Roma Girls Empowerment
2
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. Sharing is caring ... Contact: RROMA Toso Kukovski bb 1360 Kratovo Phone/fax:+38931481189 E-mail:[email protected] http://romassn.blogspot.com The project was supported by Roma Initiatives, OSF- Budapest
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The project aims was develop the capacities of 20 young Roma girls from Vinica, Veles, Kocani, Stip and Berovo by providing them training in the field of new media, creative action research and conducting questionnaires on topics such as early marriages and the importance of education for change.
Transcript of Roma Girls Empowerment
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.
Sharing is caring ...
Contact:
RROMA Toso Kukovski bb
1360 Kratovo Phone/fax:+38931481189
E-mail:[email protected] 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!
