That is the name of this initiative, which aims to ease Roma children into formal schooling. Fifteen children and adolescents attend the spaces of the ARPJTetto Association five days a week. The project serves minors and families from makeshift, precarious settlements outside the official "authorized transit camps"—people living in extreme conditions of health, material, and housing deprivation. The idea for the "little school" arose after an attempt to place Roma children directly into Italian schools failed. The obstacles were too great. What became clear was the need for a preparatory phase and an intermediate space—what the "little school" provides—before children could successfully enter the regular school system.
Since March 2007, more than forty children have experienced the joy of "going to school." Many, displaced by enclosure clearances, have returned to the streets the little school exists to help them leave.
The project works on multiple fronts. Educational activities for the children are paired with primary care services—showers, laundry, health support—and family orientation to available services. It is not the child alone who participates, but the whole family.
A typical day runs five hours: breakfast, showers, play, study (mostly study), and lunch. Educational staff oversee the children's progress and adapt curriculum to each ability level, divided into three age and skill groups, ensuring successful school placement later. Two Romani women—"mammas"—form an active part of the project. They keep the spaces clean and organized, prepare breakfast, and cook meals for the children.
Volunteers are the real engine driving this work forward. They rotate through morning and afternoon shifts. In the mornings, they assist educators in teaching and helping children wash. In the afternoons, they manage showers and laundry services for the children's parents and others, using the ARPJTetto activity room.
It is thanks to the volunteers' gift of free labor, and the collaboration of the families themselves, that the project "A Little School to Grow" can help those who have chosen education as the path to full belonging.
Marco Cardaci, 2008