Transcript renia drosou speech - brussels 28-30 jan 2013

I AM ROMA
MUNICIPALITY OF HERAKLION
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DEPARTMENT
OF EUROPEAN
PROGRAMMES
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RENIA DROSOU
Sociologist Msc
DIRECTOR OF EUROPEAN PROGRAMMES
OF THE
MUNICIPALITY OF HERAKLION
Local Context
The Heraklion Municipality is located on the island of Crete,
at the southern part of Greece. Its population is about
170.000 people. It is the largest urban centre on the island
and one of the largest cities in Greece.
At the wider urban area live at least 1.500 Roma people,
who are both Greek and immigrant. They live in houses all
over the area, but there is also a camp at the district of Nea
Alikarnassos, where a Greek Roma population of
approximately 550 people live for over 25 years.
The Roma population in Heraklion Municipality consists of
mainly
three
groups:
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•the
Roma Greek citizens permanent residents of the
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Municipality (at the camp and in houses in the city complex),
•the Roma Greek citizens who move to the Heraklion
Municipality from other parts of the country to live and work
at the wider area for a certain period of time each year and
•the Roma immigrants mainly from Albania, and less from
Bulgaria and Romania.
Local Campaign
Our Strategy is based on the development of a campaign
of communication and partnership that fights negative
stereotypes, increases sensitivity and awareness of
children for Roma children. It is important to inform about
the diversity of Roma people, the different culture, the
different way of life, but the need of harmonious
coexistence. Taking under consideration the results of the
transnational Workshop of the project in Sintra, the Local
Action Group after several meetings prepared a proposed
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framework
for the development
of a Local Campaign
in
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Heraklion which intends to sensitize the local community
in antidiscrimination issues and try to reduce the
stereotypes against Roma in general and specifically
Roma children.
Local Campaign
Roma children are victims of the local stereotypes. There
is a negative treatment of Roma children, as a result of the
general stereotype against Roma people. Consequently, this
situation leads to:
• discrimination in school,
• acceptance difficulties in social groups (e.g. school
activities, participation sport teams etc.).
The Local Campaign focuses on the awareness of children who
attend
education schools
about
Roma children.te
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General Goals
•The reduction of discrimination against Roma children.
•The development of methodologies and collective activities,
that aim at the increase of sensitivity and awareness and the
harmonious coexistence of children.
•In the long term, the broader acceptance of Roma children can
lead to the decrease of discrimination against Roma in general.
Capacity Building
In order to increase our knowledge of relevant
communications and strategies for Roma which are
being implemented nationally and locally and which
can help in the development of our Local Action Plan
there were several meetings and collaborations with
many stakeholders for support in developing ideas,
actions and materials (executives of education,
sociologists, social workers, professors, psychologists,
representatives of non profit organizations (N.G.O.)
and representatives of the Roma camp.
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LOCAL MEETINGS
LOCAL MEETINGS
Local Campaign
Local meetings LAG:
Constitution:
•social workers
•stakeholders
•representatives
of Roma
•professors
•sociologists
•Journalist
•psychologist
Creation of an
action plan, that
helps in the
achievement of
objectives
(brainstorming)
Action :
Creation of
DVD &
Presentation
in primary
schools
(children’s
story)
Action :
Organization
of a Festival
«The
Celebration
of Spring»
Action :
Organization
of a Social
Research
Event
Action :
Disseminatio
n of the TVSpot
Main messages:
Our children
change the
world…
We live
together
We live
harmoniously
Action :
Printed
material:
•Posters
•Leaflets
•T-shirts
Other messages:
….My borders
are the stars….
Roma people
have a different
way of life, but
we all have
something in
common “We are
people”
Audience Target
group:
Children in
primary
schools
Our main
goal/objective:
The reduction of
discrimination
against Roma
children
Our second
goal/ objective:
In the long
term, the
broader
acceptance of
Roma children
which can lead
to the decrease
of discrimination
against Roma in
general.
Local Campaign
Our Strategy was based on the development of a
campaign of communication and partnership that fights
negative stereotypes, increases sensitivity and awareness of
children for Roma children. It was as significant to note the
different culture, the different way of life of Roma people, as
was significant to note the need in our society for harmonious
coexistence. Our message is:
“ Our Children Change the World…”
We Live Together
We Live Harmoniously
Our Campaign
Actions that we have implemented of our Local Action Plan
entail:
1. a) Creation of a DVD - children’s story, which has already
been distributed to the principles of primary schools. The
presentation of dvd has started to students and teachers.
Furthermore, the dvd has been disseminated to web
newspapers and You Tube from last May.
This action helped to sensitize children and gave them
the opportunity to become aware. We hope the effects of the
results are long term effects, that they last beyond childhood
during adult life, and that they have an impact in families
through their children.
b) Creation of a TV-Spot indicating our social message:
“ Our Children Change the World…”
We Live Together
We Live Harmoniously
Our Campaign
2. Printed Material: T-shirts, posters and leaflets with our
social message.
This action was completed on the 7th of May 2012.
