Month:
June
2th of June, 2008
5th Meeting of Roma teenagers in Granada
Roma community from Spain, constituted by more than 650.000 persons, is actually in a strong proccess of transformation that affects its way of living and its reference values, having as challenge to achieve a redefinition of its cultural identity in order to be compatible with the exercise of an active and full citizenship.
Equally, actual roma youth is a generation with a big potential of transformation and represents an important role as positive reference and an agent of changing for our community and for mainstream society.
In situations of quick social renewal, the youth assotiacionism acquired a big importance as organization mean, garanteeing this way the presence in the society of participation's values and solidarity in front of predominant individual values, is a way of active participation in society, a source capable to create a flow of resources in order to satisfy needs, a way to add efforts and to exchange ideals through colective answers, as well as a tool of citizen implication with continuity and projection in society.
That is why, from Union Romani, there is the intend to fall and to guide proposals that roma teenagers have, giving them abilities and guide lines to enffort associacionism and participation, through cultural, social and political strategies.
Making themselves felt like the collective objectives and as a parto f a group that walks in the same direction. That efforts of each person have a positive impact in achieving goals.
Youth participation is an essential factor for progress that means to be present in spaces publics and private. We are talking about expressiong your ideas, your concerns, your demands, your way of seeing relationships, your claims, your way of being and felling.
This way, with this meeting we intend to promote roma youth participation in society consciously; at the same time that associationism, making easier channels that help to overcome barriers for the achievement of objectives; and strategies of cultural, social and political implication to grow up in a prticipative society that goes on and develops.
May
19th may 2008
It is celebrated the VII edition of Professional Seminar for Roma Women
“Roma women and discrimination by gender" is the seminar's slogan:
Date: 19 th of May, 2008
:: Author : FSG
- Professionals, roma and non roma women, from social action field, put in common good practices in intervention with roma women.
- MP Carmen Calvo, director of Woman Institute (Instituto de La Mujer ) Rosa Peris and director of Foundation Roma Secretariat (Fundación Secretariado Gitano), Isidro Rodríguez, will inaugurate tomorrow the VII edition of Professional Seminar at 10 a .m. in the headquarters of Woman Institute.
- The work topics of State Seminar will be the Equality Law, gender discrimination and gender violence against women.
(Madrid, Monday 19 th May 2008) – In 20 th and 21 st of May will take place the VII edition of State Seminar of Roma women in headquarters of Woman Institute (Condesa de Venadito, nº 34), under the slogan “Roma women and gender discrimination”.
State seminar is inside of the agreement that Foundation Roma Secretariat (FSG) has with Woman Institute (Ministerio de Igualdad – Equality Ministry) and is co-financed by Social European Fund. The act's nauguration will take place at 10 a .m. and will be carried out by the director of Woman Institute, Rosa Peris, the director of FSG, Isidro Rodríguez and MP(member of parliament) Carmen Calvo (ex Culture Minister).
The State seminar puts together more that 70 women from all Spain, most of them roma, with a high level of interest in the gender subject and formative path in subjects of women/gender and experience in the work with roma women.
The fundamental aim of the Seminar is to tackle gender and culture specificity and promoting factors that support opportunities of roma women to reinforce them in relation with men from their community and from mainstream society.
These are the guarantees that a society must carry on in order to attend to specific problematics, understanding that the start point is not the same for all women and, for the other side, the way to across must and can be different.
The State Seminar will count will speakers of Fernando Rey's category, cathedratic of Constitutional Right in Faculdad de Derecho from Universidad de Valladolid;
Raquel Juan, from Familiar Therapy in Social Services of Ayuntamiento de Getafe (Madrid); Lorena Garrido, graduated in Right and researcher of Antígona Group of Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.
10th of May, 2008
III Galiacian Meeting of students and families.
School success is a hope that must be centered in our educational intervention. To achieve it, we must facilitate the exchange between roma students and their families with other people that obtained some kind of success as well as professionals and persons that are references in educational field.
The end of the educational meetings is for the slow down of lonely situations, to create a network for mutual support and to reinforce existent models to strengthen performances of absenteeism's prevention, education in open environment, extra support lessons and action of guardianship.
Intending to give continuity to the steps that we must follow in the educational across, last Saturday 10 th of May, we celebrated in Santiago de Compostela the III Autonomic Meeting of Roma Students and Families of Galicia.
