BARUVAS holds its 25th meeting, offering Romani students insight into artificial intelligence, history, and volunteering

Twenty-five Romani students from all over the Czech Republic are travelling to Brno for the meeting. “The BARUVAS meeting is one of the most popular parts of our program. Its goal is to support these students in their personal development, in making contacts, and in learning about their own history as Roma. More than 550 Romani students have already attended the BARUVAS meeting,” Štefan Balog, manager of the scholarship program, told the Romea.cz news server.

This is the fourth time BARUVAS is being held in Brno. Special attention will be paid to Romani history during the program, as this is generally still missing from the Czech education system.

It is exactly this kind of knowledge that strengthens the new participants’ positive attitude towards their identity as Romani people, as well as their self-confidence. For that reason, the students will visit the Museum of Romani Culture, meet its director Jana Horváthová, and also visit the Hodonín u Kunštátu Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Moravia.

The second part of the program will focus on environmental subject matter and on the use of artificial intelligence (AI). As part of the Ukliďme Česko (Let’s Clean Up the Czech Republic) project, the students will participate as volunteers cleaning up public spaces in the center of Brno, specifically, the Koliště and Sady Osvobození (Liberation Orchards) parks.

During the final part of the program, the Romani students will learn how they can use AI ethically, practically, and responsibly throughout their studies, in their private lives, or when dealing with current social challenges. Past participants share their experiences with newer ones during the meeting, thereby creating a strong community of Romani students across the country.

“BARUVAS wasn’t just about education for me, I found friends there who are like a second family to me. We have been supporting and inspiring each other, and lifelong bonds were formed there,” František Német, a former scholarship recipient who now works as a software developer, told Romea.cz.

“I got a lot out of BARUVAS. I learned a lot and I want to continue learning,” said Lucie, one of the Romani women using her scholarship to study hotel management. Brno itself will be represented among the Romani students by Petra, a secondary school student who wants to become a dentist and who will be attending BARUVAS for the first time this year.

“The BARUVAS meeting takes place thanks to the support of Bader Philanthropies, the Albatros Foundation, IOCB Tech, the Vodafone Foundation, and other corporate sponsors as well as individual donors. Thanks to their support, ROMEA can develop the scholarship program in the long term and create conditions for the education of Romani students across the Czech Republic,” added Balog.

ROMEA has been running the scholarship program since 2016. So far, it has supported more than 400 Romani students with scholarships worth more than CZK 12 million [EUR 480,000].