A Voice For the Voiceless

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The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Profile: Gabi in the Czech Republic

Training for Empowerment: Czech eRider Gabriela Hrabanova

Gabi Hrabanova
Email her.
ICQ: 179780345
"I feel like I'm on a fast-moving train and can't get off," says Gabriela Hrabanova, the Roma Information Project's (RIP) Czech eRider. Juggling her roles as a Roma woman activist, a university student, and an eRider, "Gabi" strives to achieve much more than time allows.

By Aspen Brinton

Gabi Hrabanova joined RIP in November 2002, bringing a diverse background in both politics and computers. Ambitious, energetic and firmly committed, Gabi continues to study for a degree in politics and sociology and serves as the head of the Czech student Roma political association Athinganoi.

Though of mixed heritage - her Roma identity derives from her mother - she has risen above the challenge of navigating the complicated politics within Roma communities to become an accepted and well-known leader of the Czech Roma movement, both domestically and internationally. Her participation in RIP reflects her progressive involvement with Roma NGOs and activism, including, most notably, running for the Prague city council in 2002 as a Roma candidate.

Mobilization and organization within the Czech Roma community is largely a post-1989 phenomenon, and Gabi has watched leaders emerge and the movement become organized in a relatively short period of time. She knows the timing is crucial and she wants to be a part of everything. She works hard to be a Roma emissary from the Czech Republic.

Roma in the Czech Republic face many of the same obstacles the community encounters in other countries. Racially motivated violence by both skinheads and police is common. Roma are poorer than non-Roma Czech citizens, and more likely to be unemployed and dependent on social benefits. Discrimination is a regular feature of daily life in employment, housing, and health care. Exclusion from restaurants, sports facilities and other public places is also a routine experience for many.

The official 2001 census recorded 11,746 people of Romani nationality in the Czech Republic, but the 2001 Council for Nationalities Report (an independent organization) estimates the number of Roma between 150,000 and 300,000, an estimated 2.9% of the population. These sorts of statistical discrepancies are common, as many Roma fear discrimination will result if they identify themselves as Roma in the official census. This fear follows a long history of official persecution by both the Nazis and the communist regime.

Though legislation in the Czech Republic has recently been passed to provide protection for Roma and other minorities, implementation has proceeded slowly. Many Roma children, for example, remain in schools for the mentally handicapped, with desegregation initiatives only just beginning. While the Ministry of Education has started to institute policies to rectify some abuses and abolish the special schools, the pace of reform frustrates many Roma activists.

Technology training for Roma NGOs forms one path down the road towards faster implementation of national reforms. As an activist, Gabi views such training as a tool that can contribute to the larger goal of improving the lives of Roma and empowering members of the community to fight for their rights. Gabi herself has felt empowered by learning more about technology, as a participant in RIP trainings that provide an opportunity for the eRiders to hone their own skills. These sessions proved vital as she embarked on a series of formal technology trainings with Roma NGOs in the Czech Republic. "I came back from our RIP training in the US full of ideas and energy," she remembers, "It helped me realize how to be an effective trainer, which helps people get the most from my classes."

Her own classes have also shown the need for continuing such efforts, highlighting the ways in which technology can benefit Roma NGOs, and how Roma NGOs in turn translate this assistance back into their communities. "Making Roma NGOs more effective gives Roma a better chance in all regards," says Gabi. "This is why I do this work and believe in it."

Gabi has found enough work for a dozen eRiders in the Czech Republic. Wherever she goes there seems to be a pressing need for her assistance. She provides a mix of training, website support, and general NGO management advice - a package of services all aimed at improving the activities and effectiveness of the organizations with which she works. During her time with RIP, Gabi has worked extensively with two Roma NGOs, "Manushe" and "Dženo," described below, and has started planning projects with three more organizations.

Dženo Association: Taking Roma International

When a Roma was called "dženo" in his community, it meant that he had certain moral qualities that were characteristic of him ("Baro dženo" means "great man" in the Romany language). Such a man had to be absolutely honest, fair and devoted. He would be full of wisdom and compassion, realize his place in the world and live fully in it, yet always make an effort to reach a higher level of understanding.

The Dženo Association, a Roma media organization working to increase the coordination and visibility of the Romany community in Eastern Europe, follows this goal, seeking to contribute to the education and development of such individuals, especially among young Roma citizens. Dženo was established by Ivan Veselý and Dr. Klára Samková-Veselá in Prague in 1994, with the basic goal of trying organize and mobilize citizens of Romany nationality inside and outside the Czech Republic. The association aims to support traditional Roma values and characteristics, which include open-mindedness, independence, a sense of honor, respect for elders, love for children and solidarity among Roma regardless of their social status.

The Dženo Association publishes Amaro Gendalos, a monthly Roma socio-cultural magazine, and broadcasts Radio Rota, an Internet station providing news, current events, and traditional and modern Roma music. Dženo also monitors all forms of media for Roma themes, and compiles reports on the treatment of Roma subject matter by the mainstream media in Central and Eastern European countries.

