So Keres, Europa? – The Importance of Youth Activism for Roma Rights

Date 24 November 2015 Author Juice Vamosi Category Youth

11-20th of July 2015, Cluj Napoca (Romania)

by Mario Koszegi & Julianne Lindner 

Saturday evening we started our travel to Cluj-Napoca, in Romania, to participate in an international event named So Keres, Europa? (What’s up, Europe?). In this article we will present our experiences of this event to share our story and to provide insights into different means of youth activism, because Roma youth activism is an important way to challenge Europe in changing stereotypes, empowering Roma youth and tackling discrimination (e.g. by breaking down the wall between Roma and Non-Roma).

This article will firstly present our expectations towards the event, secondly describe the experiences during the project and finally state the importance & relevance of the project. It will demonstrate that with high motivations and being together, we can form a basis for youth activism and thereby tackle Roma discrimination.

Expectations

This part will start off with the expectations to create an introduction to the project and to us, the writers. Expectations are also important to be mentioned as to receive an insight into why participants perceive the event to be important.

We, as EVS volunteers for Roma Active Albania, were enthusiastic to participate in the event in order to take a voice for Roma rights and to learn more about the Roma, their culture and their history. But also to meet the other Roma and non-Roma participants and enjoy the good atmosphere of being together. We have different cultural backgrounds and therefore had also slightly different expectations. Mostly concerning one being from Roma origin, and the other not (e.g. one being more interested in meeting other participants, the other more in learning about the culture). We travelled by bus for many hours to the north-west of Romania, crossing the Macedonian and Serbian borders. This journey enabled us to meet and get to know the other Albanian participants, who seemed to be equally excited about the project. They wanted to join the project to meet new people (working in the field of Roma issues), to share their own experiences, to cooperate with both Roma and non-Roma participants and to learn more about non-formal education. The expectations were high, everyone being enthusiastic to take part in challenging Europe and to participate in the event.

Experiences

To understand the importance of the project, the following paragraphs will describe our experiences of the event to give an insight into and an overview of the main activities.

The first days of the project were centred around getting to know each other through diverse activities, and getting familiar with the topic of youth activism. Being a group of 300 youngsters, this created for us difficulties to meet other participants and to share our experiences and expectations as at first many mainly spend time within their national groups. The reflection groups (created by the organisation to reflect the project and its activities in smaller groups) dissolved the national groups and created the chance to get to know new faces, breaking the cultural boundaries. The project included lots of musical performances, which created immediately a good start of the project. Music also broke language barriers by involving everyone. These first days strengthened the relations among the participants, forming the basis for youth activism through cooperation.

The following days were focussed on different kinds of workshops. The participants selected these earlier themselves by making a selection out of 12 available workshops. The workshop we participated in was called Go Free 48H, and it introduced us to the concept of citizen journalism, which is more subjective, community-centred, independent and critical compared to classical journalism. The theoretical part of the workshop showed and learned us an important way of expressing what is happening in local communities, and to trigger change at local level.

The workshop also provided us the opportunity to join other workshops, e.g. the workshop on the Roma Holocaust or the workshop on forced evictions. Our expectations to learn more about the Roma history in particular was therefore met. This participation in other workshops together with information from books, reliable internet sources, documentaries and interviews formed the basis of the articles we wrote for the Go Free Magazine (the published magazine can be found viahttp://issuu.com/gofreestudent/docs/go_free_sokereseuropa_special_editi/1?e=1575337/14253017).

On the Wednesday a social network marathon took place, in which the participants were asked to take as many pictures, videos and selfies as they could. Via this way the voice of the event So Keres, Europa! was shared also on a big scale with the wider world of the internet. For us as participants, the activity served as an important way to work together, to have fun with the other participants and to share our voices globally.

The most impressive part of the project was the March from Pata Rât to the city centre of Cluj. The March took place to support the rights of the Roma community that was evicted 5 years ago to an area 7 km outside the city centre near to a dump. Here they live under unbearable living conditions (e.g. no access to clean drinking water, no electricity, dirty, rats inside their houses). It was important for us to participate in the March, together with people from the community itself, to stand up for their rights and support them in their struggle. The March provided us a way to inform other people about the forced evictions, something which is unfortunately still taking place in current Europe. It was also an inspiration for us to see young children, disabled and elderly from the Roma community to be one of the most active in the March despite the extreme hot weather and the long distances. Their hope has learned us a lot. Upon arrival, the March was, however, very quickly over.

To end the project So Keres, Europa? a festival was organised in a local park. During the festival, participants showed the outcomes of their workshops. The festival was a great ending to 7 days of new knowledge, new friendships and lots of fun. Our expectations of knowing more about the Roma culture and history, to meet the other participants and to have a good atmosphere were totally met. Only minor comments were related to the food, accommodation and at times the language barrier. The latter one already decreased during the project.

Importance and Relevance

The event showed us, as participants, new ways to come together and new ways to express youth activism via e.g. citizen journalism, silent theatre, exhibitions.It also demonstrated the importance to stand up for Roma rights, Roma and Non-Roma together, to make a change. This combination makes the participants of the event prepared to tackle the discrimination on local level. We hope that the experiences participants gained will stimulate youth activism through the whole of Europe, and that it may be a basis for new projects. We at least went home being optimistic about the future of the Roma, because we know that being together we are more! We also hope that this article will stimulate you, our reader, to join our activism for Roma rights.