Roma children are one of the most vulnerable groups in Croatia. Most of them are living in the poverty, as their families. Most of the Roma children are living in segregated Roma settlements, attending segregated and not quality education. As the children and young people are potential of every nation, the same go for Roma. Those children are in disadvantage position, as they are discriminated as Roma, the expectation from their teachers is low and the same goes for their families which are not supportive to education as they do not have it as well. Roma children often do not have space for work as the last researches shows that Roma household have about up to 5m2 per person, they do not have a space for children. Many households do not have water in house, electricity and environment is very hostile, especially during the rain and cold wetter.

Roma tutors and mentors is program developed by Roma Youth Organization of Croatia (RYO CRO) firstly financed by REF, then UNICEF. At the time of development Roma National Framework RYO CRO managed to introduces in official papers this program as good practice.

Outreach in Zagreb financed jointly by Bill Cook Foundation, Ministry of Science and Education, Roma Youth Organization of Croatia and Erasmus + program had their focus on Roma children and youth from Zagreb.

Roma children In Croatia do not have the same start as their non-Roma pears. This is especially visible in the elementary education where their achievements are lacking behind of their non-Roma pears. Around 50% of Roma children are educated by the special curriculum and this special program is having influence on their transition in secondary education (while you are on special curriculum then you can enroll only secondary education for support personal like: help in kitchen). Those secondary programs are lasting for three years, the children are not competitive in labor market after finishing this education and they cannot enroll universities. The official data shows that only 30 % of Roma aged between 15 and 18 are in educational system that means that 70% of the children are dropping out from education after elementary education. Among this 30% of children who are in educational system are part of 3-year. secondary program or special secondary program.

When we look at the roots of the problem, we can find it in to less preschool education, not having family support in education, not speaking Croatian language as their mother language, systemic discrimination in the schools.

Another completely different problem which are we facing in Croatia and want to address in this program are facing Roma in universities. Many Roma who are in universities are facing the problem of identity and financial problems. Around 70% of Roma families are living facing poverty, the young people who are attending the Universities are often coming from poor families and they must work and the good thing is that they are willing to work and study simultaneously. The bad thing is that as much education they have they are becoming less Roma. To preserve and to use young and educated Roma in civil sector we need to ensure them vacancies. Roma civil sector is very weak and very politicly involved and that are two main reasons why the vacancies in Roma civil sector is not provided to young and educated Roma.

With this project we targeted children and youth from Zagreb. Previously we worked with more than 100 children from Zagreb, but with this project we targeted 20 children from elementary school Rapska and Vukomerec, and from Roma settlement Vrtni Put. Vrtni Put is only Roma settlement in Zagreb and it is one which has the worst condition in Croatia. The whole settlement has around 100 people and 70 percent of them are children and youth aged between 0 and 18 years of old. People do not have electricity and water, which is special challenge for Roma children. The settlement is crowded with garbage as most of the inhabitants are collecting iron as their prime family income.

The project coast prediction was for 7.250 EUR.

But in realization we spent

5.000 USD - salary for tutor/mentor Bill Cook Foundation

350 EUR - school equipment - Roma Youth Organization (MSE)

5.000 EUR - Spring school in Slovenia - Erasmus - 12 beneficiaries

5.000 EUR - summer school in Osijek - Erasmus - 15 beneficiaries

We had 24 regular beneficiaries which is more by 20 % than it was predicted by project proposal. 4 first graders, 10 fifth graders, 7 seventh graders and 3 eight graders.

We also had a regular beneficiaries aged from 16 to 18 - 15 beneficiaries.

The mentor was selected through the interviews, and selected mentor was Marina Horat, who previously worked with the children and their families in Zagreb. She declines the salary as she wanted to get scholarship for paying intuition fee for RIT American collage in Croatia for International Business.

We provided more than 600 hours of mentor and tutor services for the children and 200 hours for mentoring services to their families.

Which is not inluding hours of spring and summer school. Spring school lasted for 10 days and it was held in Slovenia, while summer school is starting 24.08.2023 and last 7 days till 31.08.2023.

From all our beneficiaries just one had extended school and all of them transit to the higher level of education.

We provided 200 hours of mentoring support to Roma families all together we had 17 beneficiaries, and 14 families. Most of the beneficiaries were mothers, we had one grandmother and 3 fathers. In regards to fathers all of them are coming from families where mother of the primary beneficiaries were included in the process.

Female (7 years) - I like to my teacher Vesna and my teacher Marina. Marina is pretty!

Female (10 years) - I like Marina because she is speaking to me and she helps me!

