Practical advice

Our research suggests that empowering refugee parents could be strengthened through:

• Investing in creating space for refugee parents and teachers to meet;
• Investing in Bulgarian language classes especially for refugee parents (“Bulgarian for parents”);
• Investing in interpreters at the parents meetings, so more refugee parents have the wish to join, because of having the chance to understand what the progress of their kids is; how fasts they learn and whether there are particular gaps to fill in; to learn more about the talents of the kids and find out the meaning of learning and socialization rocesses that happen at school;
• Investing in information materials about the Bulgarian education system that could be translated in the languages of the refugee parents;
• Investing in creating space for the refugee parents to proudly present their culture, cuisine, folklore in the schools and/or different other ways in which they can contribute;
• Investing in creating of data base of volunteers who would like to help refugee kids with homework or  studying languages, difficult science subjects;
• Investing in creating a welcoming atmosphere for refugee parents at the schools;
• Investing in creating space that refugee kids feel welcome in school through bringing more empathy and understanding of their personal stories, thus making steps in reducing negative attitudes and discrimination in general, as the principal of the school of Ivanovo highlighted: “each child requires individual approach and care”.