Latest members’ activities

  • 3 December 2014 – Romedia Foundation’s interview with Sara Giménez, first Roma lawyer in Aragon, Spain
    Sara Giménez is a Gitana lawyer based in Madrid, her ascension from the small city of Huesca is, in the least, remarkable – having been the first Romani woman lawyer in Aragon. “I believe that in general Romani men have it easier that Roma women, they have fewer barriers. Because Roma women have the same barriers as all women have, but especially the internal barriers, because we have certain internal roles pre-established which make it harder.” Watch her interview within the “I am a Roma woman” project by Romedia Foundation.
  • 26 November 2014 – Romedia Foundation’s newest interview with MEP Soraya Post for “I’m a Roma woman” project
    “Yes, I am very proud to be a Roma woman, I am proud of my heritage, I am proud of my future, I am proud of my children, I am proud of my relatives.” It’s what MEP Soraya Post (S&D), Swedish with Roma background, said during the interview conducted by the Romedia Foundation. She’s working for a feminist political group within the European Parliament: “The Romani women have nothing to lose anymore, they can only win.”
  • 3 November 2014 – How does it feel to be a European Roma woman? New video by Romedia Foundation
    “I am the only one in the close family, and in my Mom’s family who has a high school diploma and I would love to go to college after the persuasion of Buvero camp…not really persuasion, but I see the girls here, how intelligent they are, how much they can give from themselves thanks to education.” It’s the beginning of an interview, published by the Roma Woman organisation and supported by Romedia Foundation, on what it means to be a Roma woman, with less possibilities than other women just because of ethnic origin.
  • 30 September 2014 – Romedia Foundation internship for young Roma graduates With the support of the Open Society Roma Initiatives, the Romedia Foundation is announcing a 2014 call for applications for a six-month internship for young Roma graduates. Deadline for applications: 15 September 2014.
  • 19 June 2014 – Romedia Foundation’s newest interview part of the “I’m a Roma woman” with activist Marcela Adamova “There are the barriers we have to face as the Roma community in society, but there are also the barriers we have to face as the Romani woman in the Roma society, of course. And, I just believe that one day will come when the man will recognize women as his equal partners (…) the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development for the Roma communities” said Slovakian Romani woman and activist Marcela Adamova.
  • 14 May 2014 – Romedia Foundation interviews Anca Mezei Romedia Foundation’s latest “I’m a Roma woman” interview features Romani language teacher and pre-school educator, Anca Mezei! During the annual Roma Woman Gala from 2014 (Romania), Ms. Mezei was the winner of the ‘Growth within the Community’ section!
  • 12 May 2014 – Romedia Foundation: Roma and the double standards of European migration The last decade’s enlargement of the EU has given the right to work and travel freely in the EU to millions in Eastern and Central Europe. Accordingly, millions of Romanians and Bulgarians have taken advantage of this right and went to Western Europe in search of a better life. This has not been greeted with enthusiasm in some sections of the Western media. Last year, a fair number of Western European media outlets ran alerting headlines about an imminent ‘invasion’ of Romanians and Bulgarians, who would, supposedly, bankrupt the welfare state, commit all sorts of heinous (petty) crime and even bring upon the UK a new form of super-resistant tuberculosis. This sort of alarmist rhetoric has been present especially in the UK, where anti-immigration is tied with anti-EU sentiments, as well as in other countries.
  • 25 April 2014 – Roma Slavery In The Romanian Territories: A Catch-22 Of History And Recognition
    For almost five centuries, Roma lived as slaves in the Romanian Principalities, from the moment of their birth, as the code of Wallachia mentions in the 19th century. They were treated as objects with exchange value, being sold in auctions, donated, given as gifts at weddings, or simply used to repay debt. The slave was the master’s property, with no legal status. Marriage at a young age was encouraged, having as many children as possible being expected in order to increase the master’s property. Still not widely known, the details of the Roma slavery are one of the first institutionalised discriminatory practices against this group.
