Youth Project

Youth Project

Project Summary

Young Romani women in Europe suffer from multiple obstacles that hinder their inclusion and capacity for emancipation, mainly gender, cultural and economic obstacles. This is pointed out in many studies and reports of the European Union and the Spanish Government, such as the report of the European Commission "ESF and the Roma population" where one can read "The Roma population suffers discrimination in all existential areas and needs access to social services in conditions of equality" and also in the study "Social diagnosis of the Roma community in Spain of the MINISTRY OF HEALTH, SOCIAL POLICY AND EQUALITY": "Romani women are those who spend the least hours in formal employment, less than Romani and non-Romani men and than the rest of Spanish women. Their low levels of qualification, as well as the limited availability of time due to family responsibilities and their participation in those family economic activities outside the strictly domestic ones, are behind these great differences".

Based on this context and in line with the actions of the EU and the Erasmus+ Programme which aim to promote the inclusion of the Roma population in Europe, we have designed the objectives of the project, among which it is worth mentioning:

  • To promote the inclusion and training, through non-formal education, of young Romani women in order to reinforce their skills of entrepreneurship, initiative, critical analysis and empowerment.
  • To encourage intercultural dialogue and strengthen knowledge and acceptance of diversity in society, preventing racism and intolerance among young people.

In order to carry out these ambitious objectives, an association of organisations from different European countries has been formed, which are actively working and have experience specifically in the area of inclusion of young Romani women: A ASOCIACIÓN DE GITANAS FEMINISTAS POR LA DIVERSIDAD (Spain), RIBALTAMBIÇÃO (Portugal), E-ROMNJA and THE CENTRE OF ROMA AMARE RROMENTZA (Romania).

As a result of the collaboration of these 4 organisations within this project, we are creating some very relevant results to facilitate the inclusion of young Romani women, among which we can highlight the SKOLA FEMINISTA ROMANI WEB PLATFORM: INCLUSION IN DIVERSITY.

That is why in order to achieve such ambitious results and objectives, the participating organisations are carrying out a multitude of activities, in which we are involving more than 100 young Romani women from the different countries. Among the most relevant activities, we can highlight: the 3 transnational meetings, which are being held one in each of the partner countries. The activities of multicultural and linguistic training, for overcoming obstacles, virtual mobilities, the participative workshops in which the young women themselves will work on the elaboration of the results, etc.

Project Partners

Working Methodology

All these activities and results of the project are based on a participative methodology centred on non-formal and informal education, with the aim of making the learning process attractive, motivating the participants, involving them in their own learning process and promoting learning between equals, as well as the fact that it is the young Romani women themselves who are the main protagonists of the project as they design and produce the training materials and manage the whole project.

Project Results

SKOLA FEMINISTA ROMANI WEB PLATFORM: INCLUSION IN DIVERSITY is a gateway to non-formal education for inclusion aimed specifically at young Romani women, in which we can find a multitude of training materials, a learning support service, a social awareness campaign to prevent racism.

Together with this platform you can find on this website:

  • Training materials through non-formal education: from the exchange of good practices and successful experiences of this project it is hoped to be able to design new educational materials and also to collect the materials that the participating organisations already have in order to put them together in a format accessible to all the organisations that work with Romani women in Europe.
  • Guide of successful experiences in the inclusion of young Romani women, compiling the different projects of the partner entities that have been successful in the inclusion of young Romani women, developed in the different countries of Europe, to be able to replicate them adapting them to the needs of each region.

