Roma Women's meeting in Giulesti, Bucharest 6th Sector

The Community Action Group formed through the ROMED2 Programme in Giulesti (Bucharest 6th sector) was involved in the organization of an informal Roma women’s meeting at the Roma Culture Museum on 30 May 2015 - a round of exchanges with other initiative groups from Ferentari, Mizil, Spantov, Valea Seaca and Giurgiu.
The purpose of the event? The need to bring together the different experiences of the initiatives taken by Roma women. The event was part of the project “Phenja – violence against women has no colour“ lead in three municipalities in Romania (Giurgiu, Giulesti and Valea Seaca) over a period of 12 months. The project is implemented by the E-Romnja Association in partnership with Romano ButiQ – the ROMED2 and ROMACT implementation organization in Romania – Centrul Filia and CSJDO (Center for Legal Studies and Human Rights) with the support of Open Society Institute.
The participants shared their practices and discussed the initiatives developed locally related to infrastructure, access to different services or civil rights. Each initiative group explained the manner in which they were launched as a group, which were the first initiatives, successful achievements and barriers in their communication with the local authorities, for instance.
Participants also talked about how they learned to prioritize problems within their communities and then with ambition, courage and confidence in the members of the group how they managed to change things. “We started with the idea that our community is very poor and we thought about what we could do to bring a change “said one of the participants in the meeting.
Besides this exchange of experiences, two theatre plays were presented by Roma amateur actors from Spantov and the Economic College Viilor to the Roma children of Giulesti, on the occasion of the Children’s day, with a focus on violence and discrimination in schools.
The Roma women from Giulesti mobilized and prepared sweets which were offered to children and other participants. Children and parents from Giulesti were mobilized thanks the Community Action Group in the municipality, who largely participated in the event.