  • 11 April 2014 – Romedia Foundation celebrates International Roma Day with the birth of the Romani Emancipation Movement
    Forty-three years have passed since the First World Roma Congress was held in Orpington, near London, in 1971. Officially, 8th of April was ratified as an International Celebration Day during the 4th World Romani Congress held in Poland, in 1990. Since then, this date has had a special place in the calendar of all Roma, as it marks an important moment in the history of the Romani Emancipation Movement. The many hardships Romani people faced along the history, from the early days of their arrival in Europe, to the dire conditions they are still confronted with in today’s society, should not be forgotten in our quest for dignity.
  • 04 April 2014 – Europe-wide project Facing Facts! says key to tackling rising hate crime in EU is proper monitoring and training
    On 21 March, Facing Facts! held a conference in Budapest including a training seminar on how to properly monitor hate crimes, as well as an international conference with transnational agencies and a trainer network meeting. This large-scale training included individuals from 13 different countries, ranging from Serbia to Italy. This diversity was also reflected range of participating organisations: those working to promote rights for LGBT, Roma, Jewish, Disabled, Transgender, and Muslim individuals were all present at this training, and were able to collaborate, share their experiences, and learn together. Through this training, and future ones like it, Facing Facts! partners hope that individuals will no longer fall victims of these terrible crimes and be able to live their lives free of violence and hate.
  • 21 March 2014 – CEJI Facing Facts! open conference: ‘Hate Crime: A shared responsibility’
    The purpose of the ‘Hate crime: a shared responsibility’ conference is to identify ways to support, coordinate and facilitate the efforts of transnational agencies, national governments and Civil Society Organisations in making hate crime more visible to society. Facing Facts! began as a European project and it aims to empower Civil Society Organisations to collect data on hate incidents and crimes through training, so that bias motivated incidents will no longer be denied and victims’ rights will be protected. Date and venue: 21st March in Budapest.
  • 8 March 2014 – Romedia Foundation celebrates the ‘Romani Women’s Day!’ launching a new campaign
    This year, to coincide with International Women’s Day, Romedia Foundation launched a call to action to Roma Women Organizations from all over Europe. The initiative intends to draw attention to the need for a global means, including media partnerships, promoting a fair and equal media representation of Romani women in the media, contributing to an increased visibility of one of the most vulnerable minority groups in Europe.
  • March 2014 – Romedia Foundation presents new Roma Woman interview featuring Mihaela Dragan
    “I would like to encourage women that live in communities, all of the women including Roma, I would like to inspire them with courage and power, to be able to take a risk if they want to do something different than that which is imposed on them.” Mihaela Dragan is a Romanian actress of Romani origin, her play entitled “Del Duma, Vorbeşte-le despre mine” is a piece inspired by real stories of Romani girls facing early marriage, and strives to bring light to a romanticized and generally misperceived reality of Romani people and especially women.
  • February 2014 – Foundation of Subjective Values contributes to publication on ‘Combating racism, xenophobia and extremism in Central Europe’
    This publication was written in cooperation of four organisations whose main issue is to prevent racism xenophobia and extremism in the Central Europe: Kulturbüro Sachsen (Germany), Organization for Aid to Refugees (Czech Republic), Foundation of Subjective Values (Hungary) and Milan Šimečka Foundation (Slovakia). The book’s aim is to summarize good and bad experience in prevention and repressive action against rightwing extremism, xenophobia and racism and thus to provide a manual on how to proceed and face this serious issue in an efficient manner.
  • 4 February 2014 – Romedia Foundation blogpost: No country for lazy men : the German fear of social parasites
    The lifting of the labor market restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals on the 1st of January paved the way for a somewhat hysterical, pan-European debate on the possible influx of so-called “poverty immigrants” from Eastern Europe. While inordinate attention was given to the United Kingdom, where the tabloids have turned the political issue of European integration into a racist, classist mud-fight with few redeeming qualities, other countries, Germany in particular, have also had backlashes to the newfound opportunities of Eastern Europeans. Read more
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