The first day of school is both exciting and terrifying. It is the first day that you strap on new Spiderman backpack. It is the first day that you get to crack open the Shamu Trapper Keeper. It is also the first day that you must meet a group of strange people that you will be forced to spend the rest of the year with in your class.

Try taking away the brand new bookbag. Also take away that shiny lunchbox. Add into the fear of the strange new group of peers this question, “Who in here is Roma?”

This is the plight of Roma children in the Romanian government schools. Singled out and humiliated because of their ethnic group many children do not finish their educations because they are deemed to be different.

Project Ruth, a CBF supported ministry visited by the MDG Team last summer, runs the Ruth School in Bucharest. This ministry focuses upon the Roma children and giving them the opportunity for an education, meals, medical support, and Christ-like love among other services.

When thinking of MDG Goal #2 focusing on education, I wonder who in our communities are the Roma? Are they the children who come to school in rags? Could it be the kids who don’t act their ethnicity? How about the pregnant teenager who still wants to finish school, but doesn’t know how to with a child on the way?

As people of faith, we must not only be aware of these children and youth, but advocate on their behalf. Go read with them. Go mentor them. Go be Christ to them.