Advocacy campaigns of six Roma women's clubs in six localities, defending the rights and interests of Roma women in Bulgaria
13 November 2023
Six advocacy campaigns are under implementation in the towns of Dupnitsa, Radomir, Botevgrad, Kyustendil, Rakitovo and in the village of Kovachevo. What they have in common is that they represent the pro-active civic behaviour of local residents from Roma neighbourhoods in six localities who show care and responsibility towards improving the lives of their local communities. In the framework of this activity, the innovative method of empowerment through direct advocacy is applied, which is the main objective of the I Have a Dream project.
The advocacy campaign of the women's club "Faith, Hope and Love", Botevgrad is aimed at Roma women. More and more often we meet young girls of Roma origin who at a tender age drop out of the education system and get married. In their efforts to care for others, to be good mothers and wives, they do not notice how the burden of family life leads to self-neglect, low self-esteem, insecurity, lack of dreams and "living by habit".
Therefore, the campaign is aimed at the empowerment of Roma women and aims to promote good examples of Roma women, among Roma neighborhoods and club women. Believing that this pressing issue that affects the Roma community can, with a joint effort and teamwork of the women's club, reach more and more women and girls for the desired change.
Botevgrad Campaign
The aim of the campaign in Rakitovo is to present a positive image of Roma women by promoting traditional Roma crafts, lifestyle and culture as a counterbalance to the prevailing negative attitudes and accumulated stereotypes towards Roma women by society, the hate speech in the media and public space and the low self-esteem of Roma women and lack of confidence in their own capabilities. After the club meeting with the club participants and introducing the aims and objectives of the campaign, drawings on Roma themes were made, collected into photos for the travelling exhibition, and various beautiful handicrafts were made by the women in preparation for the exhibition. Last but not least, Roma culinary dishes typical of Roma cuisine have been prepared and presented.
The culmination of the campaign was the Evening of the Roma Woman, which presented handicrafts, Roma culinary dishes, a presentation on the role of the Roma woman, the importance of traditional Roma holidays, lifestyle and culture, and a discussion on the positive image of the Roma woman with the participation of local residents.
Rakitovo Campaign
In the town of Radomir the participants of the women's club "Dreams in high heels" chose as the theme of their advocacy campaign a very pressing problem in the Roma neighborhood, namely - the construction of artificial bumps on the main street, necessitated by driving on certain sections of the neighborhood in the town. In some parts of the neighbourhood there are also areas of the street in Radomir where people drive at an unreasonable speed. For support, the participants have approached and enlisted local citizens, neighbors, victims and dissenting traffic at the intersection of St. Radomirska 25 and ul. Haidut Milenko, and have sought assistance from the Municipality of Radomir and the District Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the town. They have also sought the assistance of the Radomir Police Department. For the implementation of the campaign the participants informed the local community, made a detailed study of the problem, planned the campaign and prepared and submitted an application to Radomir Municipality and the District Police Department of Radomir. They have submitted a petition to the Radomir Police Department. The municipal budget is to be discussed, in which such an expense is to be included, the terrain is to be photographed by an engineering team of Radomir Municipality and the necessary artificial bumps are to be built.
Radomir Campaign
In Kovachevo village the local coordinator has set out to clean the local park, as well as to organize a self-help club for the education of the participants, most of whom are high school students - namely to help in the preparation of study material for members of the women's club who have difficulties in the learning process.
Kovachevo Campaign
The participants from the club in Dupnitsa just like their colleagues from the village of. Kovachevo, have set out to organize and carry out an action to clean the Kavaklia district in the town. The participants took part in the activity of the village of Kavaqiva. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate care for the environment, to set a good example and become a role model by keeping their neighborhood clean, and to educate responsibility and active citizenship in the younger generations. The idea of the women's club is to make the coming generation more responsible and strive to protect the environment. After the end of the action, rules for keeping the neighborhood clean were distributed - use of reusable bags /paper or cloth/, prohibition of littering on the street, separate collection of garbage and its disposal in designated places, cleaning of polluted streets in the neighborhood. Along with the success of the campaign, the participants did not overlook the problems they encountered - the small number of residents willing to join the campaign and the lack of interest and cooperation from local authorities.
Dupnitza Campaign
In the city of Kyustendil, the advocacy campaign took the form of an exhibition "The Roma woman is....", opened on 15 October 2023 at the Municipal Drama Theatre, Kyustendil. The exhibition was opened by Annie Kovacheva - President of the Women's Club at LARGO Association, Sasho Kovachev - President of LARGO Association and Dr. Venelin Stoychev - advocacy expert. The lobby of the theatre gathered organizers, supporters, volunteers, staff from LARGO Association, representatives of local institutions in the city and guests from the project team.
They are young, educated, beautiful, part of the Roma community, do not fit into the stereotypes usually attributed to them, and are determined to work in their chosen professions and fields of activity, and are an example for the rest of the community. The biggest challenge is to fight themselves, to believe they can. The exhibition, decided in the format of "photo voices" revealed the many faces of the successful Roma woman entrepreneur, social worker, mother, singer, small business owner, hairdresser, student, pharmacist, and showed the positive role models of successful women and girls from the Roma community in Kyustendil in their fields of realization, to show that the Roma woman is able to achieve a lot and her achievements can be in different lights in different paths of life.
Kyustendil Campaign
The advocacy campaigns are implemented within the framework of the project "I have a dream", implemented by the Association LARGO - Sofia. Kyustendil in cooperation with KUN Association - Norway, with financial support provided by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the EEA Financial Mechanism. The main objective of the project "I Have a Dream" is to approbate, implement and disseminate innovative methods for empowering Roma women and girls through direct advocacy.
For more information and contact: Sasho Kovachev, LARGO Association,
The project "I have a dream" is implemented with the financial support of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the Active Citizens Fund of Bulgaria within the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area. All responsibility for the content of the document is borne by the Association Liberal alternative for Roma civil union - LARGO in partnership with KUN Center for Equality and Diversity - Norway and under no circumstances can it be assumed that this document reflects the official opinion of the Financial Mechanism of the European economic space and the Operator of Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria. www.activecitizensfund.bg .
I Have a Dream project is being implemented with financial support from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the EEA Financial Mechanism. The main goal of the project "I have a dream" is to test, implement and disseminate innovative methods for empowering Roma women and girls through direct advocacy.
