The seventh meeting of PAIRS on “Effective Programs for the Active Integration/Inclusion of the Roma in South-East Europe” took place during four days in June (11th to 14th) in Bulgaria.
This meeting was not only a PAIRS study visit, but it served as well as the second Steering group meeting in which were presented some of the good practices reported by the partners and selected by the steering group of PAIRS.On the first day the attendees were presented with the areas of good practices that the partners have been working on: “Employment”, “Education”, “Housing” and “Community building/Conflict building/Conflict management”. At the end of the day the wrap up session summarized the issued discussed: lessons learned: comparative study, key messages for the matrix and the toolkit.
On the second day the participants travelled to Kyustendil, where they visited the Roma neighborhood “Iztok” and met with the local actors implementing the good practices, and were introduced to their activities. First, they visited the premises of the Centre for Regional Development “Roma –Kyustendil” a local NGO working on the following issues: a) Educational integration of children and students; b) Adult education; c) Extracurricular activities with children and students.
The second visit was to a complex of houses sheltering 20 Roma families build in the framework of a social housing project implemented by ADRA Bulgaria. The participants learned about ADRA’s successful approaches for social housing.
The last visit in the Roma neighborhood took place at a healthcare centre run by ADRA Bulgaria and LARGO Association. The representatives of the two NGO-s briefed the visitors on their work on the provision of access to quality healthcare of Roma. The second day was concluded by a visit to the Municipality of Kyustendil. On the third day the attendees visited two projects implemented by AMALIPE the Pravetz municipality. The first visit took place in the local school of the village of Vidrare, where they were introduced with the project: “Reducing the Roma children dropout of school”. They were welcomed by the school director Ms. Maya Pencheva and met with the children, parents and teachers. The school children performed songs and short sketches.
The last event of the day was a meeting with community moderators, health mediators, and local activists at the Center for Community Development and with parents in the local Chitalishte (a public venue for cultural events).
The last day, after the welcoming address by the Head of European Commission Office to Bulgaria, the participants followed brief presentations on the context and relevance of the project by partner organizations and public institutions such as OSF Bulgaria, European Commission’s Representation in Sofia, Amalipe, UNDP, WB, municipalities, etc.The meeting continued with the presentation of the “Expected outcomes of the PAIRS project – the matrix for the action plans and the toolbox”, followed by two sessions of short presentations of the case-studies on i) Employment and Education, and ii) Community building/Conflict management, Health and Housing
The PAIRS meeting ended with the wrap up plenary, questions & answers session and closing remarks.