Young Roma Women and Men Aim to Become More Active Citizens to Change Moldova For The Better

And since ZORJARAS means, in Romani, empowerment, strengthening, consolidation, this summer school aims to encourage young Roma women to become active citizens and organize various civic actions. Moreover, young Roma will address issues related to public participation through social activism, gender equality and advocacy.

 

Svetlana Andries, manager of the UN programme "Women in Politics", mentioned about the mandate of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), which, both globally and in the Republic of Moldova, is to support women and girls from various social groups, especially those from vulnerable ones, to be more active and give a voice to their needs. "Therefore, we hope that this school will inspire you to become agents of change in your communities and that will determine you to participate more actively in the life of your communities," said Svetlana Andries.



National Roma Centre`s representative, Cristina Marian, made a brief presentation of the summer school programme, which includes also a visit to a Roma community. "Over the course of six days, you will be able to interact between you and develop together activities related to the empowerment of Roma girls in your communities. Because this is the main aim of the summer school - to become more active in our society," pointed out Cristina Marian.



One of the participants of the school, Diana Leahu, 20, student at the Faculty of Law, volunteer within the National Roma Centre, but also an active member of the Network of Roma Girls and Women "Romano Alav," says that she wanted to attend this school, because she wants to learn how to support Roma girls. "We, young Roma women, have the same skills and abilities as men and we are no different than them. Therefore, I think it's time to demonstrate this, through our active involvement. Especially that Roma girls and women are victims of double discrimination, both on grounds of ethnicity and gender", said the participant.



Artur Caldarari is a 23-year-old young student at the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering and another participant, who hopes that through this school will be promoted more young Roma people. "I want to develop our team-building abilities, to know better each other and at the end of summer school to create a joint project, whereby we will implement concrete and nice activities in our communities," said Artur.

The summer school is organized by the National Roma Centre, with the support of European Youth Foundation (EYF) of the Council of Europe, of the UN Programme "Women in Politics", implemented by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with East-Europe Foundation and Centre "Partnership for Development", financed by the government of Sweden, and the regional project of UN Women for promoting policies and budgets sensitive to gender in Southeast Europe, financially supported by the Austrian Development Agency.