Slovakia: Romani youth successfully fundraises online for study trip to Japan

Crowdsourcing to fund various activities these days is making many dreams come true. A 17-year-old Romani student from Slovakia was recently convinced of that when his successful collection online aided him in taking his dream trip across the ocean.

The student's Internet campaign, with the unusual name of "Send a Roma Guy to Japan!", is Daniel Bunda's own intitiative, a Romani youth from Slovakia who desires to educate himself further and more intensively. He is active in the Young Leaders program and has dreamed of visiting the Land of the Rising Sun since childhood.

Slovak news server Noizz.sk asked him why he desires to visit Japan, where he got the idea about how to fundraise for his trip, and how his relationship to his Romani identity has developed. "People there learn what learning is about," he said when asked what he anticipates will happen during his stay at the Gakko Camp education program abroad.

"This is not just about a form of self-educaiton, it is about entirely redesigning education as we know it. Learning is life. I believe this will give me a new perspective and I will be able to aid children, to give them something new, maybe some tips and tricks for how to not get bored when faced with data and how to learn without limits," the young student said.