More information
Description
The Roma with low social and education status face serious challenges related to exercising their rights. These are families that live below the poverty line. They live in poor conditions and have limited access to public education, health and social services. The rights of the segregated Roma are discussed at many levels but they are excluded at the same time from such training and the main focus remains on meeting their basic needs. The project aims at improving the skills of the members of marginalized Roma communities in Sofia to exercise their rights. We plan to achieve our goal by developing and appraising an innovative programme titled Our Rights and Skills. The programme will be implemented in 2 stages to address the two main issues: Stage 1: organization of courses to raise literacy, which are practically oriented to working with documents and forms needed to exercise specific rights. Stage 2: organization of a training called Our Rights and Skills with modules on Human Rights and Child’s Rights and use of the knowledge acquired before public institutions and services. The project will help increase the number of vulnerable persons covered by measures for empowerment and boosting the number of organizations applying innovative methods and approaches for the needs of vulnerable groups. The programme will improve the Roma’s skills to exercise their rights, respect their children’s rights and act to help their children enjoy their rights. The empowerment of these groups is a step towards helping them to be active citizens, advocate for themselves and their community and thus help strengthen the civil society. Our Rights and Skills Programme will become a component of the work of Concordia Bulgaria with Roma communities and will be accessible to other organizations as well.
Summary of project results
The main objective of the project was to improve the knowledge and skills of people from marginalized Roma communities in Sofia to exercise their rights. One of the main challenges of the target group is to know and assert their own rights, as there are frequent cases of violation of their rights in interpersonal and institutional relationships, which deepens their marginalization and dependence on social services.
After the end of the project 35 people from the target group of marginalized Roma communities in Sofia have successfully passed the empowerment program. The main activities, outcomes and outputs of these can be listed as follows:
- A field survey conducted by a mobile social team to define and analyze the needs of the target group.
- Conducted literacy courses for 35 participants over 18 years with low functional literacy.
- Conducted training courses for 30 parents as participants with two separate topics on rights - "My Human Rights" and "My Child''s Rights".
- Organized activities and games for parents'' children during literacy and training sessions.
- Developed an empowerment programme and a "Rights Skills Training Manual" with a sample programme and a wide range of exercises in the experiential and play-based learning method.
- A recording of an episode of Concordia Bulgaria Foundation''s own podcast with direct participation of project participants.
- Organized exchange of experiences between project participants from different locations.
- Organized a hybrid conference as part of the communication plan to disseminate the program among stakeholders - institutions, NGOs, private and public social service providers, researchers, etc. The conference itself is also available as a video recording.
For the target group of people from marginalized Roma communities in Sofia, the organization of literacy and training sessions led to the formation of skills for recognizing, exercising and defending their own rights and those of children. Given the frequent violation of the rights of the group, these skills will counteract the deepening of their marginalization.
For the target group of social professionals from public and private social service providers, the creation of the Handbook as a direct result of the project enables them to increase their capacity and qualification on the topics of defending human rights of people and communities at risk.
For the target group of professionals in Concordia Bulgaria, participation in the project supported the development of additional skills in intersectoral cooperation, the development and piloting of programs for working with communities at risk that can be implemented throughout the year.
One additional outcome for the target group of people from marginalized Roma communities in Sofia after organizing participation in a podcast of Concordia Foundation Bulgaria and in exchanging experiences with other participants is the creation of a safe space and the achievement of a trusting relationship both between the participants themselves and between the participants and the institutions. The protected space is key to the participants'' willingness to share personal trauma stories, seek support and resources for coping with and overcoming them.