Seeking a Roma Partner for Education Project, 16 September Deadline

[Julia Bolton Holloway]

We are applying for EU Funding, Call for Proposals EACEA/16/2011, where we work with families and literacy through creating books like http://www.ringofgold.eu/Romany.html.m We already have Italy and Romania as partners, with the 'Aureo Anello' Associazione and the Asociatia 'Agrustic Somnacuni - Inel de Aur', but need a third country participant. Our project for the EU Promoting the Integration of Roma in and through Education consists of constructing a space for learning, a library school, one in Florence, one in Buzau, one elsewhere, that can be a shepherd's hut/vardo on wheels and which can then be a learning center for all ages, both genders, using many languages, Romani, Romanian, Italian, English, from which base the children can then participate in Gage schooling from a position of strength. The EU would provide 75% funding. Contact [e-mail]

 

Daniel-Claudiu Dumitrescu, President

Asociatia Agrustic Somnacuni - Inel de Aur

Buzau, Romania

Julia Bolton Holloway, President

Aureo Anello Associazione

Florence, Italy

[Mojca Rakipov Nursel]

HELLO TO Daniel-Claudiu Dumitrescu and Julia Bolton Holloway

I am a member of World Artists and I am aksing you, which condition you need if I joined like third country in your project of Education Roma ? I am from Slovenia and maybe I can be your partner too. Let me know all conditions what is needed. Thanks and Romano selami, Mojca Nursel - Ljubljana

[Julia Bolton Holloway]

You are in Slovenia which is a member of the European Union. Can you work with a group like a government ministry for Roma or for education or for libraries or a community group? Our project consists of building a library school in each country as a model for education at all levels while preserving and exercising Roma skilled handcrafts, at the same time teaching the need for windows to prevent tuberculosis, for gutters to prevent walls from collapsing, to use alternate forms of energy, like Eton handcrank solar radio, light, cellphone recharging, to launder cloth nappies (€500 for a baby), rather than disposable paper and carcinogenic ones (€5000 for a baby), as well as the alphabet. We create books with drawings and the text in multiple languages, see http://www.ringofgold.eu/Romany.html, record oral material, music, publish photographs of families. The EU project is to integrate Roma through Education. We put a spin on this by having it be a project to integrate Gage through Education! Sharing and appreciating culture and skills. Among other things we make Roma wooden rocking cradles for the babies in the participating families, to emphasize the strength of families.

The EU project has a deadline of 16 September. It is for one year staring in January. It would fund 75% of the project and your association would need to fund the other 25%. Ideally your association should be in a Roma community in poverty but with a desire to change this through education. As much as possible the teaching should be flexible, in Romani as well as the other languages, for all ages, so when the children go to school they go with confidence, from exposure to books, etc., their parents sharing with them in that exposure. It is easy to collect suitable books, schoolbooks that are out of date, encyclopedias that are out of date, for the shelves. Our part of the project is work/study, formation for employment, with Romanian Roma participants in Florence skilfully restoring a historic anti-slavery cemetery and its garden to help their families in Romania through using their earning to restore and build homes. A crucial aspect is the alphabetization, whjich is furthered by learning how to cut letters on stone. It is our hope to create teams of Roma who can then work on the European Cemetery Route and elsewhere restoring works of art.

Best,

Julia in Florence