Operation Christmas Child (Day 2)

Today I went to another Roma school here in Skopje. This school is similar to the one I visited yesterday. The number of children that need help is large so most children can only attend this school on a rotation, about twice a week. The Roma children are picked up and brought to this school to learn, take a bath, have their clothes washed, and eat lunch. The two days out of the week that the children come to this school is probably the only two days they get baths. Also it is the most nutritious meals they eat all week. This school tries to keep these children off the streets begging. And just like the other Roma school I visited yesterday, this school strives to prepare these children to enter public school. It is really a hope of each child to get to go to school. They even sang us a song about their dream of going to school one day.

My heart went out to all these children, but especially Mira. She's the one sitting in my lap (Picture 6) and reading (Picture 1). Mira, like many other little Roma girls, has a very short boys hair cut because her reoccurring head lice discourages her parents from letting her hair grow long.