Unity in Diversity – A program about the Roma minority in Romania

Children under the age of 6 are full of joy and can very easily empathize with and spontaneously love everything that surrounds them. It is an impressionable age, in which they completely take on beliefs and attitudes about themselves, about others and about the world around them. During this formative period, children pick up many prejudices directly from the verbal and nonverbal messages they receive from those around them.

Neo-Humanist Education makes a special effort to change stereotypes and prejudices and to awaken empathy in children's hearts for minorities, for people with special needs and for all human diversity..

This year a special program was organized for the recognition and positive appreciation of the Roma minority in Romania. The teachers planned interactive stories with characters of Roma ethnicity – having both roles as heroes and roles in which they are discriminated against – in order to give the children the chance to identify and empathize with the characters and to discuss them. Iulia, our program manager, who has Roma origins, took part in the morning circle, showing the children photographs of her family and childhood. The children discovered that red is her favorite color, that she played the same games as they do and that she sang the same songs. They were saddened when they heard that her neighbors had hurt her feelings because they did not want to play with her in childhood because she was Roma. In the play put on by the teachers, our children performed in similar roles in which they defended the Roma child. One of the keys to overcoming prejudice is friendship. When we have a friend we love them and no longer generalize or stereotype.

The program culminated in a special festive day, Roma Day, with the children wearing traditional Roma costumes, playing instruments, making crafts and dancing to traditional music. The ELF family prepared a mime play based on a story discussed earlier about a Roma girl who becomes a ballerina (watch it in the video section "Ballerina Caterina"). The children also watched a short film about a little boy who went to school with a model made from plasticine through which he tells about the history of the Roma – the film includes an animation with plasticine characters that reenacts the migration of the Roma from India toward the West. Following the film, the children made the same journey (in the video clip above).