Adequate support to pre-school education and training of children in disadvantaged position from the Municipality of Burgas

Within the project proposal the Burgas Municipality will provide adequate support to pre-school education and training of disadvantaged children from Burgas Municipality. The target group includes children from 3 to 7 years of age from “Pobeda” neighbourhood, the village of Ravnets, “Rudnik” neighbourhood and the town of Bulgarovo, with residents of compact ethnic minorities. A recently carried out demographic analysis and the experience from previously implemented projects indicate that the support to early child development of children from ethnic minorities yields good results through their overall integration in mixed pre-school environment. The inclusion of disadvantaged children also motivates their parents and close family relatives to encourage their children to educate themselves and accept education as a value. In 2010 Burgas Municipality started a programme for transportation of disadvantaged children from “Pobeda”, an area with predominant population of Roma and Turkish origin and no childcare facility, to kindergartens in the other areas of Burgas. The children willingly adapted to the mixed pre-school environment, acquired valuable social skills, enhanced their knowledge in the Bulg.language and other subjects. For this reason, external funding is required to continue their transportation and the support for their integration. At the same time, in Ravnets, Bulgarovo and “Rudnik” the childcare facilities face difficulties to fund additional activities related to the socialization of the children. The concept of the project is that 250 children in disadvantaged position be supported by an integrated approach: providing organized transportation for the children form “Pobeda” neighbourhood to the central kindergartens, conducting Bulgarian language lessons, improving the conditions of the receiving educational environment by purchasing the necessary equipment and materials, organizing various extracurricular activities and working with the parents.

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