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Czech Republic: Romani college student almost sent to "special" school as a child

22 October 2012
3 minute read

Michal Dorď, a 23-year old Romani man, spent his childhood in an orphanage in the town of Frýdlant, Czech Republic. He barely escaped being assigned to “special” school thanks to the intervention of one his caregivers at the institution where he was raised. Today he is attending two different colleges and living in Brussels, working as an intern on a project to help other children living in orphanages.

Dorď was born in Ústí nad Labem and was taken away from his parents at an early age. He has only seen his biological mother twice in his life. He is preparing to help his father and his sister financially in the future.

Dorďs life story is an unusual one these days. Children living in orphanages usually have their educational opportunities curtailed by many factors. According to research performed in 2010 by the organization Spolu dětem(“Together for Children”), only every 171st child raised in an orphanage in the Czech Republic will achieve a college or professional technical education. “About 80 % of these children end up in apprenticeships. Only a small percentage go to high school, and there are even fewer who attend college. Each caregiver at an orphanage is in charge of between eight to 10 children. You have just a few books available there, and the children receive pocket money of CZK 300 per month. The opportunities for self-fulfillment vary, depending on the orphanage, but compared to the opportunities available to children growing up in families, they will always be limited,” Dorď told news server iDNES.cz.

A psychologist originally recommended that Dorď attend “special” school, but his caregiver at the orphanage luckily prevented that from happening. Nevertheless, his path to education was not an easy one, as he reportedly was not able to apply to the high school he wanted to attend. “My dream was to attend the F. X. Šalda High School in Lliberec, but I couldn’t. Transport there would have been expensive, and the orphanage staff were probably concerned that the commute would have given me the chance to run wild, that I wouldn’t have kept up or learned anything. Naturally, finances played a big role. The old management was still in charge back then. The business high school I attended in Frýdlant didn’t prepare me for college,” Dorď recalls of his high school studies.

When Tomáš Kahan became the new director of the orphanage, positive changes followed. Kahan helped Dorď make contacts and gave him advice, which in the end led to an opportunity for him to get a stipend. Today Dorď is studying International Relations at Anglo-American University as well as in the Department of Korean Studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague. Thanks to support from the Liberec Regional Authority, Dorď is now on a half-year intership in Brussels, working on a EU-funded project designing an international exchange program for youths living in orphanages.

Dorď is rather critical of the orphanage system. “Unfortunately, lack of information is always a problem for children living in orphanages. Many orphanages are also poorly managed. Some directors or caregivers take no interest in the children. Naturally, they themselves have to want to do this work,” he says.

“The room for development, for self-fulfillment, or for making use of one’s potential is not as great there as it is in a family. A friend of mine got nothing but bad grades when she was living in an orphanage, but once she was moved into foster care, she suddenly got top grades,” Dorď observed.

How does he see his future? His dream is to study in the United States. “Naturally, I am dreaming of certain schools, but I’m not fixated on them,” he says.

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