Our colleagues Zuzana Dankulincova and Daniela Filakovska attended a meeting of the working group to get acquainted with the results of surveys on the course of education during the extraordinary school break and after its partial resumption in the school year 2019/2020 during first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, problems and needs of schools, as well as the crisis plan for schools and school facilities for the school year 2020/2021 in case of COVID-19.

Following this, the group consulted the plan of the process of creating guidelines and methodological support in the field of organization and content of education, possible transition to distance education, including support for students with special needs and without internet access.

Representatives of individual sections of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Slovak Republic, directly managed organizations, and non-governmental organizations were invited to the meeting.

Our participation was requested on the basis of expertise in the field of health and the specific needs of vulnerable groups of the population. We also used the participation in the meeting to establish contacts for cooperation and implementation of our research activities in the future. It was agreed e.g. cooperation with the Institute of Educational Policy as well as the State Pedagogical Institute itself.

We are pleased to become a member of newly formed Roma Health Network at European Public Health Alliance.

Our application was considered and accepted. We are looking forward to cooperating with other stakeholders and seeking solutions to health inequalities on an international and interdisciplinary level.

More information could be found at https://epha.org/roma-health-network/

An introductory online concept mapping meeting was held today as part of the RomaREACH study. It was attended by representatives of various institutions, organizations, and professions from the state, private and non-profit sectors, who are not indifferent to the issue of early childhood in marginalized Roma communities.

We would like to thank all participants and look forward to further cooperation in finding solutions promoting the healthy development of children living in marginalized Roma communities.

We are excited to announce that four new double degree PhD contracts were signed between Pavol Jozef Safarik University and University of Groningen!

PhD students Ivana Skoumalova, Miriama Lackova Rebicova, Jaroslava Mackova and Laura Bitto Urbanova will continue with their PhD studies and defend their disertations in the upcoming years.

The first official meeting of the RomaREACH research team was held on Friday, 19 June. We discussed the timeline, procurement and the tasks to be completed by members of team.

Our colleague Shoshana Chovan pass dissertation exam and defended proposal of PhD project “Contextual and biological factors of psychomotor and socio-emotional development in the first 1000 days in marginalized Roma communities.” and the process to signed an agreement with partners from Groningen on double degree procedure might start.

Our colleague Viktoryia Karchynskaya pass dissertation exam and defended proposal of PhD project “Factors associated with (un)fitness in adolescents – a mixed methods study” and the process to signed an agreement with partners from Groningen on double degree procedure might start.

Our colleague Simona Horanicova pass dissertation exam and defended proposal of PhD project “School is (not) calling. A mixed method study” and the process to signed an agreement with partners from Groningen on double degree procedure might start.