Samuil
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Samuil Municipality is located in the southern part of Ludogorie in the northeastern part of Bulgaria. The municipality is composed of villages 14 in total.
The Roma population is made of different communities: Horahanne, Rudari and "Musicians".
Unemployment and access to services are crucial issues in Samuil. The villages are not well connected with the main town and 30% of the Roma inhabitants have left Samuil in the last 5 years, which led to an increase of the school dropout rate.
The ROMACT Process
Samuil municipality joined the ROMACT program in August 2018 with the signature of the letter of agreement.
The involvement of Roma community members has been a challenge in Samuil and the Community Action Group (CAG) could only be formalised at the end of November 2018.
The Municipal Taskforce for Roma Inclusion was created on 5 February 2019.
The Municipality benefited of ROMACT expertise for the following projects:
* "Socio-economic integration and improving the access to education of persons from vulnerable groups in municipality of Samuil" - Funded by the OPHRD & OPSESG.
Budget: 435 631€
Status : approved
* BGCULTURE-2.001-0060- VivaCom Ltd.
Status : rejected
* "Cooperation between Roma families and the kindergarten for the development of parenting skills" - Funded by the USA Embassy in Bulgaria.
Status : rejected
* “Preventing disinformation among young people in Razlog’s schools” - Funded by the USA Embassy in Bulgaria.
Status : rejected
Trainings provided by ROMACT experts :
Community Action Groups (CAG):
* Participation in a meeting of the Public Council on Social Inclusion/Taskforce;
* Local self-government;
* Implementing a community survey and collecting data;
* Advocating with Local Authorities for addressing social exclusion and marginalization;
* Addressing drug delivery and use in the Roma neighbourhoods;
* NGO management and organisational development;
Local Authorities (LA):
* Drafting project idea & establishing partnership under transnational cooperation;
* Opportunities under the new Erasmus+ Program (2021-2027) in the School Education sector;
* Approaches for working with and within Roma community. Working in intercultural environment;
* Support to answer MA's questions of project submitted under the Integrated procedure;
* Supporting Municipal Taskforce work.
ROMACT Small Grants Scheme :
ROMACT offers small grants scheme to support the efforts of the municipalities and Community Action Groups to respond together to the needs of the most vulnerable and to multiply the good practices across ROMACT municipalities.
Under the scheme of small grants, the following project was supported by ROMACT between April - July 2020:
Initiative to counter COVID19 pandemic – Municipality of Samuil
ROMACT supported the municipality with 2257 €, reaching +100 disadvantaged families within Roma community. The project mainly covered information campaign on COVID19 and provided masks, disinfectant products, informative flyers to raise awareness in Roma community. Essential food supplies were also provided for families with dire financial situation. Local community action group identified the vulnerable families who were adversely impacted by the pandemic and distributed the packages.