As an activity recognized by the Emergency Fund of the Roma Educational Fund, related to the educational consequences caused by COVID-19 crisis, Roma-Lom Foundation prepared packages with school supplies for students of Roma origin worth over BGN 20 000 (around EUR 10 194). The grant is to be disbursed to over 1 300 students in primary schools in the municipalities of Sliven, Lom and Razlog.
The main goal of the advocacy initiative is to improve the interaction between educational and local institutions in overcoming the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic.
Not the least, Roma-Lom Foundation will be facilitating Roma families’ access to social assistance programs, promoted by the Bulgarian government. The programs are providing financial help worth 250 BGN (approximately EUR 127) to be distributed to low-income families of first graders and to families of eight graders. The implementing partner in Bulgaria to assist the families in filling-in and submitting the application documents.
Roma-Lom Foundation is working within the framework of the Roma Standing Conference and in close collaboration with REDI -Bulgaria.
Each Roma students beneficiary is eligible to receive 8 notebooks, pens and a set of triangle-line-conveyor, as well as copied learning materials if necessary, in the course of schooling in year 2020/2021. The supporting materials, however, will be contribution of the respective school.
Roma-Lom Foundation’s Director, Nikolay Kirilov, shared that the school year will most likely begin with presence of all pupils (in person), and then it might continue as remote learning process. There is a decision of the Ministry of Education and Science in Bulgaria that there will be no “flu holidays”, as it was the practice before, and that even at the smallest health risk, the children would be transferred to a remote pattern of education.
