Description
The project addresses the challenged practice of children’s rights education in closed segregated Bulgarian, Roma and Turkish communities in Silistra Region where children are brought up to respect local traditions at the expense of multicultural and multiethnic communication. The project aims at raising awareness about children’s rights, equal treatment and tolerance for differences in mixed ethnic communities. First, a pilot education model on children’s rights, tolerance and anti-discrimination will be developed. Next, teachers and NGO members will be trained to improve their skills of teaching in mixed ethnic groups. The model will be tested during 6 demo lessons and Summer School for 20 children from different ethnic groups. Information campaigns will be held to gain institutional support. The project will benefit not only the target group (200 Bulgarian, Roma and Turkish children from 3 schools) but also the parents, teachers and local institutions in such communities.
Summary of project results
Having in mind its design and implementation, the project was necessary to demonstrate and suggest that training in the rights of the child, as part of the obligatory curriculum in civic education, should be conducted in multiethnic groups. Only in this way children can build relationships of tolerance, anti-discrimination and non-aggressive behavior. This conclusion is particularly true for mono-ethnic schools. The project activities, including a summer school, pilot and lesson activities, involved more than 200 students (100 of them from minority communities) and their teachers in civic education (in particular the rights of the child). A pilot model for interactive training in the rights of the child was developed and approbated in multiethnic groups (
http://paralel-silistra.net/kids/), through the implementation of 6 pilot and 22 school educational activities, while 11 teachers and 7 NGO representatives were trained. At the end of the project, a series of information days were held, on which the model for interactive training was presented to more than 80 representatives of local communities (teachers, principals, etc.), 20 decision makers (municipal councilors, representatives of the Regional Inspectorate, the Municipal Department of Education, the Commission for Protection against Discrimination), with the intention to recognize it and ensure its multiplication.
Summary of bilateral results