Amalia Romano from FOCUS Italy is on work placement at Citizens Advice Bureaux in Romania
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Dear Daniela, I’m very happy to see your reply…it’s always interesting to exchange ideas!
I’d just want to clarify that Roma people are not nomads and that they don’t travel a lot because they like it, but because they need it! That’s simply a legend, a stereotype! Since they were forced to leave their original region during the 15th century, they spent their lives going around just because they never found a country willing to receive and welcome them. They’d want to have a house as everyone of us! The story of their nomadic origins is just an alibi used by many governments to justify their deportations and their discriminatory behaviours!!In Italy, for example, people are persuaded to believe that just to perpetuate the segregations of Roma community in the camps and the total lack of rights and, above all, dignity.
It could be interesting for you to have a look at Amnesty International website…one of their campaign, “Demand dignity”, deals with rights violation of Roma people around the world….do you believe to such an important international organization?!
http://www.amnesty.org/en/campaigns/demand-dignity/issues/discrimination/the-roma-life-cycle
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Hi Amalia,
I was reding your thought about Romania and you’ve added and made a few good points, especially about how Roma people, how they live and how their rights are not respected. I liked that you’ve made the point that they live the same as other Roma people in other countries. It is very obvious that globally, they are treated differently and at least at European level we should start to help them more, but also respecting the main fact about them – they travel a lot(or most of them) and this IS a way of life for them.
Leave you for now. Take care.
Daniela x
Hello everyone!
I’m very sorry for my late participation in the blog! Daniela Blajan, who was one of my exchange mate in Bucharest, has been very detailed in describing our experience, so I don’t think it’s worth to write again in details about all the programme of our exchange week!
I’d just like to share with you some feelings I had and some opinions. First of all, I want to thank all the guys from NACAB (Ioan, Ana, Alina, Adriana, Andrej…I hope I didn’t forget anyone!), they have been very kind to us and very friendly! They organized our week so that everything was perfect, both the leisure time and the planned visits. We talked a lot with them about their projects and the objectives of Flowchart, starting to state some ideas.
I had a very good impression of how Romanian associations work. They are deeply involved in the main social issues and they were very enthusiastic to explain us their activities. I’m talking about SOROS, and its coordinator Iris Alexe, who talked to us about their qualitative studies and statistic reports on migrations, from the point of view of both destination and departure countries. I really appreciated that she underlined the importance of considering migrations as an opportunity, minimizing the negative aspects and maximizing the advantages. I believe that their project aiming at create an information guide for immigrants set an example for everyone!
The meeting with EURES adviser Gabriela Nedelcu and Adriana Pert from ANOFM was very interesting as well. The services provided by the agencies, which help people who want to work abroad with information about not only job vacancies, but also work and life conditions in destination countries, are very useful! And it could be useful for Romanian people who are in Italy now and who are looking for a job. They can take the opportunity of using these services by the means of an European website, that provides information in several languages, and a network of offices all around Europe.
Another interesting meeting was with CERE, an association which works especially with Roma people. I found very interesting and original their project Photovoice. It consists in providing cameras to Roma people, letting them taking pictures of their daily life, stamping the pictures where they write their thoughts and then sending them to public authorities…very incisive!
The last association I met was CAB Romania. They provides the typical services such as information, advices and legal assistance in several ways: directly in their office, by phone or by email. We spoke about the main problems people face nowadays and I was surprised to know that, apart from economic crisis and unemployment, the main issue is divorce, which is raising sharply. We also talked about a common problem that NGOs and associations have: the lack of money! They receive a very little money from public authorities, so their work is based on volunteers! Another interesting thing is the fact that they host in their office art works from different artists, for free. That’s definitely a very good idea!
But during our visit, we also visited international organizations and institutions, such as IOM, the Information Office of the Council of Europe and the Romanian Office of the European Parliament. We have been very lucky of having the chance to discuss with them about migration issues and about the main problems we face during our daily work, sharing ideas at an international level!
Finally, I want to mention the experience I had my last day in Romania. On Saturday 3rd July we visited a Roma community in Merisani, because NACAB was running a project with Roma children to raise their awareness about environmental issues. I found it very interesting and I liked the way Ana and Alina got on with children. I also enjoyed the moment when, together with the children, we collected plastic bottles…I took a lot of pictures that I will share with you! At the same time, I had the opportunity to see that, apart from the environmental one, they have a lot of more serious problems! The life conditions of Roma people are the same everywhere: in Italy they live in nomad camps, and in Romania in villages, but the poverty, the total lack of services, the denial of their rights, the discrimination and the segregation they face are the same! In a so difficult moment for all the Roma communities of Europe, we should take action to overcome our prejudices and assert their fundamental rights!