Empowerment – Page 3 – ERGO Network

CHACHIPEN – Project launch event

CHACHIPEN – Project Launch event

CEPS, together with the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network, the Federación de Asociaciones Gitanas de Cataluña (FAGIC), the Asociatia Fast Forward and the ARESEL Network of Romania, will launch a new project called “CHACHIPEN” (meaning truth in Romani language). The launch is organised in the run up to the 50^th International Roma Day, which takes place on 8 April.

CHACHIPEN’s key objectives are to advance the recognition and response to historically-rooted and systemic antigypsyism, to achieve justice, equality, non-discrimination and the full participation of Roma as equal citizens across Europe. The project employs an innovative approach, through the model of “Truth and Reconciliation Processes” to review the past rights violations and ongoing structural discrimination towards Roma, which hinder the implementation of the EU non-discrimination acquis.

The opening high-level panel with Vera Jourova, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, Dunja Mijatovic, Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe among others, will situate the discussion on recognising historically rooted antigypsyism within the wider EU and national policy context, and will provide some individual live testimonies (see full agenda here).

We will then discuss how to increase recognition of antigypsyism, how can we rebuild trust between Roma and non-Roma, and what is role can mainstream institutions play. Our experts will also discuss the differences in approach, from the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to the Expert Commissions on antigypsyism, as well as the role for Roma civil rights activism in the new EU Roma Strategic Framework for equality, inclusion and participation, and in the new EU anti-racism plan.

Organisers are looking forward to your questions and active participation and will ensure the translation of the conference into the Romani language. This session will be run in Zoom, you must register in advance to gain access to the meeting and the details to join will be sent one-hour prior of the event.

Relevant links:

Event link: 50th International Roma Day: Towards justice and building trust – CEPS

Registration link: 50th International Roma Day: Towards justice and building trust | Centre for European Policy Studies (ceps.eu)

Agenda of the conference: CHACHIPEN_-kick-off-conference-programme_final-draft_updated.pdf (ceps.eu)

Project description: CHACHIPEN_-short-description_updated_with_milestones_EClogo.pdf (ceps.eu)

This project is funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). The content of the project’s outputs represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.

International Women’s Day 2021

International Women’s Day 2021

Opre phenjalen! – Rise sisters!

Since the adoption of the International Women’s Day, women of all colors, creed and belonging across the globe carved their way to greater freedoms and recognition of their strengths, independence and self-determination.

However, societal inequalities and broader racial injustice continue to ascribe and influence social norms and the roles and value of groups of women in our society. Roma and Traveller women continue to be some of the most disadvantaged and disenfranchised on multiple levels, including inside their own communities. In addition, they face intersectional forms of discrimination and antigypsyism and extreme social exclusion and poverty.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation of Roma and Traveller women got even worse. Extreme poverty, inadequate housing and lack of health coverage mean that they are both more likely to be exposed to the virus, and to delay or avoid health care either due to lack of health insurance or limitations on transport, putting their lives at greater risk. During the pandemic Roma and Traveller women continued to perform essential frontline jobs, such as in care professions, as shop or cleaning staff etc. With the closing of schools and workplaces, the unpaid work of Roma and Traveller women has further increased, and they are also more likely to care of the ill. Even without a pandemic, caring and household responsibilities tend to fall disproportionately on women’s shoulders.

Today, ERGO Network celebrates all women across the world, but especially the Roma and Traveller women who work day in, day out to make ends meet and to support their families and communities, with little recognition and while faced with numerous obstacles. Without the contribution of Roma and Traveller women, the fight against inequality is not complete!

