What we want to share is that:

Giving Roma girls a place or plat-form where they can speak up helps a lot in the process of em-powerment and awareness crea-tion.

Statistical data shows that the rate of infant mortality (at 13.9%) is higher among Roma than any other ethnic group in Macedonia. Roma girls also face increased risks of complications during pregnancy and delivery.

The Macedonian authorities regard child marriage as part of Roma life and tradition, regard-less of the fact that it exploits these children’s rights. They ignore the phenomena because of the stereotypes widely held by mainstream Macedonian society about the Roma people.

The Highest rate of early mar-riages can be found in the poor-est Roma communities, this number increases during sum-mer time for 50%. Officially they are only 4 registered early mar-riages, because Roma people do not marry their children at a town hall. Most of the weddings are not official.

From the beginning of the pro-ject December 2010 till the end of October 2011, RROMA regis-tered 11 marriages in the region. The girls were under the age of 18.

Roma women empowerment can not be achieved with one campaign. It is a process that needs to be repeated on a long-term basis.

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Contact:

RROMA Toso Kukovski bb

1360 Kratovo Phone/fax:+38931481189

E-mail:romassn@ymail.com http://romassn.blogspot.com

The project was supported by Roma Initiatives, OSF-

Budapest

Early marriages, domestic violence,

not participating in the public life,

the low employment rate, staying at

home and not continue their educa-

tion are just some of the problems,

which Roma girls and women are

facing. Being a Roma woman, means

to care a double burden with you .

First the one for being Roma and the

second for being a woman. Both

things means facing the stereotypes

and stigmatization society has for

them. Because of patriarchal be-

lieves a majority of the young Roma

girls don’t even visit school or stop

visiting school and continue their

education. A lot of these Roma girls

facing arrange marriages by their

parents or decide to get married by

their own. This is a problem that

only feeds the Roma women exclu-

sion and contributes for not having

Roma women participating in the

public life or even gets employed.

Time for change ... It is time to fight against these miss-beliefs that has been talked into their head. It is time to raise the awareness among the Girls, through activeness to show them, that Roma girls have the right to choose and shape their own life into better directions that are chosen by them. But, also to teach them that it is time for them to fight against these shackles of illiteracy and accept the change and start to believe that they can make a difference and to become active citizens.

The Project ... The name of our project is Roma-lution.—our way

of empowerment!

Why? Because our goal is to raise the awareness among

Roma girls about the importance of becoming ac-

tive citizens in their communities by giving them

the chance to “breakout” and speak free about the

importance of education and the problem of early

marriages that bothers the Roma community.

How? By sharpen the ca-

pacities of 20 Roma

girls in using new e-

media, creating

creative researches,

conducting ques-

tionnaires and al-

lowing them to ex-

press their creativ-

ity . Creating crea-

tive videos and presentations, shown in five munici-

palities in the north-east of Macedonia raised a

public debate about the issues Roma girls are fac-

ing, meaning education and early marriages.

Also, important for us is to promote

Roma Girls as role-models and

agents of change in order to em-

power other girls to join and con-

tinue to be active.

Another wonderful thing is that by

investement in training and

empowerment of the Roma girls to

become active citizens, they can

continue independently to work on

Roma women issue.

Because another goal is to help the

young Roma girls to become

independant and act independantly

and to plan independantly and

return as partners of RROMA.

Being a Roma Girl …

is not easy!

Peer to peer education helps

the empowerment

Early

marri

ages are st

ill

an issu

e that n

eeds to

be fight

against!