3. Organization of the Festival “The Celebration of Spring”,
with various activities for children like:
Painting
Crafts
Theatrical game
Table games
Presentation of the dvd
 Dance
The Festival took place on the 18th of May 2012.
Roma and non-Roma children from primary schools
participated in the festival. They danced, collaborated and
played together. We distributed T-shirts to them with our
social message which symbolizes togetherness, social
solidarity and happiness. We hope the relationships between
children in school and social life of Roma children will be
improved.
PRESENTATION OF A SHORT VIDEO OF THIS ACTION
Our Campaign
4. Dissemination of the TV- Spot to Websites:
 Website of Municipality of Heraklion
 Website in Facebook
 Twitter
took place from last October of 2012 until today.
In addition, there was collaboration with the office of the
Regional Director of Education a conference was
organized with the participation of principals of primary
schools of Heraklion. The dvd-children’s story and the
main messages of the program were presented, copies
were distributed and a discussion followed regarding the
organization of other activities in primary schools during
the school year. Principals and teachers saw the dvd as
a tool which can be used for in-class discussion and
dissemination of anti-discrimination social messages for
the following school years ahead.
THE PRESENTATION OF THE DVD TO PRINCIPALS
OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS
IN THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN HERAKLION
THE PRESENTATION OF THE DVD TO PRINCIPALS
OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS
THE PRESENTATION OF THE DVD TO PRINCIPALS
OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS
THE PRESENTATION OF THE DVD TO PRINCIPALS
OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Our Campaign
5. Organization of a Social Research Event, which
informed, activated and sensitized people. The event
took place in August of 2012, in the centre of
Heraklion city.
It included the distribution of leaflets and the
implementation of a social research by the use of
questionnaires regarding social behaviour and
knowledge on discrimination stereotypes.
SOCIAL RESEARCH EVENT
SOCIAL
RESEARCH
EVENT
Results of social
research
The general conclusions of the survey are summarized as
follows:
> Non-Roma citizens in Heraklion have limited knowledge
of the Roma culture.
Main sources of information about Roma are the media and
the social environment, while it is impressive that the family
environment is a source of information only for a few non
Roma people.
> Personal contacts between Roma and non-Roma are
rare and transient.
The disposal of non-Roma people for relations with Roma are
rather negative and cautious in the case of friendship and in
professional relations and wholly negative in the case of a
closer relationship like marriage.
> The majority of citizens think that the local community
has negative stereotypes towards Roma.
A positive element is the opinion of the non-Roma to the
negative attitude of society towards Roma.
Results of social
research
The results of the survey show that for non-Roma citizens, the
main factors enhancing the prejudice towards Roma is the
State, which has much responsibility for the current situation,
but also the Roma themselves, who don not try enough to be
part of the local society.
The survey indicates that most of the people believe that Roma
children are victims of a larger prejudice, that they face
discrimination and exclusion and that their parents do not give
them the chance to integrate properly into society.
According to the survey citizens are confident that there is
discrimination for Roma children in schools, but nevertheless,
they appear cautious allowing their own children to socialize
with Roma children.
Results of social
research
The results of the survey, show that there are differences,
depending on sex, age and educational level of the participants.
It is generally demonstrated that:
•More women than men are negative in having a relationship
with Roma. Moreover more women than men believe deeply in
the responsibility of the State for social inclusion as well as the
Roma themselves.
•Older people are more negative towards the Roma than
younger people, who seem cautious, but they are not
completely negative to having a relationship with a Roma
person.
•People with medium and high / higher education level
compared to people with unspecified educational level, look
more positive towards the Roma people.
Results of social
research
Accordance to the above results it seems that, if the
stakeholders want to improve and change the lives of
Roma and help them to integrate harmoniously into the
wider society of Heraklion, they should consider the
following points:
> There are negative perceptions of non-Roma for Roma over
years, which are required to be faced systematically and with
long term action plans.
> There is no sufficient information and knowledge about Roma
and their culture. Media, Family and Education can help the
non-Roma society to understand and respect the culture of
Roma.
> Non-Roma people expect from the State and from Roma
people to deal with the situation and both try to change
attitudes.
Results of social
research
•There is sense of fear and insecurity towards the Roma,
which can be faced by promoting examples of harmonious
relations between Roma and non-Roma, as well as giving
positive aspects of coexistence with the Roma (e.g. enhancing
culture, harmonious economic cooperation, etc.).
•The survey results showed that the behaviour of non-Roma
is much less biased against Roma children. The enhancement
of young Roma education, the participation of Roma children
in various activities with non Roma children and the
development of a communication strategy (social plan), could
have faster results in improvement of the relations and
harmonious coexistence of the two groups.
•There are groups of non-Roma people who are more willing
to listen and learn, like young people, and we should focus
more on these groups to affect in the future.
Issues and challenges
being faced
The challenge is to go beyond this project, to
continue conveying the social message and the
importance for children to be sensitized from
primary school level. The effort must not stop here.
Thank You for Your
Attention
MUNICIPALITY OF HERAKLION
DEPARTMENT OF EUROPEAN
PROGRAMMES
DIRECTOR:
RENIA DROSOU
Sociologist Msc
[email protected]
[email protected]