Part of Dženo's mission is to provide assistance to regional Roma organizations by organizing local events and the facilitating the transfer of experience and skills. It also serves as an international information center to help promote Roma human rights and end discrimination and racism, an endeavor that requires collecting, managing, and utilizing the contact information of hundreds of other activists, media outlets, and government agencies. Thus a large part of Gabi's efforts have been devoted to helping find a database program for Dženo, and teaching the staff how to use and regularly update it.

Big Plans for Technology:
Gabi and Ivan Vesely from Dzeno.

Gabi has been working with Dženo for nearly six months, and has watched them grow as an organization. In comparison with many younger NGOs, Dženo is much further along in its use of technology. As Dženo employs a full-time web master, Gabi's assistance has focused on strengthening the technological competence of the organization in other ways. She is using her experience to help them with an advertising strategy, as well as assisting the director in his plans to turn the Internet radio station into a country-wide FM station.

Gabi has also started to help Dženo manage projects and integrate technology into more aspects of their administrative work. With the goal of increasing international awareness of Roma issues, efficient use of technology makes trying to reach out to the whole world seemingly more possible. Gabi brings both her international contacts and technical experience to this task, and Dženo will continue to draw upon her expertise and energy in the months to come.

"Zwack Zwack": 'Manushe' and Women's Empowerment

"Manushe," began as part of a larger NGO called Slovo 21, is an experimental project that seeks to empower Roma women through teaching them communication and job skills. The growing organization currently boasts 153 members throughout the Czech Republic, with an office in both Brno and Prague. Gabi's first meeting with the organization included an assessment of their needs. She concluded that technology could be an essential component of fulfilling their mission, and has subsequently worked with Manushe to organize a series of trainings in basic computer skills for their members.

Father, mother and daughter are all taught computer skills
by Gabi at a Manushe sponsored training.

Though initially concerned about her abilities as a teacher, RIP's training-for-trainers sessions have given Gabi the skills and confidence to be a professional and competent trainer. "At my first training I made some mistakes," she recalls, "I went too fast with people who had never seen computers before." Following a training workshop at the San Francisco-based non-profit management consulting organization Compasspoint, she returned armed with new tools and a renewed faith in her abilities.

Her second training for Manushe took place in the computer lab of an elementary school in Chumutov, a town about 80 kilometers from Prague. Local representatives of Manushe's network recruited the participants, and left it to Gabi to design a program to get a dozen Roma women up to speed with basic Windows, e-mail, Word, and Excel.

Once Gabi's students were seated and introduced to each other on the first afternoon, she began the general introduction to the "machines of information" and how they work. For the first twenty minutes she discusses monitors, keyboards, diskettes, CDs, mice, and hard drives. She makes a point of turning around the computer tower, unplugging the monitor and mouse, and demystifying the tangle of cords-as if to show that the machine is easily tamed and understood.

The students' first homework assignment emerges from her notebook a minute later-a sheet of paper with a Xeroxed keyboard: for the following day they need to learn the placement of the letters. She goes fast, makes jokes, and keeps the room lively. Several people have come with a background with computers, and she doesn't want to bore them. Two younger Roma women with training from high school offer to be paired with some of the women who have no experience at all. Gabi tells them it's a great idea.

After this initial hardware introduction, she asks the group to turn around to face their computers. Once the machines are booted up, the first skill to learn is "mousing." Gabi had already learned from her first training that many of the participants did not understand that moving the mouse on the horizontal plane would move the arrow on the vertical plane of the computer screen.

This time, however, Gabi is prepared, and starts with a thorough explanation of how it all works. She makes them point to the screen with their fingers first, and only then pick up the mouse to do the "pointing." Once they are all comfortable with moving the cursors, it's time for them to learn how to double click. "Zwack, Zwack!" she says quickly, trying to get them to do it in unison with each other. "Zwack, Zwack." The room reverberates with double clicks.

A few of the women smile as they succeed in opening a new program or window for the first time. They vary in ages, from about 18 to 45, and one man sits amongst them. After a last minute phone call from the Manushe organizer, Gabi approved his presence. While the project is geared towards women, exceptions would have to be made. When he introduced himself, he told the group that he wanted his wife and daughters (on either side of him there) to learn how to use the computer they have at home. "I bet he wanted to make sure they didn't come here and learn more than he knows," Gabi half-jokes later.

The double click, clearly, is only one tiny step in women's empowerment. Gabi maintains no illusions that technology alone can lead to the full "liberation" of Roma women. To her that is not the point. But she does see it as an important part in helping change attitudes and practices within Roma communities - as well as the perceptions others have of Roma. "Manushe isn't feminist," Gabi explains, "eventually they want to be more political, but right now it gets women out of their homes and learning skills. It needs more development before it really goes into politics, although eventually that is indeed part of the larger purpose."

Manushe's trainings have already helped many Roma women find typing and administrative jobs. Both the jobs and the trainings have inspired a new confidence in the Roma women that will help change their lives and their communities. It also means that eventually they can gain the skills and motivation to become more politically active in order to continue opening opportunities for themselves.