Transnational Meetings

M1: FIRST TRANSNATIONAL MEETING IN MADRID - SPAIN (May 2018)

On May 18 and 19, 2018 the first meeting was held in Madrid with the participation of two members from each of the partner entities. This meeting was specifically aimed at:

  • PREPARATION OF THE DOCUMENTATION linked to the project and signed by the presidents. In this section, it is important to highlight the signing of the definitive agreements and framework agreements for the formalization of the strategic alliance.
  • CREATION OF THE PROJECT. We defined the project's contents according to the calendar and completed the required activities for the elaboration of the results, including determining the materials, identifying the technical experts who collaborated with the project, and establishing non-formal and informal working methodologies. This also served to define the budgetary items and the control of expenditure in the subsequent phases.
  • VISIBILITY OF THE PROJECT. Activities were carried out to improve the project's visibility, including the creation of the initiative's logo, agreeing on the project's visual image and specifying the characteristics of its website.
  • STRENGTHENING RELATIONS BETWEEN PARTICIPANTS. Through work, but also through playful spaces where we generate bonds of friendship and get to know each other better. After a hard work session, we went out to Madrid to show them interesting places and to get them to know our city.
  • EVALUATION OF THE PREPARATION STAGE AND THE TRAINING PROVIDED TO THE PARTICIPANTS.

Grupo de trabajo del Proyecto de Juventud en Madrid

M2: SECOND TRANSNATIONAL MEETING OF THE PROJECT IN BUCHAREST - ROMANIA (January 2019)

The second transnational meeting was held in Bucharest, Romania, on 18 January 2019 with the attendance of 2 leading members from each of the partner organizations. The following will be discussed at this meeting:

  • FOLLOW-UP OF MATERIALS carried out in the national workshops for training through non-formal education for young Romani women. At this point it was agreed to improve the materials in three fundamental aspects: Balance between the women of the countries, Introducing a new "Anonymous" woman, María the cleaner, to give voice or to make visible the resistance and struggle at the base, recognition of all the women who have not been academic or artistic success stories but who struggle to get out of life. To make two categories of women, those who have recognized themselves as gypsies and those who we know have gypsy origins but have not manifested it.
  • PREPARATION OF THE BASES OF THE SCHOOLS OF INCLUSION. At this point, the structures, contents, methodologies and processes needed to create the Web Platform for Inclusion were defined.
  • TO CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN THE BONDS BETWEEN THE PARTICIPANTS. We continued to get to know each other better and to discover the reality of Roma women in Bucharest and throughout Romania, thanks to an extensive and interesting presentation and subsequent debate prepared by "Amare Rromentza" and "E-Romnja".
  • LEARNING WORKSHOPS FOR MANAGEMENT AND NETWORKING. Where the most experienced entities taught mechanisms to improve the management of entities and to internationalize them, through a methodology of exchange of successful experiences.
  • MONITORING OF THE PROJECT AND RESULTS. Finally, a compilation was made of all the actions carried out by each of the partner organisations, to check that everything was complete and correct, and the concrete objectives to be achieved were defined before the next transnational meeting of the project, which was already the last one.
M3: THIRD TRANSNATIONAL MEETING IN FIGUEIRA DA FOZ - PORTUGAL (June 2019)

It was held in Portugal on June 21, 2019 and the dissemination and project managers took part in it, with two participants from each organization. This was the last meeting so we tried to evaluate what had been done and prepare the dissemination phase.

  • EVALUATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PHASE. In this phase all the work done in the previous phase of the project was evaluated, through quantitative and qualitative indicators, in order to measure the fulfillment of the objectives and level of quality with greater objectivity. The results of the evaluations of all the participants were very positive.
  • LEARNING WORKSHOPS ON NON-FORMAL METHODOLOGIES AND THE MANAGEMENT OF YOUTH GROUPS. Where the youth associations showed how to manage youth groups to the organisations that are currently forming them.
  • PREPARATION OF THE DISSEMINATION PHASE. The actions to be developed by each of the partner organizations were specified, as well as the persons responsible for dissemination in each of them. On the other hand, the selection of relevant multiplying agents (media, political authorities...) was made and the planning of meetings and activities to ensure the dissemination and replicability of the materials was completed.
  • TO CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN THE BONDS BETWEEN THE PARTICIPANTS. Furthermore, during this last meeting we continued to get to know each other better and to discover the reality of Romani women in Portugal. With the objective of giving continuity and follow-up to the present project as well as designing and undertaking new projects from the bonds of trust, cooperation and friendship that have been created thanks to the present project.