Prejmer is a small town in Transylvania. Quiet streets of single-storey houses stretch out from an ornate Orthodox church and a primary school, located in the centre of the town. The primary school is where our group of Lyceum volunteers has come to work with children from a local Roma community. On our first day in the school, we see for ourselves what our local partners have already told us; Prejmer is a disadvantaged area in one of Europe’s least affluent countries. We see this in the basic classroom equipment: chalkboards and walls of flaking paint and faded, hand-drawn posters.
The Lyceum students are apprehensive on their first morning in the school. They have prepared crafts and some simple English lessons for the children but are daunted by the prospect of meeting the children for the first time. But while the school infrastructure is basic and worn, the local children are boisterous and full of beans and they surround and spontaneously embrace the Lyceum students, clearly very excited to have a group of volunteers from Switzerland. The affection of the Romanian children is an instant icebreaker and our volunteers are quickly doing crafts, practising basic English and playing basketball. Some of these things are easier than others for the local children. We see that some have only very basic reading ability, despite their age of nine or ten.
We spend a week in this school and learn more about the community these children are from. We learn how to refer to the community, properly, as Roma. We share other words we know from our languages. Gitano. Zigeuner. Gypsy. We see that these words evoke a certain image. None is a simple descriptor. We talk about why we think the things we do about these people, and we talk about half a million black triangles in concentration camps.
Romania today has the largest Roma population in Europe. We are told that most of the children from the Roma community in Prejmer are growing up in single-parent families. In some cases, neither parent is present and children are brought up by grandparents. Unemployment is high and adults often move to different communities for work. One of the boys we are working with shares a room with his six half-brothers. His grandmother, with limited means, is trying to raise all seven boys. Unsurprisingly, school attendance is sporadic. The Romanian government provides more social assistance to families if children attend school. But the children we are working with have missed so much basic schooling, that they will probably not be able to catch up and graduate with a high school diploma. There is violence and conflict in the community too, and a social worker is present and in close proximity to the children at all times during their school day.
Over the week we work in this school, real bonds develop between Lyceum students and the Roma children. Maggie Lin (I5) says she is amazed by the enthusiasm of the children. Their reading and writing skills are much lower they would normally be at their age, and yet when they come to the classroom to work with the Lyceum students, their desire to learn is so strong, that their regular teacher has to hold them back at the classroom door to prevent them chaotically stampeding into the room. Real connections develop. Jocelyn Tao (I5) works with a boy named Raul. He is bright and desperate to learn and Jocelyn finds it heart-wrenching to leave him on the last day, knowing some of the problems he faces in his community.
I notice how strong the desire is among the local boys to connect with the male Lyceum students. Every morning, the Roma boys overwhelm our I3 boys with embraces and fist-bumps and look to Demir, Dennis, Brandon and Jacob as older brothers. By the end of the week, thanks to Jacob, every Roma boy has learned to say, “I got you, bro”. But, of course, no one has really got these boys. Without better education and the opportunities that come with it, their problems will be the same ones faced by their fathers and grandfathers.
As well as working directly with the local children, the Lyceum students have been asked to paint a mural on one of the walls of the school. Our ten students really come together on this (full credit to the girls for their artistic direction) and we leave one wall of the school brighter than when we arrive. The mural we leave behind is a reflection of our international group and features the Shanghai skyline, the Swiss Alps, a Russian bear, Thai temple, flamenco dancer and the flags of Hong Kong and Turkey. We are also able to donate money that has been raised by the Student Organisation of the Lyceum and this money will help the school buy sports and arts equipment.
This trip was a reminder to everyone who participated that there is hardship even on the world’s wealthiest continent. It also taught us that there is only one way to really understand a community of people, and the first step is to forget everything you have heard about them.
