Social skills. Together with the Malteser Aid Organisation the Regine Sixt Children's Aid Foundation we are rehabilitating and expanding a school for Roma and Sinti children in Tarnabod. Together with the Order of Malta's humanitarian aid organization, the Regine Sixt Children's Aid Foundation is facilitating the expansion of the Roma Children's Study Center in Tarnabod, Hungary. The aim is to provide the children with a good education and at the same time to provide intensive care. This facility, whose primary goal is the integration of Roma children in Hungary, supports approximately 150 children of different ages. The main focus is on supplementary education and the children's appropriate social behavior.
The efforts have already been successful: the number of school drop-outs has been reduced considerably and at the same time we have been able to support the students to get a university degree. Our goal is to continue after these first successes, to expand the new school center to offer the children even better conditions for their studies. In this way we can also improve the possibilities for socially disadvantaged children to find a profession or even a university education. This project is realized together with the organization Malteser Hilfsdienst e.V..
The sad story of a village Tarnabod is a Roma village 80 km east of Budapest. With its multi-level integration program, the Order of Malta's humanitarian aid service offers homeless families a chance to start a new life. In its center many children receive meals. Especially in winter they stay as long as possible in the heated rooms. In 2008 there were terrible attacks by Hungarian right-wing terrorists who threw Molotov cocktails into inhabited houses in Tarnabod. Fortunately all the inhabitants survived. After these incidents our work with the children and the encouragement of a long-term integration is even more important. The life in the center with a lot of joy, with songs, dancing, discussions, swimming lessons etc. shows us that we are on the right track. The tradition continues For centuries the Romani and Sinti people enjoyed a good social situation in Hungary. Only in the 19th century these people were discriminated, persecuted and driven out of their homes. During this period the Lovara, a group of Roma, immigrated to Hungary. Many of them were deported to concentration camps during the Second World War. Many died. And with them their language, Lovari. But it is being taught again at the school center in Tarnabod. This language is part of the Roma cultural tradition and, in addition to integration, it is a point of reference in education for these children.
