“Equality through difference: Roma women’s access on labor market” is a project built on a partnership between four non-governmental organizations. Three of them are from Romania and one – Autonomia Foundation – is from Hungary. Other partners are a public institution (the Mayor’s Office from Timisoara) and a governmental agency (National Agency for Roma) with offices in the targeted regions where our activities unfold. The project management is carried out by the principal applicant from Timisoara “Roma Women’s Association For Our Children”. Its partnership with the other organizations is based on an agreement signed before the submission of the project. Three of the organizations are Roma organizations: the principal applicant, the Parudimos Association from Timisoara and the National Agency for Roma. The others have managed several research projects or interventions regarding Roma communities in the last years. The major decisions are taken by the board made up by the representatives of these organizations. A well organized division of labor establishes the form of collaboration between organizations and their employees in case of different activities. Each activity is coordinated by one or two partner organization. These take responsibility for mobilizing and organizing expert groups’ activities. These groups are constituted by members and employees of the organizations. They are also responsible for the implementation of specific activities and for meeting the planned results. The physical placement and the specific activities of the partners make possible the connection of local elements with regional, multi-regional, national and transnational ones. The Desire Foundation carries out a social survey in four regions of Romania (particularly in four Romanian towns: Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara, and Cluj), but also focus groups in the two latter localities, and coordinates the editing and publishing of project materials (among the project’s own publications, written and visual, disseminated nationally). The two organizations from Timisoara Roma Women’s Association “For Our Children”, and Parudimos Association implement the local and regional level activities that secure the social inclusion of Roma (information, mediation, psychological counseling, accompanying, placements, TIC courses, job fares). These activities are jointly coordinated with the western office of the National Agency for Roma. The agency has further important roles in mobilizing its national network. On the one hand it identifies and co-opts Roma students in the research team of the sociological surveys and focus groups in several locations. On the other hand the agency aids the information campaign by disseminating project materials on national scale and organizes the training/formative sessions in four Romanian cities. At the same time it coordinates at the level of Western region the data collection, registration and dissemination on jobs and training courses. Our transnational partner contributes to the exchange of best practices on increasing Roma people’s access on the labor market giving the opportunity to its Romanian partners to get knowledgeable in the results of this domain. The collaboration between Roma Women’s Association “For Our Children” and Desire Foundation in editing “NEVI SARA KALI. Roma Women’s Journal. Revista Femeilor Rome. Romane Ӡuvleanqe Ӡurnalo” aims at raising the transnational impact of the project. The Mayor’s Office of Timisoara provides the project with its own means for the dissemination of the project results.

Partner organizations

Roma Women’s Association „For Our Children”
Desire Foundation
Parudimos Association
National Agency for Roma
Mayor’s Office Timisoara
Autonómia Foundation