As is being usual with the pass of the time, our partner and responsible of Youth Area of FSG, Angél Pérez, this time with Nuria Rodríguez, technical in support to the areas of the foundation, they went to Galicia from the head office to support and to share this space that became, after three years, a reference of coexistence around educational reality of our community.
The working day developed in the Colegio Mayor de Fonseca, situated in the Campus Sur of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela . The location selected – in an incomparable mark because of its history, its facilities and big green zones – brought a special meaning to the meeting: we could feel closely, for instances, what means to be part of a university.
People from Pontevedra, Vigo , Lugo and Santiago de Compostela joined during the breakfast before the official beginning of the working day. Then, Santiago González Avión (Territorial Director of FSG in Galicia) and Ángel Pérez, gave welcome to participating people, a group formed by a big number of families, students and professionals relating to education and companions of our entity. Santiago thanked everyone for the effort for having displaced from their cities, encouraging them to enjoy the working day, to share experiences and worries. Ángel, following with the intervention line used by Santiago , putted together people with the purpose and the commitment of foundation in order to follow supporting educational itineraries of roma students through continuity and effort of programmes and actions developed in Spain , giving as an example the state programme of scholarship from roma students in university.
Then, Coro González (FSG Santiago de Compostela) presented a person that talked about her experience, companion in professionals efforts directed to the achievement of educational normalization in Santiago de Compostela: Toña Callón, primary's teacher since 1993 and with experience in educational intervention with roma students in Galicia, related her start in teaching, when she started developing educational actions directed to roma student body.
Her first steps were directed to the fight for a decent school and equality of conditions as another educational center, making aware Administration and families that “a school is for and of everyone”. She ended her intervention with the best of the phrases:”school belongs to all boys and girls, not only to non roma people. It is also yours. And you must fight for that.”
Later it started workgroups depending of ages and educational realities: Juan Fernández, companion from Vigo , was exposing and working an educational dynamic with families, students of secondary and professionals and, at the same time, the group of primary students was sharing their dynamics outside with volunteers and companions of FSG, led by Paula Villaverde (Porriño). The youngers were busy in a parallel space of working day where they could play and to express themselves in a “artistic way”.
Then, families participated in a dynamic developed by Gorka de Luís (provincial coordinator A Coruña) by seeing the movie “ Las mujeres de verdad tienen curvas” (from the Colombian director, Patricia Cardoso. A work that, with humor and optimism, criticizes roles' questions and ethnic's nuance in the hegemonic culture. In this space concerns, doubts and illusions about participation in school and in education were deepened, with a clear message that education is the basis to ensure the access in an egalitarian way to opportunities of our society.
Parallel to the dynamic with the families, the rest of the group, children and students, walked through the university campus with destiny to the canteen of Residencia Monte da Condesa. Later, all assistants meet there; each one, with a tray, crossed the self-service, selecting the menu that would fill stomach after a morning of coexistence and work.
We had time to spend part of the dessert playing: parents, boys, girls and companions competed the objective of the famous game “pañuelito” (a good method to make digestion…)
By afternoon, representatives of three groups (primary students, secondary students and families) read their dynamics' conclusions, bringing, this way, concerns, needs and realities collected by each group.
In the farewell, presented by Banessa Giménez (Intercultural Agent FSG Santiago de Compostela) and, with the best way to let us with water in the mouth, some participating from different cities livened up the clause with music and flamenco dancing. We also take part of the gift sing as colaborators' singers and roma companions of FSG:
Finally and after three years sharing this space of coexistence and work, we are aware of the long road that we still have. However we also know that the steps that are giving in educational reality of roma people are full of effort and success. To go on this way no should not forgot that school, and this way education, is a question of everyone, of roma and non roma people, of tical action, professional, of families and students. A right, a duty for that we must work together. This way, we can make reality educational normalization and success of roma people of Galicia.
April
23rd of April, 2008
Third Meeting of Roma women in Madrid
During 22 nd and 23 rd of April, under the slogan “Promotion of Education in Roma Women” it was realized the Third Meeting of Roma Women in Madrid . Organized by the “Dirección General de Igualdad de Oportunidades” (General Direction of Equality of Opportunities) and the “Mesa de Mujeres Gitanas por la Igualdad ” (Table of Roma Women for Equality) with a participation of 300 women.
