Almost 130 Roma children from Vulcanesti village of Nisporeni district will benefit from learning opportunities that would enable them to integrate into the national education process. In June they will attend a summer school where they will learn the Romanian language. By the end of this year, they will have free lunch at school and kindergarten, IPN reports.

The activities form part of a project to the value is of US$100,000 implemented by UNICEF Moldova. Contacted by IPN, Stela Babici, director of the Youth Resource Center “Dacia”, said one of the project’s activities is designed to sensitize and inform Roma parents about the importance of attending school and kindergarten.

“The summer school for Roma children is another activity. These will learn the Romanian language in June. We also have educational activities for parents, to teach them Romanian, so that they can prepare homework together with the children. We have meditation classes for Roma children. These will have free lunch by the end of this year within the project. They will remain at school to do the homework together with the teacher. Also, another teacher will work with them to help them catch up with the other children,” stated Stela Babici.
 
The necessity of implementing the project appeared after a study of Roma children and their access to preschool education institutions showed the nonattendance of preschool institutions and the linguistic barrier hinder the Roma children from adjusting to the school program and requirements and this leads to school abandonment.

In Vulcanesti village of Nisporeni district, there are over 100 Roma children of school age. Of these, only 45 attend school from time to time. There are 25 Roma children of school age, but only five of them go to kindergarten. According to the 2014 population census, in the Republic of Moldova the Roma represent 0.3%. Unofficial data presented by a representative of the Coalition “Voice of the Roma” show there are over 200,000 Romany people in Moldova.