sliven. She has a bachelor’s degree in applied linguistics & English language teaching from New Bulgarian University and a master’s degree in political science from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. She has worked as an executive director at Foundation “Equal access”, program coordinator at Trust for Social Achievement in Sofia, English language teacher, and more. At the moment she manages her own consulting agency for human resources management.

The second meeting was with Angel Simeonov. He was born in Velingrad and later continued his professional realization there as a school psychologist. He is 27 years old and has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”. He has two master’s degrees: one in clinical psychology from the Southwest University "Neofit Rilski" in Blagoevgrad and one in applied psychology from Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”.

The students got actively engaged during the meetings. The listened to the guests’ stories attentively, asked a lot of questions and even came to the conclusion that the best road to success for a Romani child is good education.

The activity is part of Project "Systematic integration model “Dinkata" for socio-economic and educational integration of vulnerable groups in Lesichovo”, Contract № BG05M9OP001-2.018-0021-2014BG05M2OP001-C01.

Children from Club “Gradina" in Dinkata planted their first trees

Children from Club “Gradina" at primary school “Kocho Chestimenski”, Dinkata, planted 32 fruit trees. The activity is part of Project "Systematic integration model “Dinkata" for socio-economic and educational integration of vulnerable groups in Lesichovo Municipality”, Contract BG05M9OP001-2.018-0030-2014BG05M2OP001-C0.

Children from the other clubs also took part in the activity, together with ten professional gardeners who were hired under the project. Before the trees were planted, a meeting was held at the gym between the children, teachers, mediators, other project participants, and the deputy mayor of Lesichovo Municipality, Veselina Milkova.

Despite the rain, the children were enthusiastic, planting the tress in the schoolyard. The Project is funded by Operational Programme "Science and education for smart growth”, co-funded by the European Union through the European structural and investment funds.