Break Poverty Cycle of Roma Children in Romania

After a successful summer Care2Travel started to focus on teaching and assisting during English classes of Roma children and organizing activities for them. There is a longer time gap until we can organize Summer camps again for these kids and we'd like to progress towards our goal of improving the English language skills of these kids so they can have more chances to be successful in life. Care2Travel´s project at the Xantus Janus school has begun this Fall. Starting in September 2019, volunteers are now working weekly with children in the school. At the moment we have 25 kids taking part of English sessions, ages between 6 and 8 and the class is organized twice a week. Our volunteers include a local volunteer, working as a translator, as well as a foreign volunteer who is a native English speaker. 

The primary focus is to spark an interest in the children to learn and speak English. Although it may not seem important at this young age, the hope is that having a native English speaker working with the class will help the students understand the importance of being able to speak English - and that it is a skill they may be able to use as they grow and move forward. We are able to provide these kids with native Enlish speaker volunteers which makes the kids more interested in their culture and personality. This way, using their curiosity towards the unknown and interesting, we can sparkle their interest to learn English so they will feel a need to immerse themselves into the language.

Students in the program are learning English from the beginning, starting with the alphabet. English is taught through singing, games, and drawing. During classes they learn basic english words using flashcards, stuffed animals, music and different kinds of visual aids. Sometimes the classrooms are divided into groups where they receive tasks they have to complete as a competition. During classes the local volunteer helps by translating between the native english speaker and the kids if needed, but we are trying to lead the kids into situations where they experience the pain of their lack of English language and feel the need to ask for specific word they want to translate, learn it, and say it back to the native speaker.

To involve native English speakers into the activity is also beneficial if we consider the fact that the kids have never really met people who don't understand what they say, just the English teachers, who only pretend that they don’t understand them. This way they will truly experience how it feels like not being understood by others.

This pilot program has been going well and the hope is that over time, and with additional support, the program can be replicated in all classes throughout the school. During vacations we'll be able to organize camp activities for the kids where they will be divided into mixed groups and will be able to compete with their fellow school kids using their English and life skills and win small prizes.