Mayor Dr. Georgi Gavrilov and experts from the Municipality of Lom visited the Norwegian city of Trondheim, where they shared experience and good practices with partners from the local Save A Child Foundation. With the Norwegians and the Roma-Lom Foundation, the Municipality of Lom is implementing the projects "A Comprehensive Model for Early Childhood Education and Care in the Municipality of Lom" and "An Integrated Complex of Services for the Inclusion and Empowerment of Roma in the Municipality of Lom", which are financed under the Program "Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Improved Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups", financed by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2014-2021.
The first working meeting in Trondheim presented the activities of the hosts from Save A Child, the Municipality of Lom and the Roma-Lom Foundation. Representatives of the Norwegian organization made a presentation of their projects in the field of social inclusion and early childhood development. Angelo Ivanov presented the project "Comprehensive model for early childhood education and care" - implemented activities, achieved results and challenges in its implementation. Anita Marinova presented the services offered for early childhood development in the implementation of the project.
The teams of the two projects visited the Adult Education Center in Trondheim and examined services related to early childhood development and care for children aged 0-6, social inclusion of vulnerable groups - inclusion in training to learn the Norwegian language, rights and responsibilities, provision of first aid, inclusion in employment, provision of social and psychological support.
The Lom experts also got acquainted with the activities of the Resource Center for Immigrants of the international organization "Caritas" in Trondheim, aimed at vulnerable groups and their families. "Caritas" is one of the largest humanitarian aid organizations in the world and is active in over 165 countries. In the Norwegian city alone, the center works with the integration and inclusion of 750,000 immigrants annually, through courses, activities and guidance, language training, job assistance, food distribution, physical activities and refugee reception activities.
The lessons learned from the shared good practices and successful models will be applied in the participation and implementation of activity III – “Early childhood educational activities, including activities related to early childhood development – piloting a model for socio-emotional learning in the three Hubs”.
