Roma Mentor Project: The Roma Intellectual Friend Model

Abstract Introduction: The Roma Mentor Project has originally been the experimental educational model of Open Society Institute for multiply disadvantaged Roma and non-Roma youth in the period 2006-2013. Following the closure of OSI’s experimental and alternative educational projects, it has been run further, during the 2016/17 academic year, with the support of the Norway Grant, by the Bhim Rao Association (located in Northern Hungary). Purpose: The Roma Mentor Project aims to establish the pedagogical model of the intellectual Roma friend in order to effectively overcome the sociocultural disadvantages of the Roma and non-Roma children with multiply disadvantages. Methods: Throughout the program a Roma mentor may be a Roma intellectual, artist or well-known figure from the media, whose primary goal is to act as a role model for the Roma children through presenting their own personal and professional life, as well as to become a friend of the mentored. Conclusions: A mentor from Roma origins appears during the project as a Roma intellectual friend in multiply disadvantaged Roma and non-Roma children’s lives, which is especially true considering that the Roma mentor draws tools of socialization from Roma culture.