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> RIP Update: Febru...
Circuit Rider Round Up Conference
March 6th - 13th: Three RIP eRiders will be attending the Circuit Rider Round Up in Oakland, California. The Round Up is a yearly event that brings together those working in the nonprofit technology field. This year there are over 200 participants registered from over 20 countries. This will be the first trip to the US for Gabi from Czech Republic, Maria from Bulgaria and Miro from Slovakia.
Maria will speak on a panel facilitated by The Advocacy Project (AP) on international eRiding with Tom Battin from Compasspoint, Stephanie Hankey from the Open Society Institute (OSI), Maiya Tsyganenko from OSI - Kazakhstan and Bill Lester from NinthBridge. Maria will focus on what it takes to start a technology assistance program from scratch in Bulgaria with a network of Roma organizations working on desegregation. During the panel we will show a film made by AP on the eRider training held in Kosovo in November 2002. The film highlights the RIP project and other projects being implemented by international eRiders.
For three days after the conference the eRiders will take part in additional training that focuses on strategic planning, training of trainers and technology troubleshooting. 6 other eRiders from other OSI funded projects will also attend. It is valuable time to build on the ties forged at the Kosovo training and continue to foster the development of the international eRiding network.
Taking eRiding Global - Webpages
A new Tech Soup website content section called 'Making the Connection - Taking eRiding Global' has been developed to highlight the work being done by non profit technology assistance providers outside the United States. The section will launch at the same time as the Round Up in Oakland on March 7th.
The new section contains a series of articles written by members of the International eRiding community including four written by eRiders with the Roma Information Project. Maria Metodieva focused on women and technology in her community. Gyula Vamosi looked at the use of IT for empowerment by minority communities. Miro Olah asked what could he contribute to his community as a tech expert and Gabi Hrabanova wrote about youth and technology within the NGO movement.
Other articles include: Managing eRiders on a Shoestring in Kazakhstan, Funding the eRider Movement, Open Source and eRiding and The First International eRiders - the story of Poland.
For those not familiar with the web portal, Tech Soup is a website devoted to content for non profits on the use of and implementation of technology in their work. This new content section was developed in partnership between The Advocacy Project and Compasspoint.
In the next few weeks these articles will be repurposed and posted to the AP website and will form part of a new section devoted to RIP.
Camp Training
In May 2003 in partnership with the Center for Advanced Media (CAMP) in Prague, Czech Republic the six RIP eRiders will go through a five day technical training. The training will focus on tech skills including database design and planning, image manipulation, audio and video files, content management systems, community building tools and open source and free tools.
Gabi is arranging all the logistics for the CAMP training described above and will put together several sessions with local Roma NGOs and the Roma university students association so the RIP eRiders can see the work of Roma NGOs in Czech Republic.
The week after the training the eRiders will attend the Khamoro Roma Cultural Festival in Prague. This is one of the largest Roma festivals in the region and will be a good opportunity for them to meet and network with interesting organizations and other young Roma. Artists and Experts from the following countries take part in the festival: Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Yugoslavia, Canada, Italy, Germany, Poland, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Argentina, The Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, Greece and Ukraine.
Mentions of RIP
As some organizations are already aware USAID has issued a Request for Assistance (RFA) for work with Roma communities in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. RIP was mentioned prominently in the RFA as an example of an innovative project that should be built on and model replicated. Great to get the recognition.
Gyula was interviewed on the national Hungarian television station along with Laszlo Teleki, Hungary's First Under Secretary for Roma Affairs. They discussed the Finish initiative to create a pan Roma consultative body. Gyula discussed the work of Roma NGOs and the support offered to them by RIP.
Other AP Roma Work
AP Advises on Creation of a European Roma Women's Network
The Advocacy Project has been assisting European Roma women's activists in the formation of an International network that can lobby for an improvement in the social conditions of Roma women in East Europe.
Iain Guest (AP Coordinator) gave a presentation on networking at a two-day meeting for Roma women in November, organised by the High Commissioner for National Minorities of the OSCE, the European Monitoring Center on Racism, and the Council of Europe. The meeting brought together women from 19 European countries, including five accession countries that have applied for membership of the European Union. The goal was to review the first draft of an OSCE paper on the health of Roma women, which is due to be discussed at a Ministerial meeting in March.
