Nickola Kozlevo
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The municipality of Nikola Kozlevo is located in the North-East part of Bulgaria, in Shumen Administrative Region. The municipality includes 11 settlements (Vekilski, Valnari, Karavelovo, Krasen Dol, Kriva reka, Pet mogili, Ruzhitsa, Harsovo, Tzani Ginchevo, Tsarkvitsa and Nikola Kozlevo), Nikola Kozlevo being the administrative center of the municipality.
The Roma population numbers around 3.000 persons and is concentrated in the villages of Nikola Kozlevo, Valnari, Tsani Ginchevo and Tsarkvitsa. 85% of the houses are in a good condition - a big number of Roma work abroad and they come back and invest to improve their housing and living conditions. The remaining 15% of the Roma in the municipality live in illegal shacks with no sanitation. The share of the unemployed persons is big, as well as the number of the Roma having no health insurances. Early marriages are still a common case here. There are still students dropping out from school due to financial reasons or due to lack of interest and motivation.
The ROMACT Process
Nikola Kozlevo municipality joined the ROMACT program in October 2015. The Joint ACTION Plan (Municipal Action Plan for Roma Inclusion) was updated and adopted on 29 November 2016 with Decision of the Municipal Council of Nikola Kozlevo. On 6 December 2016, the Taskforce for Roma inclusion was created.
The most stringent problems identified by the Community Action Group are:
| Low attendance rate in schools |
|---|
| Lack of capacity of the teachers to work in multilingual environment |
| Lack of psychologists in schools |
| Poor health mediator interventions |
| Lack of enough nurses in medical offices |
| Lack of emergency medical help |
Several trainings were provided:
Trainings/expertise provided for the local administration and the community action group:
- Capacity building on preparation of project concept for social inclusion of vulnerable groups under integrated procedure of OPHRD&OPSEIG;
- Consultation of the local authorities on the issue of illegal dwellings in the village Tsarkavista;
- Training session with members of the CAG about advocacy - communication and negotiation techniques with local authorities and institutions;
- Training session for CAG on local self-government and local government authorities;
- Training session with CAG on municipal budget process.
So far, the following measures to solve problems in Roma community were taken:
- The municipality provided free access to kindergarten for all children aged 3 to 6, as well as free transportation to kindergarten and school;
- Three Roma have been appointed as educational mediators to work with vulnerable families in marginal situation, different extracurricular activities to overcome educational deficits of children from vulnerable minorities have been launched in the schools;
- One specialist on Ethnic and Integration Issues and Social Activities was employed within the city hall.
The Municipality benefited of ROMACT expertise for the following projects:
The future today – education and integration- OP Education
Budget: 166 488 euros
Status: Approved
Concept of municipality Nikola Kozlevo for social inclusion of vulnerable groups- OP Human Resource Development & OP Science and Education for Smart Growth
Budget: 282 000 euros
Target group: 300 children and students and 200 adults /youth under 29 years and adults over 55 years/from ethnic minorities
Status: Approved