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Building a Professional Community – REYN Hungary Secrets

REYN Hungary is celebrating its seventh birthday with a vibrant professional community, two networks, and a great visibility in Hungary. Let us take a look at how they developed this community and what are their aspirations for the next years.

REYN Hungary was one of the first national REYNs that was launched in 2014. During mapping the needs of the professionals and stakeholders, initiated by REYN International, more than 70 early childhood professionals were asked cross-sectorally about their aspirations in a professional community. Answers were analyzed, and the national objectives of REYN were developed. From that year on, REYN Hungary is asking members about their needs and aspirations on a yearly basis.

After mapping the needs, the most challenging step was to develop trust in a professional community that did not exist before. In uncertain political and economic times it was challenging to make professionals trust hardly known networks . For many members it was the first time to sign a membership form. REYN Hungary has one more challenging task – to convince people in Central and Eastern Europe that the signature they give when applying to be a REYN member does not cause them trouble and does not cost anything. Building trust, while building REYN Hungary, meant and still means a continuous personal communication with members. It might be a personalized newsletter, a regular mail, study visits, a phone call or talking in life sessions. Although the network has more than 700 members, personal communication is still the first and foremost characteristic of the network. The motto of REYN Hungary is “Sharing is caring.”

Other than regular mapping, the needs of the members and having a personal approach are the other important elements visible for the public. Advocacy campaigns, REYN Award, media presence – by all of this the trust of current and future members is created. Personalized national REYN logo and branded merchandise for the workshops display the message that members are equally important for the network and for Romani children and families.

“Plans for the next years is just to keep on.If we can keep the magic 100+ in a year (that means that each year we promise ourselves to add 100 more members that year), and we succeed to achieve this goal so far, and the smiling faces at the events, we will be happy,” says Zsuzsa Laszlo, REYN Hungary coordinator.

Inclusive Kindergartens in the 8th District in Budapest

A complex kindergarten development program was launched in the 8th District Municipality in Budapest at the beginning of this year. The program is implemented in partnership with Partners Hungary Foundation/REYN Hungary (PHA) and Rosa Parks Foundation that received a tender from the European Commission.

In recent years, large numbers of young people, including middle-class families with small children, have moved to Józsefváros (the 8th district), which for a long time was one of the most disadvantaged areas in Budapest. However, these newly arrived families do not enroll their children into the local kindergartens (in many cases with a Roma majority), which prevents the possibility of building a diverse and inclusive atmosphere.

The goal of the project “Inclusive kindergartens for the quality education of Roma” is to make 12 local kindergartens inclusive and attractive to middle-class parents who now send their children to kindergartens outside the district, reflecting on the diversity that characterizes the district. Keeping its own program and building on its strengths, each kindergarten will develop its own institutional inclusion program and attractive high-quality programs and services to invite middle-class families to the local kindergartens.

“You think you are doing perfect, but when a second eye sees your kindergarten, you realize you can always develop,” says Melinda, the kindergarten principal of the 8th district.

As part of the project, PHA will develop a complex methodology and an associated set of tools, which will be tested in the project. These tools will be available to all municipalities and other kindergartens who similarly want to make their kindergartens inclusive.

The tasks of the Partners Hungary Foundation and REYN in this project are to:

  • Develop institutional strategic planning in the kindergartens and its implementation with the involvement of all stakeholders.
  • Help the kindergartens to renew their methodological tools and offer new services in accordance with the mapping the needs of the kindergartens and parents.
  • Communicate the new services to the residents of the district, families, strengthening the district identity.
  • Modify the district boundaries for the optimal use of kindergartens and in order to ensure a proportional presence of Roma, children with special educational needs, and foreign children in each kindergarten.

Read more about REYN Hungary and follow their Facebook page.

REYN Academy: series of ten online workshops for REYN members in Hungary

More than 250 members participated in the REYN Academy in Hungary at the beginning of this year. The success is measured in the fact that the first REYN Academy hosted 15 participants, and the last one more than 45 participants. As one of the members wrote: “REYN Academy was the best thing that happened to me during the pandemic”.

Early childhood professionals often lack the possibility to participate in capacity-building workshops for various reasons: long distances they have to travel, lack of time and money. With the COVID-19 pandemic, this changed dramatically, as the online platforms became available from one day to the other. Therefore, the REYN National Network in Hungary decided to launch a mini-workshop series for the early childhood workforce to strengthen their capacity and advocate for their well-being.

One of the main goals of REYN Hungary is to build the capacity of early childhood professionals who work with Roma children and families in the country. Each year REYN Hungary launches an online survey and asks 700 members about their needs and topics they would like to learn about.

The list is endless, but there are certain patterns that always appear in these online surveys. In 2020, REYN Hungary had the opportunity to satisfy almost all of the needs that members signaled. Each of the topics – resilience, emotional intelligence development, early diagnosis, sexual education, kids coaching, conflict management, working with Roma families, early pregnancy in Roma families -was presented during 1,5 hours.

REYN National Network in Hungary plans to continue having REYN Academy and will offer a series of 10 REYN Academy every year.

Read more about REYN Hungary and follow their Facebook page.

Supporting Roma women to become early childhood professionals in Hungary

Access and the quality of services can be increased by ensuring more diversity in the workforce. The REYN National Network Hungary has been training Roma women to help them entering the profession.

“I am really grateful for this opportunity, I have always wanted to work with children but could never afford to study. I used to work in a kindergarten but couldn’t keep the job because I wasn’t qualified”, says Eva. She prefers not to disclose her real name for privacy reasons.

With other Roma women, Eva followed a training provided and financed by the REYN National Network Hungary. She is now a qualified kindergarten technical assistant.

REYN Hungary has been recently supporting the professional development of Roma women in early childhood education and care.

Diversity in the workforce

“It is important to have caregivers and assistants with a diverse background. We are happy that this project can contribute to it”, said Flora Bacso, training coordinator for REYN Hungary.

The evidence is clear, having teachers and care givers with the same cultural background as the children is an asset that can be used for building trust with children and families.

“My dream is to provide a solid emotional background to deprived children in the early years”, Eva says. “Once, we had a little boy who was living with his grandfather in a bungalow” – she continues. “They didn’t have running water, so the child’s clothes were often not clean. While many of the staff and the children kept a distance from him, I bathed him and washed his clothes. My colleagues were not sure this was a good move, these are not tasks that are usually done by kindergarten assistants. However, when I saw that other children started to play with him, I knew I was doing the right thing”, Eva concludes.

“It is inspiring to work with motivated people who are studying for a new career with all the effort it takes. Despite coming from low income families they manage to raise their children, follow their classes on Saturdays, study for the exams and still do 40 hours of kindergarten practice per month. I am honored to be their mentor”, Flora Bacso declares.

REYN Hungary

REYN Hungary is a vibrant national network that offers its members opportunities for professional development across the early childhood development sector and advocates for more Roma early childhood professionals in the country. They also promote access to high quality services for young Roma children and families.

Read more about REYN Hungary.

Strategies to combat segregation of Romani children in schools

- Blog | REYN Admin

In Strategies to combat segregation of Romani children in schools, the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights of Harvard University analyzes the interventions employed by civil society organizations active in six EU countries to push and/or support the state institutions in developing and implementing measures to prevent and stop segregation of Romani children in schools.

The report presents six case studies summarizing findings based on an in-depth literature review and from conversations with communities, experts, and stakeholders in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary and Romania.

To download the report, click here