Preparatory Education Program for Roma School Children, Serbia

Some of the Roma children attending school in Belgrade. Photo: Tatiana Dwyer/CWS

Church World Service-Balkans

Forty Roma preschool children from Zemun community in Belgrade are increasing their readiness to enroll in grade one of primary school.

Belgrade's Zemun community hosts nearly 20,000 displaced families, including some 5,000 Roma families. The Roma people are the poorest and the most marginalized community in Serbia, plagued by poverty, bias, social exclusion, and lack of access to social services.

Roma children grow up in poverty, live in inadequate housing, and often do not attend school, having to work to support their usually large families. Roma children's insufficient knowledge of the Serbian language makes school extremely difficult for them.

CWS is supporting the preparatory education work of "Branko Pesic" Primary School through a special preschool education program developed specifically to provide vulnerable Roma children basic educational skills. Children attending the program do much better on tests than children who do not. Parents and the wider Roma community are helping to develop solutions to the issue of Roma children's education, thanks to the primary school's efforts.

Support for Church World Service helps make this program possible.

Updated 5/24/2007

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