AIESEC in Budapest, Hungary
The primary school where I helped is a Roma one. The majority of Roma are dispersed throughout Europe, and they have long faced discrimination in society. They are usually linked to thievery and social upheaval. Most of their parents work in low-wage jobs, causing their children from receiving better resources.
At the same time, those children believed that working hard was pointless since they would still be discriminated against anyways, creating a vicious loop. According to the teacher, only one Roma in their community has ever attended university. After hearing this, I'm genuinely pretty depressed.
The English instructor with whom I worked is a white Hungarian. I inquired as to why he wants to teach at this primary school. He stated that he had previously done some volunteer teaching and so had a better understanding of the Roma condition. He is determined to assist the Roma children.
Seeing their situation, I really wanted to make some changes in the hope of improving their condition. I understood I only have six weeks, and it was impossible to make any noticeable improvements. But I couldn't just sit back and watch them being helpless about their life. They were just kids! I got to do something.
After discussing with the teacher, we planned to try to broaden the kids' horizons. Iamze, another volunteer from Georgia, and I each shared our country’s culture and customs. Like the pictures above, I let the children experience writing Chinese characters, writing calligraphy, playing the diabolo (aka. Chinese yoyo) and so on.
They were fascinated by these novel things that they couldn't see in their daily life. Everyone liked the activities we planned so much, and the teacher also said he learned something new! Especially diabolo, The teacher even asked me where to buy it. He wanted to buy one for the kids to play at school.
Lastly, one of the best parts of this journey was that I got to know the volunteers from other countries, and we became very good friends! We even spent a weekend in Milan. Although the security there was pretty bad, that's another story.
