Požarevac, 8 April 2016

In Požarevac, as part of the project “European Union Support to Inclusive Society, a project promotion conference was held for the project Support to educational inclusion of Roma at all educational levels and support to self-employment in Pozarevac – “Our right to live better”.

The action “ Support to educational inclusion of Roma at all educational levels and support to self-employment in Pozarevac – “Our right to live better”” is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Association of Roma Branicevo District and the City of Pozarevac with the support of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs as the main beneficiary of the project. This activity is part of the project “European Union Support to Inclusive Society”, financed by the EU with EUR 5.4 million, and implemented by the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs.

The project is directed toward the Roma population and the project foresees a number of activities firstly directed toward education and employment of the Roma population in Pozarevac. It is envisaged for more than 75 Roma children (primary and secondary pupils) to be included in activities directed toward their better understanding and concuring the school curriculumthroughmentoring support. Additional classeswill be organizedin mathematics, Serbianand English language, physics and chemistry.Thissupportwill contribute to reaching better results inthe regular educational system. Also, workshopsfor Roma childrenpreschool ageand youngerwho are not enrolledinpreschool will be regularlyorganized.

The project also plans support self-employment of young Roma – in cooperation with partner and professional services dealing with problems of unemployment, the Association of Roma Branicevo district will implement a series of activities with the aim to reduce the unemployment rate of Roma. In part of the project envisages internships for young Roma in public and private companies, opening of a business incubator, conducting training for business start up and the allocation of equipment for Roma who wish to become entrepreneurs.

In addition to these project activities, the project will organize and a variety of events that will allow not only the Roma population to participate but also the wider population, such as the campaign to gather used clothes, marking of international days, and others about which the citizens will be informed through local media during the 18 months of the project.

One of the main activities will be the revision of the existng Local Action Plan for Improving the Position of Roma on the territory of the City which was adopted in 2015 by the City Assembly of Pozarevac and its harmonization with the adopted National Strategy for Social Inclusiton of Roma in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2016 – 2025.  The new action plan will enable further financing of activities after the project finalization and solving other buring issues of the Roma population in Pozarevac.

The media conference took place on the Roma International Day, which is no coincidence, concerning that the project aims at resolving main problems of Roma – poverty, education, (un)employment. Guests who spoke on the topic of solving problems of Roma from different points of perception are representatives of various institutions and organizations: Delegation of European Union to the Republic of Serbia; Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs; National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia; the United Nations; Office for Human and Minority Rights of the Republic of Serbia; City of Pozarevac; Roma Forum of Serbia; Committee of layers for human rights; “Romanipen”, Kragujevac; Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Office for Southeast Europe; HELP Mission in Serbia; and Branicevo District Roma Association.

We would like to invite citizens interested in participating in project activities to contact the Association of Roma of the Branicevo District located in Moše Pijade bb in Pozarevac (old army barracks), or by phone 012/213-783 or e-mail: urbo.po@mts.rs

The project duration is 18 months and the overall project value is 118 116. 86 EUR.