Corawill's Helping Hands in Vratsa

 

For our third consecutive year, Corawill, Inc. visited Assen Zlaterov social home in Vratsa. Our volunteers included students and alumni from Western Connecticut State University and the university of Connecticut, Torrington, a Danbury High School student and lawyer.

The building is in constant need of repair. We donated funds towards the renovation of the boy's bathrooms, which was completed shortly after we left. We have also put money renovation of the girls' bathrooms and will continue to fund raise so that this can be completed next summer.

We played sports, took the children swimming at the community pool and on an outing to Ledenika Cave, wrote poems, created art masterpieces, played games (UNO, puzzles, matching game) and helped paint the older girl's rooms - the latter alongside a wonderful group of volunteers from Holland. The week ended with a talent show and pizza party, with singing dancing and other special talents. Needless to say, the children were stronger in the talent department than the volunteers! We also made S'mores, a new treat for the kids and they loved it.

We'll see the children again next year the first week of August. For more information about volunteering with Corawill, email Jeannie at corawill.inc@gmail.com.

The Decade of Roma Inclusion

Reprinted in full from Global Post, 14 racist things politicians and others have said about the Roma.  It is obscene that politicians in Europe share their racist ideology so easily while at the same time European countries are spending millions of euros on the decade of Roma inclusion, 2005-2015. 

The World Bank site explains,  "The idea of the Decade emerged from the first high level regional conference on Roma which was held in Budapest, Hungary in 2003. At that event, prime ministers and senior government officials from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, FYR Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovakia announced their intention to launch the Decade. Their backing signals a sea change in Roma policy and the political will necessary for reform. Other countries are encouraged to join the Decade." This initiative is supported by This includes the Open Society Institute, the World Bank, the European Commission, the United Nations Development Program, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe, the Council of Europe Development Bank, among others, and most importantly, Roma leadership, including international Roma organizations."

As we approach 2015, one has to wonder what will happen when the Decade of inclusion ends? For an overview of how the Roma have "benefited" since 2015, read Al Jazeera's "Unfinished Business: Roma Inclusion in Europe."

Making Home Social for Orphans

The 'social home.'

According to Lumos, an organization helping children without caring families, around the world 8 million children live in institutions and of those, 90% are not orphans. For myriad reasons, including poor parenting, economic incentives, disabilities, children end up separated from their kin by choice or chance.

The institution pictured here is in Bulgaria and houses about 70 children ages 7 to 17. The playground is is comprised of blacktop and dirt, the windows have fencing, and the furniture is in bad condition. Those in charge do their best with what they have, but large facilities like this one cannot give the one-on-one attention that young children need to feel secure and loved.

The view of the 'garden' from a bedroom window.

This summer we are again traveling to Vratsa, Bulgaria to 'paint and play' at this social home - read 'orphanage.' We are brightening up their sleeping quarters with new paint and playing social and educational games with the children.  We will also do art and writing projects. The children love physical touch, holding hands, plaiting our hair and holding hands. Many are talented acrobats and dancers.

Most of the children in this home are Roma, many have disabilities. In general, most Eastern and Southern European countries have made tremendous improvements in these institutions since 1989, but they are still 'institutions,' not homes, and the children living in them are not fully integrated into the community. They are instead stigmatized and sometimes they internalize a sense of rejection. One teenager on the cusp of leaving said, "I am Roma, Roma is bad."

(For more on our volunteer trip read Everybody Helps.)

Those of us from America often lack knowledge of and experience with the racially contentious milieu in which Roma live. However, 'Roma integration' is a priority for members of the European Union.  In addition to the EU monies, integration programs receive assistance from private donors and NGOs in the US, Holland and the UK among others.  Efforts have mixed success, just as does with integration of minorities in any country, be it the US or Iraq.

The playground.

Georgette Mulheir and her organization, Lumos, work "to transform an outdated and harmful system into one which supports and protects children and enables them to have a positive future." Here is a ten minute  TEDtalk by Ms. Mulheir on the perils of the social and emotional development of institutionalized children.