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On 13 June 2013 an expert group of countries - partners in Project "PAIRS - effective programs for active integration of Roma in Southeast Europe" visited the school "Vasil Levski", village of Vidrare, Pravets Municipality and the Center for Community Development - Etropole. The visit was organized by CIEDT "Amalipe" in order to show the international group best practices for reducing the dropout rate among Roma and for Roma community inclusion. The visit was attended by over 30 representatives from all the partners organizations in the project. On behalf of Center "Amalipe" participants in the visit were Theodora Krumova, Desislava Stefanova, Sylvia Boyanova, Dimitar Petrushev and Atanas Kouzmanov.

Participants were welcomed by the school principal Maya Pencheva, the whole school team, children and parents.

Primary School" Vasil Levski" in Vidrare is one of the 22 schools, that have being participated in all the three years of the project" Prevention of reducing Roma children drop out from school ", initiated by Centre" Amalipe"with the grant support of America for Bulgaria Foundation, said Theodora Krumova. The school is a center one and it teaches 60 children from four villages with different ethnic backgrounds, 16 of them with special educational needs.

The principal, Maya Pencheva presented the activities included in the school program to reduce school dropouts – Roma folklore classes,  Student Parliament and Parent Club. The group was delighted with the school ethnographic museum and the results achieved, the result of much effort and hard work. Students from the school greeted guests with song and verse and managed to raise a modern adaptation of the popular fairy tale "Grandpa pulls turnip," and parents of Culinary Club "Delicious" treated the guests with traditional Bulgarian dishes.

The visit continued in Etropole where the participants visited the Center for Community Development. The center is a part of the network of Centers for Community Development - created by CIEDT "Amalipe" in 11 pilot municipalities in Bulgaria. The service is innovative and is aimed at developing local social capacity by mobilizing the resources of the local Roma community. Sylvia Boyanova - coordinator of the Center "Amalipe" presented the specifics of the work of the center. She presented the areas of work of the service, and the nature of the position "Community moderator." The Community Moderator - Ivan Todorov told the project partners about the Centre for Community Development in Etropole. He stressed that the work of the moderator is mainly fieldwork, focusing the whole local Roma community, not the individual. He said how to work with different age groups and how to motivate local people to engage in various activities of the center. The participants also met a few local young people - volunteers to the center and talked with them about what motivates them to be included free of charge in support of the moderators.

Participants also visited the computer room set up at the Centre for the development of computer skills and access to information on the local community. A meeting with representatives of the local Roma community was held in the culture home of Etropole "Dimitar Peev". The meeting was attended by Ms. Darina Petkova - Director of "Social and health services and education" to Etropole municipality.  Issues of increasing the motivation of children and parents for education problems, employment among the local Roma population and the change in the attitudes of the community in terms of civil thinking were discussed during the meeting. Presentation on working with parents was made by Ms. Mila Mancheva, director of the school "Hristo Botev" in Lopyan.

On 14 June 2013 in "Princess" hotel, Sofia was held and an international conference on "Best models for the integration of Roma in Southeast Europe" and successful approaches for inclusion of the Roma community were presented and discussed. Atanas Kouzmanov - Regional Coordinator at Center "Amalipe" outlines the "Reducing dropout of Roma children in school" program.

 PAIRS project aims to identify, analyze and disseminate in the partner countries, existing best practices for successful inclusion of Roma communities. Elements of these practices have been transferred to local and national level through action plans, and thus they contribute to the future scaling of these solutions in all partner countries.