Cherven Bryag
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Cherven bryag is a municipality in northern Bulgaria, capital of Pleven Province, located at 125 km north-east of Sofia, 55 km south-west of Pleven, 56 km east of Vratsa, and 55 km south of Oryahovo. The Municipality consists of 2 cities and 12 villages. Most of the Roma in Cherven bryag live together in the so-called District 5. There are around 1.000 people living there and approximately 3.500 in the entire municipality (including the villages). 3 out of 29 members of the municipal council are from Roma origin.
The main problems faced by local Roma are:
- - Unequal position on the labor market, due to low education level and lack of qualification
- - Early school drop-out among Roma children
- - Life in isolated communities
- - Lack of property and lack of regular incomes
The ROMACT Process
Cherven Bryag joined ROMACT Program in September 2017 with a letter of agreement. Shortly after, a Taskforce for Roma Inclusion was created.
The Municipality benefited of ROMACT expertise for the following project :
* Socio-economic Integration of vulnerable groups in the Cherven Bryag Municipality" OPHRD-OPSESG
Beneficiaries: 689
Budget: 448 218 €
Status: approved
The Community Action Group (CAG) identified some of the short/medium/long-term problems:
* The need to appoint educational mediators in order to improve the attendance level of the Roma children in schools
* The need to refurbish of the schools in the villages
- * Training for the teachers to work in multicultural environment
- * Additional work with the children who travel with their parents - in order to catch up with the school curriculum
- * Provision of breakfast and lunch for the children in the schools
- * Securing work opportunities for the Roma in the villages
- * Provision of qualification courses
- * Solving of the problems with the bad infrastructure in the Roma slums
- * Mapping the housing to identify unlawful constructions
- * Solving problems related to lack of address registration
On 30 April 2018 , the Municipal Council adopted the updated Municipal Action Plan for Roma Integration (MAPRI) 2018-2020. This updated version was prepared on the basis of the Community priorities list established by the CAG.
Trainings provided by ROMACT experts :
Community Action Groups (CAG):
* Understanding and contributing to municipal budgeting;
* Advocating with Local Authorities for addressing social exclusion and marginalization;
* Active civil participation as a condition for successful and sustainable development of society & local communities;
* Sustainable civic participation of CAG;
* Legal frame for addressing discrimination.
Local Authorities (LA):
* Matching available funding opportunities and MAPRI activities/priorities
* Intercultural environment;
* Approaches for working with and within Roma community. Working in intercultural environment;
* Harmonizing activizm with professionalism;
* Round table for closing ROMACT cycle.
Taskforce :
* Preparation of monitoring plan and monitoring process
The following measures were implemented :
* Provision of bus transportation from Glava village to secondary schools in Cherven Bryag and Koynare