Roma educational center in Gracanica, which eleven years prepares Roma children for further education, is threatened by the closure. The municipality would try to provide funding for the further activities.
Due to the lack of donations, the Roma Education Centre in Gracanica earlier this year from thirteen came down to four workers. In the center say they expect support from the municipality, because and other donors would thus get involved in the project. They add that the shutdown would mean the isolation of children who are accustomed to daily spend a few hours in the premises of the center.
“There is a problem with donations. If the center stops with work, it will be a very big problem for the Roma population. Roma children are used to come here after school, they have some hope and support in everything during schooling. If closed, it will mean that children will go backward, that they will be living like their mothers and fathers,” says the coordinator of the cente, Demir Osmani.
The only way to adequately support this center, as there would be no more problems with funds, is that the municipality take over greater part of the responsibility over the center.
“What municipality specifically can do is to pay a few workers. So far, the municipality went out to meet the need of educational center by paying utilities, firewood, providing funds and supplies for children. We want to find a lasting solution. It needs to be institutionalized,” says the deputy mayor of Gracanica in charge of communities, Sebastijan Serifovic.
Slightly less than one hundred Roma children in this centre obtain assistance for full-time schooling. Preschool children are prepared for school desks, while older students are provided with assistance with homework.
Educator Bajram Salijevic says that Roma children here can learn first letters, numbers, children’s songs and games.
-Our aim is that children first learn Serbian language. They are using at home mother tongue and that is why we are preparing here preschool children for school. In addition, they learn to count and read through the game, but everything in cooperation with pre-school “Djurdjevak” – says Salijevic.
For the Roma education center, which plays an important role in the education of Roma children in central Kosovo, from the municipal budget, is allocated few resources. Fate of the centre will be known in two months, when is planned consideration of the local government budget.
