Our organization started with work just recently having yet to accomplish a full project by ourselves, but we have succeeded in starting dialogue about status and multilayered discrimination of Roma women in the villages.
Village women are very stoic and hardworking. Our working day starts at 5AM and ends at 10 PM.
We are exposed to all sorts of family abuse, as well as discrimination in our community.
Village Roma woman still does not have a voice. She is forced to work as hired field hand, since she does not own a piece of land. She is not educated and does not know what is happening in the news. Field and housework are only things she knows. This is why village Roma women have a short average lifespan.
We have decided to do something to change this and we want to make our problems visible. In our opinion, topics we cover are of the interest to local self-government and state institutions as well. These topics are of the interest to people who leave in the village and at the same time to those who live in the city.
We find support in sister organizations of Roma Women Network. We are members of the Network and we regularly participate in activities as partner organization. We organized and spearheaded a large number of workshops aimed towards Roma women from twenty villages of Pirot county. Workshop themes included economic strengthening and human rights of women.
We participate in actions and campaign of Month of Roma Women’s Activism, through activism promotion in communities were civil society organizations do not exist.
We fight for our existence through economic strengthening. Some of our members started their own businesses – florist and greenhouse vegetable production.
Our vision is to soon make all of the women in our community owners of a small parcel of land they can work on. This is why we exist. We are uniting to work together on possibilities and solution which will improve our lives.
Contact:
Village Roma Women
Phone: +381 64 19 18 810