The Importance of Being Roma – final round table

On 28 October 2016 in Sisak CRP Sisak organised a final round table within the project “The Importance of Being Roma”, which was implemented in the period from 1 November 2015 to 1 November 2016. The project was financed by the EU and cofinanced by the Office for NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and Open Society Foundations.

After four working meetings that covered status issues, education, living conditions and housing care and employment of Roma, as well as many other activities, among which free legal aid, educational activities, writing of a report, making of a short documentary movie, etc. are very important, this final round table was organised. It gathered 50 stakeholders, including the representatives of the City of Sisak, Sisak-Moslavina County, different institutions from national and local level, such as the Government Office for Human Rights and Rights of National Minorities, as well as many members of Roma national minority. The project NGO partners, Roma Cultural centre, Roma Rights and “New World Luščani” actively participated in the work of the round table, as well as project associates, City of Sisak, Sisak-Moslavina County, Center for Social Welfare Sisak, UNDP, UNHCR and the Ombudsman.

The meeting started with presentation of work, activities and results of the project and the Local Platform for Roma.

A short documentary movie “Forgotten Valley” was also shown. The movie talks about conditions of living in the Roma community Capraške Poljane in Sisak. The main actor is a young 17 years old boy, who goes to secondary technical school, Vidoslav Nikolić. He is a very good student and he, with his positive example, tries to break prejudices about Roma and introduce the public to the difficulties of Roma everyday living.

Also, the activities and results of the Platform 044 – For Better Future of the Sisak-Moslavina County were presented. The Platform is coordinated by CRP Sisak, together with 11 organisations and the main goal is to fight against poverty, unemployment and discrimination and to raise awareness and citizens activism.

This meeting included all implemented activities of the project “The importance of being Roma” and the final conclusion was that all stakeholders had wish to continue joint work in 2017. Therefore, though the project implementation period has ended, all stakeholders will continue their work on protection and promotion of rights of Roma national minority.