In one of its greatest success stories, Manushe enabled three women from Brno to translate typing and computer skills into a project of immense historical and political importance: collecting the testimonies of Roma Holocaust survivors in the Czech Republic. As time passes survivors are dying, and with them one important aspect of how the Nazi regime targeted more than just Jews for extermination. Unlike in the Jewish case, however, few historians have taken an interest in collecting Roma testimonies, and only recently have Holocaust reparation funds been made available to Roma survivors and their families.

Even with funds available, it was difficult for Roma communities to trace who was who and what happened during that time. After joining Manushe, however, three women from Brno became determined to take their passing interest in this issue and translate it into real action. Though few Roma communities have been able to document Roma Holocaust stories, the women have begun to piece together a forgotten piece of history by typing up testimonies and creating a database of contacts. The stories serve as valuable historical evidence in the own right, but they also make it possible for Roma communities to receive reparation payments from the German government. Without their computer skills and the help of Manushe, none of this would have been possible, and the initiative would likely not have come from within the Roma community.

Since its beginning two years ago, Manushe has seen many other such examples of how teaching computer skills enables women to make such valuable contributions to their communities. Gabi will complete three more trainings throughout the country for Manushe members, and will soon help them to design a website. Manushe women will also participate in a RIP initiative to survey Roma women about sexual taboos and campaign for greater freedoms for Roma women. Enisa Eminova, RIP eRider from Macedonia, began this initiative and will help Gabi bring the survey to the Czech Republic's Roma communities.

The women of Manushe are eager to put their
new skills to work.

As for the training in Chumutov, by the end of the week Gabi will put to the women (and one man) through the final exam: completing a series of exercises in a Word document and an Excel spreadsheet, attaching it to an e-mail, and sending it to Gabi. When she goes home to Prague and receives the e-mail, she sends each participant a certificate of completion. "It's just the very basics," she says humbly, "but for someone who's never seen a computer before, it's a whole new tool for them to use, and they'll have access to information they would not have known existed the week before."

Networked Learning: Managing Ideas and strategies at NGOs

As Gabi completes her work with the database at Dženo and settles into a rhythm of trainings for Manushe, she will also be formulating a new project with another Roma NGO, Romská Kulturní Jednota, in Rokycany, a town east of Prague. The organization is dedicated to the promotion of Roma culture and heads a network of 14 Roma NGOs in the Czech Republic, called "Gremium." This network was formalized in 1997, and its director, Ondrej Gina, is a member of the Roma National Congress - an international self-governing body for Roma. Collectively the organizations have worked in more than 40 Roma communities, and the network has received publicity on Radio Free Europe, as well as on Czech radio and television. Their core mission is to help their members start new initiatives and to facilitate communication between organizations.

When Gabi visited Rokycany in May 2003 to conduct an assessment, she began discussions with Gina about the emerging problem of communicating with the new government offices of regional authorities - largely created in the Czech Republic under pressure from the European Union. These new ministries have been granted many powers formerly held by the central government, and Roma organizations are new to navigating regional politics. From a subsequent discussion on how Roma NGOs need to share best practices with each other in order to dialogue with the regional government, a larger idea emerged:

Not only did members of the NGO network need help with this particular "regional process," they also generally needed a way to pass on experience from older organizations to younger ones. Gabi proposed to the staff the creation of a "Handbook for Roma NGOs," which could be produced by the more organized and experienced NGOs in the Gremium network for the benefit of new ones.
Gina loved the idea, and initiated discussions with other Gremium leaders. They decided to form a five-person steering committee to start collecting information and drafting a manual. They plan move forward with the process in the coming months, and the heads of Gremium will soon begin meeting with Gabi regularly to discuss the content and communication plan. They plan to address issues of strategic planning, fundraising, project management, administration, and use of technology.

The steering committee is not yet sure how the whole process will unfold, but hopes the strategy they produce will enable the efficient sharing of best practices within the network. The task of creating an NGO handbook is decidedly non-technical, but clearly an extension of Gabi's expertise and knowledge. She will also help the network with technical needs, as a positive side effect, and in order to streamline the collection of information.

Gabi was surprisingly unfazed at the task of serving on a committee with four older Roma men who all run their own organizations. She knows she will able to contribute a wealth of knowledge to the effort, in a large part thanks to the resources within the RIP team. Collectively RIP has created a repository of information on the challenges faced by Roma NGOs, and Gabi will draw upon these lessons in composing the new handbook.

Anthinganoi, the Roma student organization Gabi heads, will also participate in the creation of the Roma NGO handbook. She has just done an assessment of their technical needs, and is in the process of developing a work plan to help them fundraise and promote their organization using video materials. Anthinganoi's mission includes advancing education for all Roma people, as well as combating prejudice about Roma by promoting Roma culture. Their work has a particular focus on engaging young Roma. Gabi is excited about helping them out, and sees it as a perfect way to bring together her life as a student, an eRider, and an activist.

To read more about the work of Dženo, visit www.dzeno.cz and www.radiorota.com. Also visit the Advocacy Project's internship website, where Kim Birdsall, a graduate student intern from the US, is tracking her experiences of working with Dženo during the summer of 2003: www.advocacynet.org/campaigns.html