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Description
The project stems from the need to counteract gender-based violence (GBV) among Roma women and proposes the development of sustainable strategies for cooperation and empowerment aiming at preventing violence and encouraging seeking help and support. The project aims to propose new approaches in the work with vulnerable groups of women through their active inclusion, boost the capacity of specialists to apply a gender-sensitive approach to prevention of violence in their work with vulnerable groups of women, prompt a debate about the role of Roma women in society, raise public awareness about the problems of Roma women and multiple discrimination they face. Our initiative bridges the lack of actions for empowerment and promotion of development of Roma and other socially vulnerable groups of women to exercise their rights – protection against gender-based violence through access to information and prevention programmes. The expected results are inclusion, expertise, cooperation and empowerment by means of improving their experience in support services and procedures, using an inclusive and inter-sectoral approach targeted at Roma women and specialists in the support services. The end beneficiaries are Roma and women, victims of violence; direct target groups are public institutions.
Summary of project results
Thanks the project, we confirmed the services provided in our Advisory Center for Prevention and Overcoming Domestic Violence among Roma Communities and encouraged them to seek professional help and support, as well as helped find strategic cases that set a precedent in the legislation. We managed to set new standards for working with vulnerable groups through their direct involvement and empowerment and increased the capacity of our team. We have strengthened cooperation between the civil sector and local institutions on cases of gender-based violence.
Through the provided psycho-social and legal consultations, through the participation of Roma women in the Focus Groups and through the Workshops, we were able to encourage the leadership of Roma women and civic pressure on decision-makers. The Guide for Empowering Vulnerable Groups of Women and Professionals Working with Them – developed within the project - is a good source of information and provides useful guidance, not only to Roma women, victims of violence and professionals working with them, but to a wide range of people from different vulnerable groups.