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Description
In six cities in the Czech, a series of activities will be undertaken aiming to strengthen the capacity of Roma community for active participation, advocacy and community organising. Roma women – community organizers will, together with other comm. members, define specific needs, organize community events and establish cooperation with local authorities. At the end of the project, Roma communities in 6 cities are expected to strengthen their capacity for active participation, advocacy and community organising.
Target group of the project is approx. 30 Roma women and 120 members of Roma community.
The aim of the project is to support Roma at the local level in increasing their civic competences and empowering them to become equal partners, respected by the local government. The members of Manusha (Roma women), based on their previous experience and new knowledge gained during the implementation of the project, will be the bearers of Roma activation initiatives in communities in which they already have respect and trust.
The specific goals of the project are:
a) To increase the competence of Roma women by the end of the project implementation in the form of a series of trainings and workshops by 50%, so that they become agents of change in their communities.
b) By the end of the implementation of the project, increase the number of Roma who will be active participatory citizens in their communities by 30%.
c) By the end of the project, cooperation will be established between Roma and local self-government in 4 out of 6 cities.
Summary of project results
Romani people are often passive clients (recipients of support, assistance, services) and not active citizens who would formulate and advocate for their needs on their own. One of the reasons for this is that Roma people overwhelmingly do not believe in institutions. They do not believe that any involvement they might have could have a positive political effect or bring about change for their communities.
If this problem is not addressed systemically and in the long term, their passive attitude will deepen and they will become "just clients". By being dependent on various forms of support, Roma do not themselves determine (participate in) the ways or paths that would lead to the improvement of their living conditions. The gap between the majority society and the Roma minority is thus widening, and this has a very negative impact on the whole of society.
A 2014 survey on the status of Romani women conducted by the Romani women''s group Manushe (under the banner of Slovo 21, z.s.), in which 600 Romani women from 23 towns in the Czech Republic participated, showed that their civic activity is not significant. Involvement in the activities of local NGOs and civic or political activities is almost zero (e.g. 90% of respondents answered negatively to the question "Are you involved in local political events?"), although women declare interest in participating in the events in their communities, especially for the future of their children.
We created an active group (base) of 28 Romani women from 6 towns, which increased their competences in the field of community work and community organizing and thus
They became community organizers - carriers of Roma activation initiatives and positive changes in their communities.
The community organizers established groups made up of members of the Roma community from 6 towns, motivated and ready to actively participate in the project.
A questionnaire survey was conducted for Roma women who expressed interest in becoming community organizers. During the month of April, 55 women from 6 towns filled in the questionnaires, the interest was higher than we expected.
After the summer school we conducted a questionnaire survey for community organizers, 28 participants of the BIDARIPEN summer school filled in the questionnaires. The questionnaires measured
shift in their skills and followed up on questionnaire I.
In September, the community organizers distributed 120 questionnaires to members of the Roma community.
Two questionnaire surveys were conducted for members of the Roma community. 231 members of the Roma community completed the questionnaires during the months of October and November 2020, and the analysis of the questionnaires was carried out from December 2020 to January 2022.
15 small community events were implemented.
Two information campaigns were implemented - on the importance of getting involved in the regional council elections and a census campaign.
Three face-to-face meetings of community members in Náchod and Chomutov were implemented.
Continuation of the census campaign.
Implementation of the campaign for the parliamentary elections .
We established cooperation with local government in five cities.
We implemented Harvesting conference.
The Bidaripen project has had a positive impact especially on the Roma communities we have worked with. We see it as a great success that members of the communities were actively involved in the project, both in planning public events and their implementation, and in defining needs or proposals for local governments. Initially, when all the communities wanted to address mainly the housing issue that weighs most heavily on them and is not easy to solve, over time, during their meetings, most of them drifted towards proposals that are more related to the development of their community or contribute in some way to the improvement of the environment of their towns/localities. Thus, they fulfilled needs whose results can be seen in a shorter period of time, which is very important for their motivation. An important result of the project is the cooperation with representatives of local authorities and linking them to specific people who know about the active Roma group and are willing to cooperate. This opens up new possibilities for people in the localities to cooperate and to participate in the local "colour" in the future. Moreover, these groups will prove to be a possible strong electoral force for local elections. Where we have not been able to establish communication with representatives of local governments, there is at least this feedback for local Roma communities on how important local elections are.