The meeting had as goal to analyze the situation of Education and, in particular, the reality of roma girls and women. The Study about roma girls' trajectory of FSG, presented by Maite Andrés confirmed that in spite of advances in this field, it still is alarming the values of neglect of Secondary Education. Besides, there were compared analysis and polices carried out in this field, where Begoña of Universidad de Navarra and Jesús Salines of Enseñantes con Gitanos (Teachers with roma) participated. Moreover they exposed experiences that are being developed in districts of Madrid . Finally, it takes place a table of roma women that are studying in several fields: degree in ESO (Obligatory Secondary Education), literacy, Module of Professional Formation and the university. Besides, there were workshops and a storytelling brightened up by our colleague Carmen Montoya de Caño Roto.
As conclusion we could tell that the level of participation corresponding with concern shared within women of the importance of Education for social and work promotion of women and especially the aspiration to be independent women.
8th of April, 2008
A video promotes the access to studies and to work insertion
Roma women break the destiny of their culture.
LAURA G. ESTRADA
Valladolid (Spain) – They are women, roma, in love of their positive traditions, however reluctant in accepting traditions that push them taking care of their homes, of theirs children and helping their husbands in work. They are women ready to study and to give studies to their descendants, to create their own business and to overcome barriers in order to achieve “a fairer world”.
Chari , Julita, Delia, Antonia, Rosario or Josefa are some of sixteen women that talked about their lives front of the camera for the creation of a video that pretends to disseminate a hidden reality and to sensitive a population about their difficulties to become an engine of change without losing roma essence.
The video was presented with title “Women with history. Roma Women fo Castilla and León” and will be disseminated within community to reflect the process of change for what they are fighting for years some of its members. To this act came the counselor of Family and Equality of Opportunities. César Antón and the director of Fundación Secretariado Gitano (Foundation Roma Secretariat), Isidro Rodríguez.
“The challenge is to achieve that roma look with another eyes to society and society to roma people” said Chari telling the story of their life. This social worker borned in Valladolid gives support to women that ask for her help in the search of formation and employment. “I am moved seeing women and persons that intend to beat themselves everyday. When they tell me that they have problems and do not know how to move forward I always tell them that we have enough weapons to fight” she ensured.
Soledad also works as social mediator but her biggest pride is having achieved that her son Raúl became the first roma of Castilla y León graduated in Business. Criticism observed her inside of her community but she had always very clear that she did not want a future for her children as her ancestors that had to win their live in the field and through peddling.
Academic formation teenagers had overcame in several cases the barrier of primary and it is increasingly frequent that parents want their children to complete their studies until university, although they are criticized because people have afraid they became “payos”.
Elisabeth, although, has succeeded to graduate in Pedagogy, Psychology and Social Education, motivated by her father and her grandfather, that also had the chance to study. With 24 years, she recognizes that sometimes she has felt discriminated in school for her roma condition, but she is sure that she achieved want she wanted. “I am not saying that all roma must reach university, but they should have a formation to carry out a work decently.” she says.
Celia also reached to university and became the first roma women in Palencia qualified in Social Education. Her sister Fernanda set up her own business, a hairdresser's shop that she pulls ahead with effort “that worth's it”. “Everyday I get something more I want”, she says at the same time she affirms that she is felling “between to worlds”. “I have never seen me in one side neither in another and it is being very hard”.
Pilar also decide to set up a hairdresser's shop in León with the support of her father. “Inside of me always was a different awakening” Today the best is to know that I have a peace that is mine”.
The favor of family, however, not always is a help to overcome barriers for these enterprising women. It is the case of Josefa who saw herself obliged to marry with a man that she did not love. “I told to my mother that was a mistake because I did not love him and that is how it was; there was mistreatment, I toke my sons and I leaved”. Without house and without job, she was obliged to take her sons to a Child Protection Center until she found a job to support them. “Now they have their home, their school... they have everything”.
Victoria also was obliged to marry when she was only 16 years, although she finally separated from her husband and came back to her family, that “broke many roles” as ensures her mother.
Dolores with 25 years was mother of four children and she needed to work inside and outside of her home. Over the years she had to convince her husband and her father-in-law in order to be kitchen helper. Today she has a separated daughter, other married with a non roma man and another one has been the first roma woman in army.
With their stories they intend to help other women like them to study, to find a job and to move forward by themselves and to make known to rest of society their real situation before being judged.
