{"id":7303,"date":"2021-11-01T07:41:11","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T07:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/?p=7303"},"modified":"2021-11-17T08:27:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T08:27:04","slug":"when-will-you-come-back-again-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/when-will-you-come-back-again-miss\/","title":{"rendered":"When will you come back again, Miss?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Ladies\u2019 Union of Drama \u2013 House of Open Hospitality<\/a> (LUD – HOH), we believe that no child should be excluded from the school community, no matter for what reason, as the right to education is a fundamental one.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, however, this does not apply to an appallingly large number of Roma children. According to European Union data for 2016, 92% of Roma children in Greece tend to drop out of school at a very young age<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

With a vision to minimize this phenomenon, in 2017 we launched our interventions, using as our main tool MobileSchool<\/a>, a patented product of the Belgian organisation of the same name. MobileSchool is a wheeled construction, consisting of folding blackboards with a total span of 6 meters (when fully unfolded) and weighing 150 kilos. It also carries educational panels by subject (e.g., arithmetic, grammar, geography) as well as discussion panels on various topics (e.g., personal hygiene, diversity, school bullying).<\/p>\n

The launch of the project \u201cMobileSchool Travels\u201d <\/strong>under the Active Citizens Fund program, with LOD – HOH as the project promoter and Bodossaki Foundation, jointly with SolidarityNow, as joint Fund Operator, gave wings to our vision, enabling it to fly beyond the Prefecture of Drama, to also reach Kavala and Xanthi.<\/p>\n

In all the places where MobileSchool makes a stop to generously offer knowledge, the love that we receive from the Roma children defies description. It is seen in the beaming smile of Yelis, a young Romani girl from the camp of Kalambaki in Drama, who has stolen our hearts and is gradually becoming a unique artist, as she has found fertile ground for unfolding her talent in painting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen will you come back again, Miss?\u201d<\/strong> she asks. A question ripe with things unsaid\u2026 The hunger for learning, the satisfaction for what the children have achieved in the short time the mobile school was there, the pleasure for the activity they experienced, but also the anticipation of every next meeting.<\/p>\n

The one and only Konstantinos, from the Ampelokipi camp in Drama, is the king of mischief, teasing and laughter, but also of asking questions about the lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cShall I draw you a picture?\u201d<\/strong> he asks, and he fills the sheet of paper with hearts and suns, seas and flowers!<\/p>\n

At one of MobileSchool\u2019s next stops, Sebiha from Xanthi writes on the blackboard \u201cLove you Miss\u201d<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong>She misspells nearly all the words, yet this cannot hide the love hidden in them, which can fit the whole world!<\/p>\n

And how can we bring ourselves to wipe this phrase off MobileSchool\u2019s blackboards to\u00a0prepare for the next intervention?<\/p>\n

You see, Tasim is waiting for us at Piges in Kavala, which means that we will have to \u201cload\u201d MobileSchool with mathematics. Yes, Tasim may not wear matching shoes, but he knows his multiplication tables backwards and forwards. He wants to be a merchant! Why not indeed, seeing that he\u2019s sharp as a needle in mathematics?<\/p>\n

From all these phrases, from all the drawings, the teasing and the mischief, we draw the strength to continue, despite the adverse conditions.<\/p>\n

So, yes. We’re back on the road! Because we want to hear these words, time after time:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen will you come back again?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Ladies\u2019 Union of Drama \u2013 House of Open Hospitality (LUD – HOH), we believe that no child should be excluded from the school community, no matter for what reason, as the right to education is a fundamental one. Unfortunately, however, this does not apply to an appallingly large number of Roma children. According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":6051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7303"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7306,"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions\/7306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.activecitizensfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}