EDUCATION REQUIRES OUR POINT OF VIEW: Educational materials for the training of Roma women through peer learning Erasmus Project

Project Title

EDUCATION REQUIRES OUR POINT OF VIEW: Educational materials for the training of Roma women through peer learning

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; Romas and/or other minorities; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Roma women are a particularly vulnerable group in the field of equality, because we must face systematic discrimination in our families, and in the social, public, educational, and job spaces (this last one if we were lucky enough to having accessed the labor market, since more than 84% of unemployed women have never been able to do so). One of the best ways to break down the barriers we are subjected to is, without a doubt, having access to education. Adult roma women are mostly illiterate, since more than 7 in 10 roma women over 16 years old have not reached basic education. Not only having a basic degree, but the mere access to regulated education can mean a real change in our empowerment capabilities by allowing us to develop our opportunities and competences to know our history, our rights, and everything we are capable of.

However, both society in general (through stereotypes, segregation, and patriarchy attitudes) and our environment (by making us, in many cases, bear the burden of raising our children and the household tasks, added to very precarious or irregular jobs) have moved us away not only from accessing education, but from many of the competences and skills necessary to face the challenge of obtaining a degree with guarantees.

Therefore, the return of adult roma women to regulated education requires new specific methodologies adapted to their needs, able to combine the educational tasks with the rest of the burdens we suffer, and generate itineraries adapted to the reality of each one of these women so they become not a passive subject of their formation but their main character. These methodologies must be coupled with appealing and interesting educational materials, both due to their format and their contents, reflecting the perspective of roma women as historical subjects.

With this objective, the project “EDUCATION REQUIRES OUR POINT OF VIEW” will create a strategic association of entities of roma women that work for inclusion, and more especially for the inclusion of roma women themselves, to carry out during 24 months a large number of national material development, visibility, and dissemination activities, as well as 4 Transnational Meetings (in Spain, Germany, Romania, and Portugal), multiple virtual meetings, and two Multiplier Events that lead to the creation of two impactful and high quality Intellectual Outputs:

– O1- ONE FOR THE OTHER: COOPERATIVE LEARNING METHOD FOR ROMA WOMEN THROUGH SHARED ITINERARIES, based on the creation of asymmetrical couples of roma women, in which the participants themselves will assume sometimes the role of teacher and others the role of student according to their competences, and with a teacher to this guided and digital learning.

– O2 – DIGITAL ARGIRÚ: OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES TO CREATE A COOPERATIVE LEARNING ITINERARY that complement the contents of the course created in the previous project, and that can be used by any adult education teacher (both in educational centers, associations, NGOs…). These are high quality audiovisual educational materials taught by roma women themselves, to facilitate the access and understanding by the beneficiaries, since they are created by them, and that allow them to develop their competences in mathematics, digital skills, and literacy, to facilitate their access to the courses of “Cycle 1: Literacy and basic adult education initiation programs” or their European equivalents established in the curricula of adult education of the participating countries.

These Intellectual Outputs will be coupled with a large number of tangible and structural results to generate a European network sustainable over time, to continue promoting the inclusion of roma women, especially through schooling through educational materials and resources created by roma women themselves in the following years. All of them will be based on an innovative and impactful learning method that significantly increases the chances of achieving greater inclusion for roma women, facilitating their access to education through a peer-to-peer learning method that values roma women in the curricula as they deserve, thus strengthening the self-esteem and empowerment of a highly segregated group.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 128800 Eur

Project Coordinator

Asociación Gitanas Feministas por la Diversidad & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Asociación Intercutural ARATE CALO
• RIBALTAMBIÇÃO- Associação para a Igualdade de Género nas Comunidades Ciganas
• Centrul Rromilor “Amare Rromentza””
• RomaniPhen eV