Male (14 years) - I would like that I have this kind of help when I was younger, it is hard for me now and I would like to be a doctor, but I am not sure will I have good grades to enroll a school of medicine.

Male (15 years) - Marina really helped me with school tasks, but also, I can see that education is very important. I know that my mother and father are now more supportive. I enrolled secondary education and Marina will be helping me to get the scholarship. i would never do it without Marina.

Male (17 years) This is my third year that I am in program and I know that this change my life. My Grandmother loves Marina and I know that all the children loving her. Parents are used to her and she gain the respect from them.

Marina Horvat - This is my third year that I worked as a mentor and I love this job. I know that I as a Roma can set a positive and different example for the children, and help them to achieve their goals. However, it is very hard to work with Roma families, as they do not see benefits of education. However, after I enter their home for several times I now fill as a part of family. To gain their trust and respect we need to have mix approach of professionals and friend. I would say that we have better connection with Roma families than the teachers from school. For me it was better to work with the children in their homes than in the school, as I could influence on the family while I was there. 

This job also helped me to pay tuition fee, for my university. And I am so sad while this program will not be prolonged next year. I hope that decision makers will start to implement this program as soon as possible in all parts of Croatia.

Muhamed Husejni - I was leading just the spring school in Slovenia. The young people connected to the project and children were great, and we had lots of fun. I think that if you ask children that this was for the m the best part.

Siniša Senad Musić - this is our best project and it would not be implemented without Bill Cook Foundation. I need to say that our outcomes are overachieved and we had that luck to award the children with Slovenia (older children) and with Osijek (older children) I really hope that we will find the need to prolong this project for one more year, as the Government still did not start this mentoring project in Croatia. I am sorry that we could not bring in Slovenia and Osijek younger children aged 7-13, as administrative rules blocked us from that. This project is not targeting only children but also mentors who are staying connected with civil sector and also with Roma identity. This was small scale project but even in this small scale we showed that Roma are for education with good motive, having in mind that even Marina was not for the salary but for covering expenses for tuition fee for her university.

The other members of RYO CRO like Mario Šarić, Severina Lajtman, Muhamed Husejni also wanted to be involved so they took a part in spring and summer school, while Marina was willingly let them work with the children, as they help through the project.

Grandmother - I am a long with (mail 17) and he joined program three years ago, he is more focused and for any problem or challenge I can speak with Marina, Siniša or somebody from RYO CRO. They helped me to put him on right track.

Father (two beneficiaries female 14 and mail 7) - Marina is like teacher to them, and she helping them when we cannot. She is our Roma girl like a daughter to me. She is smart. I have only one complaint as my younger daughter could not attend spring and summer school, she was very sad.

Mother (three beneficiaries female 1 grade, Female 3 grade, male fifth grade) - my husband is saying that they do not need a school as we only finished elementary education. But they need, as all other people. My oldest son improved his behavior and grades. My daughters love Marina, she is like role model for them and she is very pretty. She is Roma having 23 years and she is not married - this is also very important.

Mother (beneficiaries male 8 grade) - my son enrolled in secondary education. For the first time he was on vacation in Slovenia and Osijek. I am sorry that my other children did not have this opportunity. I cannot afford to go on vacation. Marina also helped me to get food from public kitchen. She is Roma but she is smart like Gadže (non-Roma)

Roma tutors and mentors is our best project.

We are motivating Roma children for education and ensuring that they have better educational outcomes. However, some children have to big gap in education in regards to their non-Roma peers. That is why some of them do not achieve so good with the grades and cannot transit in secondary education of their choice.

We are also helping young and educated Roma to gain their salary and to have money for expenses, as most of them are coming from very poor families. Thes are only right choice to be mentors as they lived through the same situations as those children (poverty, facing discrimination, low expectation etc.) and they manage to get to university or to study jobs. they are becoming role models for these young children and set a good example for them, which cannot be done by non-Roma as children sees them as part of the society which has benefits which they do not have.

Roma families are also very involved in the project, and each time when we have new Roma family we face the same problems, but as we are working for some time, the families are spreading the word to others, but we could not accept all the children in program because of financial limitations.

The weak spot of the program was advocacy component as we could not put pressure on Government to introduce the program on national level even though we manage to put those activities in National Roma Framework in Croatia. Not having this program next year will have bad influence on the children, this program should be financed on national level base, as our research shows that there is a need for around 50% of Roma children in Croatia for this program: However, we know that finding Roma mentors is challenge and that in whole Croatia we could find only 25 mentors. This quest for mentors was implemented last year when we thought that the program will be supported by the state on national level.