Roma dreams of open school

The Roma we accompany often complain about the children’s schooling. Children want to go to school but face bullying from other children and lack of understanding from the teacher. Maks launched a European project with partners in Romania and Bulgaria.

Aim: to promote children’s well-being at school. Parents come together to create a digital story. In this way, they talk about the school and the problems they experience. The story’s going to school. The teacher look at them.

Together with the parents, teachers, management and the mediator from Maks vzw, we propose an improvement plan. Parents make another digital story. This, in two words, is the DREAMS project. In February 2020, three Maks trainers went to Timisoara, Romania, to deliver a five-day training course on digital storytelling to the partners of the Intercultural Institut of Romania and Hesed of Bulgaria. A number of online webinars also saw the light of day. The lockdown obstructed a lot of plans, at home and abroad, but step by step we are getting our intended results with a lot of flexibility and creativity.