Bulgaria: A greener environment for Roma children

The neighbourhood of Nadezhda in Sliven, Bulgaria, is physically cut from the rest of the city by a concrete wall and railway. It’s home to much of Sliven’s Roma population, who live with a lack of green areas, playgrounds, or sports facilities, as well as chaotic infrastructure and limited access to drinking water and sanitation. Education levels are low and children are deprived of a healthy, safe, and green environment in which to grow up, resulting in poorer socioeconomic outcomes later in life, and reinforcing the structural disadvantage faced by Roma across Europe.

MARIO programme grantee Foundation for Hope (Za Nadejda) is tackling this environmental injustice by planning and advocating for new greenspaces in the city. They’re co-creating their plans with Roma and non-Roma children and youth from the city. They’ve just kicked off their project for a healthier, greener and safer environment for Roma children in Nadezhda, with a promising start: a variety of activities have given the children new knowledge and interest in nature and ecology, ready to be put to use in project’s next phase, when they’ll visit urban green infrastructure.

Conceiving of a new greenspace or park requires a vivid imagination, something that children living in poverty and exclusion have more difficulty developing. In order to help develop children’s capacities and knowledge, Foundation for Hope together with local school Bratya Miladinovi organized sessions that aimed at introducing new concepts to the children and allowed them to meet with people and organizations working on ecology and nature preservation.

At the beginning they asked them to draw their usual pathway from home to the school to see how children perceive their surrounding environment. Working in small groups allowed for collaboration between the children and even among boys and girls, usually rarely observed in this context.

In their innocence children draw everything they experience in their surroundings. In this sense some girls drew beauty salons, the usual occupation for women in Nadejda, while some boys drew pawn shops, a common business in the neighbourhood – a sign of poverty and often a source of conflict. Only one group included the school in their work, which can be interpreted as a sign of the distant relationship the students have with their educational institutions. All groups drew houses, and stadiums to play sports, the latter being absent from their deprived neighbourhood.

Another session organized by Foundation for Hope focused on parks, so as to increase the understanding of the children about the need to preserve nature and the natural habitats of different animal species. A representative of the Sinite Kamani natural park allowed the students to get closer to nature with an interactive and informative presentation. The children learned about the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species and were able to touch the feathers of rare birds. Although they were shy, some children plucked up their courage and asked questions, and on the occasions they didn’t know the answer, they demonstrated logical thinking.

Theoretical knowledge must be complemented by practical activities in order to bring about change. As part of Foundation for Hope’s project, Greenpeace made a presentation to fourth and fifth grade students to inspire them to take action in protecting nature and transforming their environment into a healthier, greener and safer one.

The children were immersed in the inspiring actions of the green NGO and learned about concepts such as placemaking and nonviolent interventions for protecting the environment. Some students even exchanged contacts with Greenpeace to find out more about their initiatives and about how they can start similar activities in Sliven.

Featured image: Roma children at the co-creation sessions. Credit: Foundation for Hope (Za Nadejda)