Beneficiary:
Partners
E-Romnja team
→ Roxana Oprea: Project Coordinator
→ Anca Nica: Community Organization Officer
→ Elisa Dinu: Volunteer
→ Lizuca Dinu: Volunteer
Implementation Period: April 2021 - April 2023
E-Romnja coordinated the Capacity Building and Local Actions activities. For two years, E-Romnja conducted activities on two fronts:
I) We organized consultation meetings with local public authorities in Mizil, Giurgiu, and Valea Seacă and mapped the local system.
We discussed systemic issues, how we can find solutions together for better access to services for Roma women in communities, how we can adapt services to meet the needs of vulnerable groups, and how we can collaborate effectively and efficiently for the benefit of the most vulnerable categories.
From the discussions with local and county public authority representatives and our observations in the field and discussions with women and men in our communities, the following issues emerged:
→ Roma people have limited access to services for multiple reasons: lack of identity documents, lack of financial resources, lack of services, institutional racism and discrimination, lack of information in the Romani language;
→ There is a practice among institutions (Police, social services, justice etc.) of culturally justifying the phenomenon of violence and other social issues;
→ There is very little concern at the local or county level for projects/programs/campaigns to inform, raise awareness, prevent, and combat gender-based violence;
→ The few actions in the area of gender-based violence are mostly initiated by non-governmental organizations;
→ There is a lack of communication, coordination, and cooperation among responsible institutions;
→ There is a lack of commitment from authorities regarding the phenomenon of gender-based violence, which is reflected in both the underreporting and mishandling of gender-based violence cases and the lack of budget allocation for violence services;
→ Some police officers continue to apply the victim risk assessment form in the presence of the aggressor, discourage victims from reporting violence cases, or pressure victims to withdraw their complaints;
→ Schools could play an important role in the process of awareness, prevention, and combating gender-based violence, but school and teacher involvement is very timid. Teachers tend to shift responsibility to parents and blame parents for any manifestation of violence by children. There is also a practice among teachers to ethnically justify violence ("Roma children are worse, more violent, and more combative than the majority of children").
II) On the other hand, we conducted activities in communities: mapping community needs by organizing workshops and community meetings with Roma women and also organizing and supporting sensitization workshops for Roma men in communities on the topic of violence, equal opportunities etc.
From the discussions with Roma women, several problems they face at the local level emerged:
→ Lack of services at the local level or, where they exist, lack of access for Roma women to these types of services;
→ Lack of trained and formed specialists in areas such as: prevention and combating violence and gender abuse, prevention, recognition, and reporting of exploitation cases, human rights, anti-discrimination, equal opportunities;
→ Lack of information among Roma women about possible programs/services addressed to violence victims;
→ Lack of access to legal counseling and justice. For Roma women, accessing justice is often impossible.
Other issues reported by Roma women:
→ Lack of professionalism among various employees in social assistance departments or police who mishandle reported violence cases;
→ Racist and discriminatory attitudes and behaviors from institutions that should provide support. These discriminatory and victim-blaming attitudes only discourage Roma women from reporting cases of domestic, sexual, or other types of violence.
Another type of activity we conducted in communities was the sensitization workshops addressed to Roma men in our communities.
The sensitization workshops for Roma men in communities strengthened our belief that men must be involved in activities and part of discussions on gender-based violence and that education in a feminist, non-violent, gender equality spirit is essential to start from as early ages as possible. At the same time, non-governmental organizations cannot replace the state, and it is important to have as many partners as possible (school, police, city hall, social assistance, etc.) in this endeavor.
Lastly, from October 24 to 26, 2022, we organized and conducted an advocacy training for 12 Roma women from our communities. The purpose of this activity was to strengthen the local initiative groups established and developed by E-Romnja, to empower the participating Roma women, and to train them in various advocacy and public communication techniques. The new skills gained from this training will be used by Roma women in relation to local public authorities (city hall, police, social assistance, etc.) to claim their rights, know how to bring an issue on the local agenda, or report violence cases to the police.
Even though this project has ended, the issue of violence against Roma girls and women remains a priority for E-Romnja. We hope that all our work will strengthen the VIF Network, contribute to a better understanding of the systemic problems faced by Roma girls and women, create more solidarity within the feminist movement in Romania, and provide a clearer understanding of the concept of "intersectionality."
