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One of the main goals of Amalipe Center is to keep students at school and motivate them to continue their education. Educational mediators working within the project "Together we find solutions" and the principal of Secondary school "St. Kliment Ohridski", Suhindol started intensive work in a case of drop-outs. They identified the students at risk, prepared profiles, identified specific measures for each student. The next step was field work with individual meetings with the students and their families. The main purpose of those visits was to make parents understand that education is very important and their children should attend school. Several reasons for the frequent absence of students were identified during the meetings, such as lack of finances, lack of clothes and footwear and unemployment of parents. Educational mediators interviewed parents to get more information about the family structure. Parents promised to send their children to school regularly, and thus to complete the school year successfully.

After having several meetings with families from Suhindol and Byala Reka, the result was impressive - seven students started to attend the school of Suhindol regularly. There si still a lot of work to be done to motivate those students to continue their education and even more difficult task, to increase their success. But we proved that  the school management, local and regional educational mediators can achieve impressive results, if they work TOGETHER.

Gratitudes to the professionalism of: Stefan Stefanov and Sergey Sashev - Educational Mediators at Amalipe Center, Nelly Nikolova - Educational Coordinator, Valery Angelov - Assistant, Andrei Iliev - Organizational Development Coordinator, Deputy Principal of Secondary school Kliment Ohridski Rositsa Uzunova and the support of Mayor of Byala Reka Madlena Rusanova and School Principal Ivaylo Otchev.

A subcommittee “Roma Integration” of the Monitoring Committee of the Partnership Agreement was created with a decision of the Monitoring Committee of the Partnership Agreement of the Republic of Bulgaria from 09.03.2018, outlining the assistance from the European Structural and Investment Funds, for the programming period 2014-2020. The Chairman of the Subcommittee is Deputy Prime Minister  Mr. Donchev and includes deputy ministers from the main ministries, directorates of agencies in key operational programs and representatives of NGOs. The Secretariate is the "Central Coordination Unit" Directorate in the Administration of the Council of Ministers.

The nomination of the members of the Roma Integration Subcommittee is to be determined. Non-profit  legal entities, working in the field of Roma integration wishing to participate in the subcommittee, are invited to submit a membership application. The selection will be carried out according to the  Procedure of selections of legal non-profit community service  entities, working in the field of Roma integration, whose representatives will take part as members of the Subcommittee, according to Appendix 1 to Art. 21a, part. 7 of the Internal Rules of the Monitoring Committee of the Partnership Agreement.

Representatives of non-profit  legal entities, working in the field of Roma integration, can apply if they work in the following areas:

- education, children's rights, youth development;

- healthcare;

- housing conditions;

- employment;

- rule of law and non-discrimination, empowerment of Roma women, community and local development;

- culture and media.

Legal entities must meet the following criteria:

to be registered under the Non-Profit Legal Entities Act as non-profit legal entities for public benefit for at least 2 years prior to the moment of submitting an application for participation in the selection procedure;

to be active and actively pursuing its objectives for at least 2 years to the moment of submission of the application;

to have at least 2 years of experience in developing, implementing, monitoring or evaluating strategies, programs, policies or projects in the field of Roma integration for the areas they are applying for.

The written applications and a declaration, alongside with the required documents must be submitted by 01.04.2018 at the following address: Sofia 1594, 1 Dondukov Blvd. Administration of the Council of Ministers to the Director of the Central Coordination Unit Directorate .

One of the main agreements, reached at the meeting between the Roma organizations and Prime Minister  Mr. Borisov and Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Donchev on 17 July 2017, was the establishment of a permanent Roma Integration Subcommittee of  the Partnership Agreement Monitoring Committee.

On July 17, representatives of four of the main organizations and coalitions working for Roma integration (Amalipe, Intellect, National Network of Health Mediators, Roma- Lom) met with the Prime Minister Mr. Boyko Borissov and Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Tomislav Donchev. The Open Letter against the nomination of Mr. V. Simeonov as Chair of the The National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues and the current non-effective policy-consultative framework for the implementation of integration policies, in support of which the civil organizations gathered over 15 000 signatures, was the reason for the meeting. The participants agreed on three specific immediate and medium-term measures, one of which was the creation of a subcommittee of the Partnership Agreement Monitoring Committee to coordinate the operations contributing to Roma integration co-financed by the European funds and the state budget. For more information on the meeting, see on http://amalipe.com/index.php?nav=news&id=3017&lang=2

Regional Forum on "Innovative Practices for Intercultural Cooperation between Educational Stakeholders" was held at Vasil Levski Secondary School in the village of Manole, Plovdiv district. More than 130 teachers from seven municipalities coming from three districts across the country took part in the forum, presenting their practical experience of introducing intercultural education and child retention at school.

