Our Projects
Our foundation has several ongoing projects. When
planning and implementing our projects we always
try to build upon and develop further our previous
results and experiences.
• Roma Special Schools Initiative
The goal of this project is to increase the chances
of socially disadvantaged children in achieving
school success by preparing
students from special schools or remedial classes for integration into the
regular classrooms, and assisting them further
to achieve school success.
Based on our
current findings, over 50 % of students from the experimental classes can
be integrated into the regular classroom.
• HU99.04-01
Social Integration of Disadvantaged Youth with
Particular Emphasis on the Roma Minority
2001-2002, 1 year, 40 000 EUR
The goal of this project is to implement and maintain preparatory programs
for socially disadvantaged preschool children, so that they have an opportunity
to overcome the discriminative effects of their background prior to starting
grade one.
Most of the pupils placed in special need classes
are Roma. We initiated a "preparatory class" in
our partner schools which, through the Step-by-step
method, anti-bias education could combat these
disadvanatges.
We proved that the children made
up for any educational gap, and became prepared
to enter the first grade along with their peers,
and will
succeeed in regular classes. This
programme involved 4 schools in 4 region of Hungary.
• HU0002-01 Roma Social
Integration Programme: Training And Development of Institutions
Project
Leader: European Consulting Organisation (Brussels)
2002-2003, 1 year, 90 000 EUR of the total budget of 350 000 EUR
The Roma Social Integration PHARE programme is
an experimental model programme. The programme aims at improving the
social integration of Roma, through an integrated
approach combining anti-discrimination
actions
with projects aiming at a better provision of information and facilitating
community building. The current tender is part of the anti-discrimination
element of the
programme.
The Training And Development of Institutions related
to the HU0002-01 Roma Social Integration Programme
is composed of two different
training programmes.
These two training programmes should be regarded as pilot projects
that constitute the starting point of continuous
anti-discrimination efforts.
The success
of these efforts in the long run is dependent on similar projects in
the future
that will be also aimed at achieving tolerance and understanding between
the minority and majority populations. The number of participants of
these two trainings
are 465 all around Hungary.
• Roma Education Initiative
Project Leader:
Ec-Pec Foundation
2003-2005, total budget of 330 000 USD
Roma Education
Initiative
aims to tackle the current unacceptable situation in the Region of
Central, Eastern
and Southeast Europe in education for Roma children. It is a three-year
effort beginning in 2002. It sets out to increase national programming,
to ambitiously
mobilize national agendas and resources, and to advocate strongly
and consistently for systemic and policy changes that work against
segregation
and all forms of racial discrimination of Roma children in the school
systems. It will challenge
governments to meet their democratic commitments working in collaboration
with its OSI partners the Roma Regional Participation Program and
the European Roma
Rights Center.
The Hungarian project:
According to the two goals
of the Roma Education Initiative:
• the elimination of discriminatory
processes in the school systems of countries in the Region; and,
• the
establishment, through positive interventions of the conditions necessary
to enable Roma
children
succeed in
school on equal terms with their peers,
the main goals of our project are:
• to support systemic change that
works against segregation and discrimination through the development
of Local
Integration Networks comprised of educational institutions (pre-schools, schools, secondary
and vocational schools) and non-educational institutions (local authorities,
social support
organisations, Roma NGOs, Roma self governments, health care services
etc.) in three regions of Hungary
• to
support systemic change through:
• Develop
new, culturally appropriate educational measurement tools
The development
of new,
culturally appropriate, sensitive and non-biased tools
for educational measurement of children’s abilities
in order to prevent their inappropriate placement
in Special Schools or classes
• Establishing Professional
Development Schools and Innovative Institutional Cooperation
The
development of a model
of cooperation
between Teacher Training Institute and School for Student
Teacher Practice promoting
school success for Roma children in an integrated setting
• Development
of Roma Family/School Coordinator as a registered profession
in Law (OKJ)
• Effective
Information Exchange (Project Homepage)
Communication will play and
extremely important role during the completion of the project.
We set up a new, well
stuctured homepage in order to ensure up to date, continuous
internal and external communication.
The Webpage will be linked to the newly established webpage
of Ministry of Education (Web page of the National Integration
Network Program).
Cooperation, our Partners
We believe it is very important to share the experience
gained from our programs
with other interested schools or organizations. We consider
all individuals or organizations who identify with
our mission and participate actively
in realizing
our goals valuable and equal partners. We try to maintain
ongoing, effective, consistent and two-way communication
with all our partners.
This includes
passing information on promptly, clarifying tasks and expectations
as well as ongoing
evaluation and feedback.
Our Sponsors:
Open Society Institute New York
Soros Foundation
Ministry
of Education
Ministry of Education PHARE Office
Public
Foundation
for Hungarian National and Ethnic
Minorities
Council of Europe
Prime Minister’s Office
International Step by Step Association
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