We join their efforts to promote equality, dignity and women’s human rights for all women. We call on governments and the international community to:

To combat individual and institutional antigypsyism at all levels, including intersectional and multiple forms of discrimination through the development and implementation of policies and legislation that adequately address the situation of Roma and Traveller women.
To create opportunities for Roma and Traveller women to access decent work with adequate pay, as well as to tackle the gender and ethnic pay and pension gaps, to ensure that Roma and Traveller women in paid employment are not doubly penalised by receiving reduced income for equal work.
To put in place the necessary measures for Roma and Traveller women to be able to access quality and affordable health care (including sexual and reproductive health and rights), as well ashousing and accommodation and
To improve access to childcare and long-term care for Roma and Traveller families, by supporting community-based, free care facilities, employing also Roma and Traveller staff.
To invest in specific, adequate financial support for Roma and Traveller single parent households, most of which are led by women, to assist with childcare, rent payments and other household expenses.
To end all forms of gender-based violence and abuse which disproportionately affect Roma and Traveller girls and women, including by repairing historic injustices such as forced sterilization.
To dismantle gender stereotypes and ideas about traditional gender roles in mainstream society, so as to encourage more men, including Roma men, to pick up their fair share of unpaid work at home.
To support increased visibility and direct representation of Roma and Traveller women and girls in social, cultural, civil and political life
To ensure that Roma culture, language and history are recognized, respected, and resourced
To promote and supportRoma and Traveller women’s participation and empowerment in policy and decision-making at all levels, including by international organisations.

We are falsely encouraged that today women are more empowered and better represented politically, but in reality women’ s rights are still constantly questioned and gender stereotypes prevail – especially for women who suffer from intersecting forms of discrimination such as of race, socio-economic status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity etc.

Let’s fight together for equal rights of Roma and Traveller women!

Opre phenjalen! – Rise sisters!

EU Award for Roma Integration in the Western Balkans and Turkey, 2021

It is with great pleasure to announce the launch of the EU Award for Roma Integration in the Western Balkans and Turkey, 2021” dedicated to the extraordinary people that promote Roma equality through employment.

The EU Roma Integration Award 2021 will promote private or public initiatives sensitive to the problem of lack of employment in the Roma communities, offer recognition, publicity and support to the positive models yielding concrete, tangible results.

The award is open to public and private institutions, companies and businesses, employers, (including but not limited to SME, social businesses, entrepreneurship initiatives and other employment initiatives); teachers, health care actors and Civil Society (organisations and individuals) – Roma and non-Roma – established and residing in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey.

The competition is open to both self-nominations (applications directly from the initiative seeking to receive the award), and nominations from other stakeholders wanting to draw attention to a relevant initiative

Submission

Submission of self-nominations shall be via e-mail in the address: Application_EU_Award_2021@raa.al

- The title of the email must contain the initials of the applicant and the country of origin.

Submission of nominations shall be via email in the address: Nomination_EU_Award_2021@raa.al

- The title of the email must contain the acronym of the nominator, initials of the nominee and the country of origin

Applications and nominations, along with the supporting documents, can also be sent by post at the address:

Roma Active Albania Rr. “YlbereBylykbashi”; P. 25; Shk. 2; Ap. 4; Tirana, Albania

In this case, only the applications/nominations received by us within the deadline will be considered. Applications reaching by post later than the set deadline shall not be considered for evaluation.

The deadline for application is 30^th of April 2021, 23:59 local time

The award is hosted by the European Commission, funded by IPA Funds and implemented by Roma Active Albania

For more information please refer to the link:

https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/news_corner/news/call-applications-now-open-2021-eu-award-roma-integration-western-balkans-and_en

For follow and update please consult with:

https://www.facebook.com/EuAwardforRomaIntegration/

Intercultural Achievement Award for Roma Active Albania

Intercultural Achievement Award for Roma Active Albania

ERGO Member Roma Active Albania won the recognition award in the Intercultural Achievement Award (IAA) 2020 organised by the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs with the project “EU Award on Roma Integration 2019 – Unknown Heroes”. The project was organised in partnership with the European Commission, DG NEAR and supported by the European Union. Participation in different conferences and seminars, as well the work of the partners in the Western Balkans and Turkey have positioned Roma women as a key factor in scoring tangible results in the Roma integration agenda. The award have brought additional recognition to the wider area of women empowerment.

The project honors women who brought tangible impact for Roma integration and empowerment in the Western Balkans and Turkey and provided political leverage enriching the policy dialogue of Roma integration with the cross-cutting issue of women empowerment.

The project got recognition in a competition of 300 entries from 41 countries under the category “Recent events” and a certificate for the recognition was delivered to Roma Active Albania in the Austrian Embassy in Tirana.

