Playful Parenting Activity Booklet

Playful Parenting Activity Booklet

This booklet contains ideas for parents and caregivers to help support their young child’s physical, cognitive and social-emotional development. The booklet includes specific ideas for children from 0-9 and is broken into helpful sections based on a young child’s developmental milestones.

Roma Children’s Participation: Shaping Responses to COVID-19 in the EU and Bulgaria

This policy paper presents research on the impact of COVID-19 of Roma children and the barriers to their health and wellbeing and the potential of participatory responses. The findings are set in the current context of child poverty and related EU initiatives on poverty and participation. Lessons to learned are highlighted and priority actions are recommended.

This paper reports information from professionals working with young Roma, from 13 organisations in 9 European countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania, Spain and the UK) and participatory practice with children facing discrimination.

Education and professional realization of the Roma community

Education and professional realization of the Roma community / Образование и реализация на ромската общност

The study was conducted in 140 settlements in Bulgaria. To overcome the lack of up-to-date information, TSA worked together with a sociological agency, Global Metrics, to conduct a nationally representative study on the Roma communities in Bulgaria. The purpose of the study is to determine the level of higher education among the Roma population by comparing it with the already conducted study from 2011.

“A fair start for every child in Europe” Campaign – Case study Bulgaria – Breaking Down Barriers to Quality ECEC for Roma Children in Sofia

The Equal Opportunities Initiative Association (EOIA) has been working with Roma communities in Sofia since 2008, helping to increase enrolment rates of young Roma children in pre-school. Today they collaborate closely with local authorities and national government, ensuring that Roma parents are consulted on issues of access and quality of early childhood services.

Healthy eating habits in children between the ages 0-3. How to raise strong and smart children?

Healthy eating habits in children between the ages 0-3. How to raise strong and smart children? / Здравословно хранене на децата от 0 до 3 години. Как да отглеждаме здрави и умни деца?

This project is part of the REYN network Bulgaria, coordinated by TSA, which aims to support the improvement of services provided to parents. In order to improve the efficacy and capacity of specialists focusing on early learning and care, the project connects REYN and a local NGO to build capacity to deliver awareness-raising sessions on the importance of preparing healthy and nutritious meals as a prerequisite for solid brain development which affects later success in school. The material in question is a brochure, developed for information purposes, by presenting useful factual information related to child nutrition importance.

Travelling Travellers. An overview of the living conditions of travelling Travellers and existing supporting initiatives

ENG: Travelling Travellers. An overview of the living conditions of travelling Travellers and existing supporting initiatives

NL: Rondtrekkende woonwagenbewoners. Een overzicht van de leefomstandigheden van rondtrekkende woonwagenbewoners en bestaande initiatieven ter ondersteuning

Travellers travel around for different reasons. While for some it is part of their specific way of life, in recent years an increasing number of Travellers in Flanders, Belgium have been forced to travel around due to a lack of encampment sites. This situation makes them vulnerable. Because this problem is relatively recent, however, the group of travelling Travellers has largely remained under the research radar until now. The aim of the present study, commissioned by the Flemish Agency for Home Affairs and conducted by the research institute HIVA, was therefore to gain more insight into the living and housing situation of travelling Travellers in Flanders, Belgium.

The research is focused on:

1) the living conditions and social participation of travelling Travellers,

2) the existing support, guidance and assistance for travelling Travellers.

Subsequently, policy recommendations based on the results of these two focus areas were made. Subject of the study were both Belgian and foreign travelling Travellers. Data was collected by various qualitative research methods, among which interviews with Travellers about their current and desired living situation and interviews with key figures such as practitioners and policy officers.

The resource is in Dutch language. 

Roma and Travellers in Six Countries

Roma and Travellers living in western EU countries are less often in the limelight than those living in central, eastern and southern EU countries. While they represent a smaller proportion of the population in the west, they also face problems with social exclusion, marginalisation and discrimination.

This report presents findings from the survey conducted by FRA in 2019 covering Roma and Travellers populations in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The survey included interviews with almost 4,700 Roma and Travellers, collecting information on more than 8,200 individuals living in their households. The findings present a bleak, but familiar, picture of discrimination and deprivation fuelled by anti-Gypsyism. Almost half of the Roma and Travellers surveyed felt discriminated against and experienced hate-motivated harassment, in the year before the survey.

The survey results presented here show the urgent need for the post-2020 Strategic EU Framework for Roma Equality, Inclusion and Participation to accelerate Roma inclusion efforts that can break the vicious cycle of social exclusion, discrimination and poverty that contributes to such disturbing results.