Roma Women of Vojvodina aims to contribute to the inclusion of the Roma community and reduce inequality via field work in Roma settlements, workshops, and many other strategies.
Young Roma people are affected by the patriarchal lifestyle of their community, which reinforces prejudices and stereotypes, especially regarding their knowledge of and attitude towards LGBT matters. Also, Roma LGBTs face exclusion and discrimination within their own and wider communities, because of their Roma and LGBT identity.
With our funding, Roma Women of Vojvodina will organize 12 workshops in 7 different settlements with the young Romas. Also, educational material will be developed and distributed, and media presentations will be held aimed at a wider audience. The workshops consist of two parts: in the first part, young LGBT Roma people will be educated about LGBT terminology, identities, coming out, and many other topics related to sexual and gender identity. In the second part, role play will be used to teach participants how to empathize with LGBTs.
Project results so far
- Announcements about the project were made at local radio stations and local newspapers in Novi Bečej and Ada. As a result, approximately 1,500 indirect users were notified about the project.
- 7 Roma settlements in four municipalities were visited, a total of 260 Roma people between the ages of 15 and 21 were invited to participate in the project.
- In July 2017, 6 workshops were held in Novi Bečej and Ada, which were attended by 105 young Roma people.
- At the beginning of the workshop a survey was conducted on the degree of familiarity with the problems among participants about the topic that the project deals with. Also, an outcome survey was held.
- Based on these surveys, Roma Women of Vojvodina concluded that more than 50% of the attendees essentially changed their attitude towards LGBT people.
- So far, 1,000 pieces of educational and promotional material have been distributed into 5 Roma settlements in four municipalities.
- In the realization of the project, successful cooperation has been established with the Center for Social Work of the Municipality of Novi Bečej and the Health Center in Ada. Representatives of both institutions support the efforts of Roma Women of Vojvodina and are playing an active role in cooperating with them on support to LGBT people of both Roma and non-Roma nationalities.
