A Foreign Ecosystem

​I am an outsider in Greece. Despite being a teacher I'm out of place in every school I visit. This status allows me to observe welcome and belonging objectively. Teachers are always welcoming. At every school a few students give their full attention to welcoming me. In their wide eyes and big smiles I saw open curiosity. Kind and enthusiastic welcomes are a part of Greek culture.
This week I was challenged with the question "How do you create belonging in a school when the context of the ecosystem is separation and difference?" I visited five schools with large Roma populations while shadowing the Peer2Peer team. This pilot program is part of a national and EU-wide effort to improve educational outcomes for Roma students. Greece has one of the highest drop out rates for Roma children, especially girls. It's easy to see just numbers and data in education, but I won't soon forget what that high drop out rate for Roma girls looks like. We went to three elementary schools and ended at a junior high school. The gymnasium (7-9th grade) is overwhelming dominated by boys. There are a handful of girls in the whole school. They just aren't there. This was a foreign experience and I'm not arrogant enough to hope to explain it beyond a few facts: 

• Roma students - boys and girls - often leave school after age 12 to find work. Poverty is a huge obstacle for Roma communities
• Child marriage is common in Roma communities. Although statistics are not completely accurate as they are underreported, all the Roma people I talked to confirmed this fact.

Ending child marriage globally is one of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals
Educating women is an essential key to pulling so much of the world out of poverty and creating a better future. The work of Peer2Peer partners members of the Roma community as adult mentors and high school mentors with schools that have large Roma populations. Their message is clear- stay in school. You can have a big life outside of your current reality and we are living proof. 

At our first school, whose student body is about 30% Roma the children were curious and inquisitive at recess. My tiny bit of Greek didn't get me very far but team members and the English teacher helped. With gigantic enthusiasm a girl mentioned  that she always wanted to meet someone from America. Some sixth graders were shocked and then giggled when I spoke. My translator revealed that I sounded like the voice on the bus or metro that speaks English. A number of girls gave me hugs. Some came up and asked me questions in Greek that I couldn't always get translated in time, reminding me over and over that I was an outsider.
Joining our three high school students mentors on this day was our adult mentor Petros. His pride in being Roma, especially someone who is Roma but who sees a bright future in education, was palpable.
With kids he is a natural. enthusiastic,  caring and responsive. I asked what led him to continue his education and go to the university. He said that he had a group of friends who were serious about school, so he was too.

The experience between our first school visit and the second was significant.  Dimitris said 296 of 300 students at the next primary school were Roma. Segregated schools aren't legal of course, but non-Roma "prefer private schools." 
Instead.of an overwhelming number of kids (30+) in the first group at this school the class of 6th graders had just 10-12. Only 5 were girls.
As we waited to enter this classroom, I asked the high school mentors why they joined the in the program. They said they like being social and they like school, etc. They want to help.
But when I asked them if they believed in the program they laughed. No! It won't make a difference. Change is very hard. These kids come from families that won't change direction,  etc. 
After observing the program the program director Dimitris explained that their responses were all about the context of THAT school.
Greece has a complicated Roma story. They are self-determined and refuse to be grouped as a minority or really unite themselves with the rest if Europe's Roma. Over 6 dialects of the Romani language are spoken in Greece- at least three at this school. Often the Roma peer mentors couldn't understand students speaking Roma. The Roma language is not written, only spoken. At this school students sometimes leave 6th grade not being able to read or write.  Across the street from the school Dimitris pointed out a temporary structure that was the size of a small house but looked like maybe a garage structure made of tarps. This is a home. Education struggles take on a new context when a family doesn't have running water or electricity. "How can they read or do homework at home when it is dark at 5 in winter?" Dimitris asks. 
The children were quiet at the start and only one student wanted to read a question pulled from the bag of questions. Soon it became clear that the children weren't confident in reading. The feeling in the room warmed as Petro and Dimitris  sat next to them and helped them. 
The second part of the program involved conversation over coloring sheets. A boys sitting in front of my carried on a spirited conversation with a high school mentor. He told her that at 18 she should have children. She should have been married by 16 at the latest and by now should have one child at least. Often the conversation seemed argumentative. Apparently although they were both speaking Romani, the dialects were too different  to understand  each other. When the mentor asked the boy why he didn't speak Greek so they could understand  each other, he said "I'm from the north. You're not from here. You don't  need to know." Their neighborhoods are only miles apart.

Day two of shadowing took us to the poorest Roma community in the Athens area - Aspropygos. The community looks temporary but is not. This is an industrial area. Although the skies were blue on the day of our visit the air is often filled with acrid smoke from both industrial operations and Roma men burning the plastic of of electrical wiring to strip the copper. The school was colorful and the classroom we visited was sunny and filled with books. I discovered that the room i actually a library. The school looked similar in size to primary schools that hold about 160 students but the teacher said they have around 350 students and don't have enough room. Fortunately, this meant this group of 2nd and 3rd graders occupied a room with a projector and smart board, art materials and books.
Although the surroundings and context are dismal the joy between student and mentors really shows the power of belonging. Rome mediators joined our group to help with translation and they hugged students, smiled and laughed with them and created a warm family atmosphere in the class. This wasn't boisterous as we'd seen on a previous day. This was a quiet warmth. The main activity of the day involved coloring an easter headband, but clearly the coloring was a conduit for conversation and connection.
Even though we had a large language barrier the students slowly welcomed me with smiles and questions.
Age differences among the students belied the interrupted education that is normal in this area of high poverty.

Our final stop was a middle school, where the success of the program may not have seemed obvious at first, but was clear to me. When they visited the first time, Dimitris tells me, they only had about 15 students and 1 girl. This time over 30 students joined and 6 were girls. Irini, an enthusiastic Romani woman who recently graduated with a B.A. in sociology shared some of the discussion questions she prepared for the group, so as the discussion continued in Greek I at least had a sense of what they were considering:

• What is your dream?
• What is something you'd like to change about your school?
• What is something you like about your school or job?

Although the organizers were not happy that the space was echoey and the discussion faced many starts and stops, my experience as a middle school teacher told me that more participants is a sure sign of success. The addition of more girls was fantastic and the fact that 80% of students participated in answering questions in the discussion is a big win.
I'm very grateful for the opportunity to meet the mentors and students this week. The challenges faced by the Roma community are complex and undoubtedly change will be incremental but this program, with its personal-connection approach is definitely on the right track.