Through this award steps such as by setting up and running non-profit organisations and community centres, combatting violence against women, fighting early marriages, facilitating women to access to their legal rights, etc. received the deserved recognition as a way of improving the integration of Roma minority by acting locally.

Dream to Grow – how to make Europe’s labour markets a place for all?

“Dream to Grow: How to make Europe’s labour markets a place for all”

ERGO Network together with the Romani Early Years Network (REYN) – an initiative of the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) – hosted a virtual human library on 7 October, where Roma professionals told the stories of their pathways to become who they are today, showing the difference that enabling, inclusive and diverse educational and working environments can make for society.

The human library took place online, where the participating “readers”, composed of practitioners and policymakers, academics, students and activists, could listen to the diverse and compelling stories of Enzo (Italy), Davie (Scotland), Tünde (Hungary), Milan (Croatia), Maria (Serbia), Ani (Bulgaria), Fatime (Belgium) and Manda (Romania). Four of them are Early Childhood Development practitioners working with national members of REYN, while the other four work in a variety of fields. All of them experienced antigypsyism in education, from wider society and in employment, but against all odds now have fulfilling jobs where they make a change for the children and adults they are working for.

The participants had the chance to read two of the books, and the human library experience was touching and captivating, each story denoting particular characteristics but a common dream – to grow.

The event was opened by Stanislav Daniel, co-chair of ERGO Network and Aljosa Rudas, Program Officer and REYN International Coordinator at ISSA , who introduced the concept and aim of the event and of the corresponding campaigns of the two host organisations: A Place for All (ERGO Network) and Dream to Grow (REYN).

They highlighted the aim of the event: to raise awareness of the benefits of ensuring equality, inclusion and diversity in education and at work, and of the obstacles that Roma need to overcome to be able to find decent employment. Besides offering an inspiration for the readers, the human library was also a call to action to policy-makers and employers that more needs to be done to overthrow these obstacles and to ensure diversity and inclusion on Europe’s labour markets.

Brando Benifei, Member of the European Parliament in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, welcomed the continuous work of ERGO Network and REYN to shed light on this important topic, and explained the role that the updated European Youth Guarantee should play to ensure that those young people furthest from the labour market, including Roma, receive support to find decent employment.

Margareta Matache, Director at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights’ Roma Program and Harvard instructor, spoke about the history of racism against Roma and how the majority society needs to change its perception of Roma in order to ensure discrimination on the labour market and in general society will end.

After these introductory remarks, the most awaited part of the event took place, the online human library. In smaller libraries, the human books told their stories of how they reached the place they are at right now, who and what supported them along the way and which challenges they met. Librarians from ERGO Network and REYN facilitated the dialogue between books and readers in four smaller groups, ensuring human interaction.

In the debriefing, participants were asked to “review” the books they have read. They described their experience in the libraries as “inspiring”, “powerful”, “eye-opening” and “brave” and said that stories of courageous people like these will help Roma children to dream again. Some readers also expressed the importance that the stories are also read by other people, which you can do on the websites of ERGO Network and REYN.

Also Anu Ritz, representing the European Commission Directorate – General for Justice and Consumers, where she works in the Non-discrimination and Roma coordination unit for the EU Platform for Diversity Charters, thanked the human books for sharing their stories, as far too often the real stories of Roma practitioners themselves are not listened to. She presented the current efforts made at EU level to increase diversity and promote inclusion in employment, also linking the event to the EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Equality that was published the day prior to the event.

Stanislav Daniel and Alyosa Rudas closed the event by sharing their final reflections. Stanislav pointed out that the eight human books who presented their stories all succeeded despite a discriminatory system. Going forward, we need to work for a world where people can succeed thanks to the system, not despite it.

Alyosa highlighted that the human dimension presented in the human library is often not reflected in national or EU policies and strategies, and not always needs and views of the community are captured in policy documents. This is why listening to personal stories and creating opportunities for dialogue are so important.

Listening to the life stories of the books and how they overcame prejudice and discrimination in education and employment, and how they are making a change in our societies through their work could be a first step towards a more inclusive future.

Look back at videos from the event here.