Promoting Social Inclusion

Stigmatized by cultural stereotypes, hundreds of isolated communities of Romani people are on the outskirts of towns in the Czech Republic.

These families must often choose between spending money on food or a child’s transportation to school. Even when parents opt for transportation, the Czech educational system disproportionately places Romani children in “practical schools” for children with “mild mental handicaps.”
  
Christine Novak, professor of practice in School Psychology, accompanied six interns to Prague to participate in Lehigh’s Campaign for Social Inclusion. The internship aims to help students view social inclusion from an unfamiliar perspective, understand factors contributing to exclusion, and address those factors.

“In essence, many Romani children are unprepared for school due to economic and cultural differences,” says Novak. “They perform poorly therefore on standardized tests and are placed in inferior educational systems where they have little chance of changing their trajectory. [They] eventually are unsuccessful in competing for better jobs. All this serves to reinforce stereotypes of the Roma as unable to learn, unwilling to work, and untrustworthy.”

Students worked with three non-governmental organizations (NGOs), researching grant opportunities, developing relationships, and promoting understanding to eliminate harmful stereotypes. Visits to a Romani summer camp and an excluded community in an abandoned pig slaughter facility deepened their understanding of the issues.

Hana Longenecker ’15 worked with Slovo 21, an NGO focused on education and women’s rights for the Roma and other minorities. She wrote a grant for a program to encourage literacy and educational involvement among Romani parents. Graduate student Kevin Basek ’14 helped another NGO, Romea, promote positive media coverage of the Roma. Students also aided their hosting organization, Inclusio, by creating an educational video. The experience put a face to the realities of social exclusion.

As part of the video, Basek interviewed a Romani taxi driver who holds a graduate degree in management. That left an impression: “Could you imagine if I returned to Lehigh for my master’s in economics and couldn’t get an opportunity to work in the field I’m studying?”

Novak says the internship experience “allowed not only a chance to do something concrete for Romani youth, but also demonstrated at least in a small way what efforts can be directed toward promoting greater social inclusion both in the Czech Republic and back in the U.S.”