The annual REYN-Ukraine Members’ Conference is a platform for strength, inspiration and professional development for people united around the value of the “best interests of the Roma child”.
November 22, 2019, the second day of the Conference, the key achievements and challenges in the field of Roma children early development and education were discussed with representatives of the authorities, international institutions, educators, social experts, Roma parents, activists and volunteers.
The event was opened by the national REYN-Ukraine coordinator Eleonora Kulchar, who created an atmosphere for strengthening team spirit, sharing experience, teaming and establishing cooperation – not only linear, but also horizontal and inter-institutional.
Together we participated in meaningful discussions with the Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine (Serhiy Nizhynsky), a representative of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine (Volodymyr Khodakivsky), a representative of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine (Sayenko Svitlana), a representative of the Ombudsman on the observance of children’s rights (Aksana Filipishyna), Staff Advisor of Uzhgorod Mayor (Yuriy Mandich).
Presented the results of the REYN-Ukraine research on the needs of Roma children from the position of families and the experience of teachers (presented by Halyna Yurchenko – REYN-Ukraine volunteer, project coordinator of NGO ‘Roma of Ukraine ‘TERNIPE’).
Then learned about the experiences of Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia (presented by Szilvia Pallagi, program officer of the Open Society Foundation Early Childhood Program).
Together, they have come up with a number of ideas to reduce the impact of family socio-economic status, awareness parenting, and lack of approaches to teacher who works in diverse groups of children.
Zemfira Kondur, a representative of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, said that the results of the REYN-Ukraine research were recently presented in Strasbourg during the World Democracy Forum.
Mykola Burlutsky – Regional Coordinator of REYN-Ukraine in Kharkiv Region presented the draft REYN-Ukraine for 2020-2021 to general discussion.
Jonathan Ellis, an advocacy expert, conducted a master class on the presentation of advocacy campaigns.
Moderated by Halyna Yurchenko, the winners of the mini-project competation presented their achievements: Oleksiy Padchenko (Zaporizhzhya), Maxim Dzhym (Odessa); Janysh Panchenko (Kherson region).
Thank to everyone who joined REYN this days and who invests a part of themselves every day for a better future. After all, education and development of Roma children is not only for Roma, it is also about the future nation, future taxpayers and the economic sector, it is about the future of Ukraine. So, we continue to build a society where every child has the right to happiness.