Organizers of the event were eleven schools, united by the Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance "Amalipe" under the project "Every student will be a winner-2" in partnership with the Pedagogical Faculty of the Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski and under the patronage of the Mayor of the Municipality of Maritza.

All regional pedagogical coordinators, as well as the whole pedagogical team of Amalipe Center, were among the guests. In his speech, Deyan Kolev, the chairman of the organization, stressed that the schools, included in "Every student will be a winner" network, have gone a long way towards introducing intercultural education and keeping children in classrooms. "When we started our work together 10-15 years ago, schools did not provide any information about Roma, most teachers did not even recognize the group their children belonged to, and the main task was more children to complete primary education. Today, thanks to the devoted efforts of the teachers in these schools, drop - out is basically almost eliminated and our efforts are directed towards successful completion of secondary education! ", Kolev stressed. He added that sharing a successful practical experience among teachers was the most useful training and the forum presented that idea. "It is significant that the event is organized by the schools themselves and I would like to give my greetings to Krassimira Blagoeva, principal of the school in the village of Karadjovo, who was fully involved in the organization of the event, as well as to Penka Zaprianova, principal of the Manole school, which has accepted to be our host! ", added the chairman of Amalipe.

The schools participating in the forum presented 11 good practices on introducing intercultural education, engaging parents and activating students.

The FinanceGO: Training educators to Financial Literacy Courses for young adults at risk project was presented during the forum. Financial education is of great importance, and it should be taught in early school age. We need more tecahers to become experts in teaching financial literacy in the most appropriate way, depending on the specifics of students, said Teodora Krumova, program manager of Amalipe Center.

More about the event and photos see here.

Тръст за социална алтернатива (ТСА) е неправителствена организация, чиято мисия е да се прекъсне порочния кръг на бедността чрез насърчаване на възможности, които помагат на най-непривилегированите граждани на България да постигнат образователен и икономически успех. ТСА подкрепя програми, които със своите почтеност, потенциал за разрастване и прозрачност спомагат за подобряване благосъстоянието на най-бедните хора в България, със специален фокус върху  ромите.

"Learning because of learning or preparing for real life?" 60 teachers from schools in Northwest Bulgaria were searching for the answer of that question.

In the implementation of the planned joint activities under the project "Every student will be a winner -2", initiated by Amalipe Center, on March 16, 2018 at the NJVaptsarov Primary School in Selanovtsi village, all the teachers of the schools from the "Hristo Botev" School in Galice and Hr.Botev Primary School in Tarnava, united by the significant topic "Practically Applied Aspects of the Teaching Content". Guest and active participant in the meeting was Dr. Stanka Piryankova, chairman of the Public Council of "Y.Vaptsarov" Primary School.

Victoria Kostadinova, a psychologist at the village of Selanovo, made a brief scientific retrospection on the subject. The presented work has become a successful base for the involvement of the next participants. The principals of the three schools - Veneta Pacheva, Petya Rusinova and Irena Yankova shared their impressions and conclusions on the work of teachers and students during the classes on the subject, they attended. Highlights of the meeting were the shared good practices of nine educators from the three schools: Galice - Tsvetana Kyosova - Teacher in basic education, Genoveva Marinova, Michaela Simova - Teacher of Mathematics and IT, from Selanovtsi village - Detelina Gergova - Senior teacher in basic education, Gergana Tsenkova - St. teacher of mathematics and IT, Daniela Kuncheva - Senior Teacher of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, from Tarnava village - Ralitsa Mateeva - Teacher of Bulgarian language within the program "Teach for Bulgaria", Todorova, Milena Sainova - senior teacher in basic education.

The FinanceGO: Training educators to Financial Literacy Courses for young adults at risk project was presented during the event, as well as its outcomes were described, as a successful education activity.