The OSCE report is expected to show that Roma women across Europe face many common obstacles to health. At the same time the November meeting dispelled many negative stereotypes about Roma, particularly Roma women. Several participants have launched highly effective campaigns, and even taken legal action against their governments.
Reports From the Field
eRiding in Macedonia
RWN Website
Enisa is helping to lead a team of Roma women activists to redesign the RWN website. The site was first launched in March 2002 and has already undergone one substantial redesign. The current changes are aimed at making the activist database more accessible and providing regular news and information on the work of Roma women. Under development is a new, more comprehensive database of Roma women's groups and activists.
As part of her work Enisa is working with Azbija Memedova with the Roma Center of Skopje and Roza Ilic of the Roma Information Center on the development of the database, survey tool, database structure and collection of activist profiles.
ARANJ Training
In late January Enisa helped to facilitate the training of a new young Roma women's organization in Pecs, Hungary. The ARANJ training was aimed at spreading the young Roma women's empowerment project first started in Macedonia. The project involves a community survey that looks at people's attitudes towards the virginity cult and sexual taboos. Training focused on practical skills of how to implement the survey, how to ask questions and collect data.
For most of the participants this was their first training. In a traditional community such as this it was a big deal for them to leave their homes, husbands and kids for two days. Some felt guilty and other reveled in the freedom but all felt they got a lot out of the training.
'One of the women was so much motivated by the questionnaire that she took around Enisa's booklet in three villages, reading out the questions to them and the purpose of the initiative. She told Marika (Coordinator of ARANJ) that Roma were very positive and thought it was fun. Some older Roma said she was a 'gadji' to do this thing. Marika says they are all very motivated now.'
Groups in Serbia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Romania are at various stages of implementing the same research with support from their eRiders. A website was developed by Enisa and her colleagues in Macedonia to present their research and spread the concept. As new groups undertake the same research the results will be posted on the site.
The Power of SMS
Enisa presented on RIP and the sexual taboo survey project at a meeting in Skopje of the Women's Program Coordinators (WPCs) of the National Foundations of OSI. She introduced them to the services an eRider can provide and to the other eRiders on the team. The WPCs are now in touch directly with the eRiders in their own countries.
Enisa's networking and eRider skills were put to the test at the meeting. While at the meeting the WPCs were struggling to find the phone number of a prominent Roma women's activist in Hungary named Blanka Kozma. Finally after much searching they thought to ask Enisa. In no time she had sent an SMS (simple text message from a mobile phone) to Gyula who found the number (Blanka had been a co trainer at the ARANJ training) and sent an SMS back to Enisa with the number. A little technology can go a long way.
eRiding in Czech Republic
Manushe Computer Training
From the 24th - 28th Gabi will be training a group of Roma women who work with Manushe a Roma NGO based in Brno, Czech Republic. She will train them in basic computer skills such as web browsing, e-mail and word processing. The training will take place in an Internet connected computer lab at a technical high school in Ostrava.
These women form the foundation of a new nation wide network of Roma women who have attended empowerment and self esteem building workshops put on by Manushe. Over 80 women have participated so far and over 50 have attended a second round of training. The women are now starting to self organize between trainings and are holding regular meetings in local restaurants to discuss and work on issues in their communities.
The story of one participant in the empowerment trainings is particularly compelling. A divorced mother of two teenage sons in her late 30's living on social welfare in Brno heard about the Manushe call for participants in their first training. She had a lot of free time on her hands now that her sons were grown and wanted to do something for herself. At the training she was surrounded by other women just like her trying to improve their lot in life. She was motivated to ask Manushe how she could get involved in their work. They had just the project.
Manushe had recently agreed to take on the collection of testimonies from Roma Holocaust survivors that would be submitted to the Department of Defense who would work for reparations from funds set up in Germany. But Marta, Manushe's director was swamped with other work and had only been able to collect 4 stories. She set this new recruit to collecting the stories along with another volunteer. In no time that had collected 120 stories, taught themselves to type, were written up in a major magazine and one secured a job as an advisor in Brno's local government offices. Marta is having a hard time keeping up with all their new ideas. They were eager to polish their self taught computer skills at the training Gabi will offer at the end of February.
Her story shows the value of trainings that focus on more then just making women better mothers, wives, cooks or seamstresses. The Manushe trainings focus on self esteem, communication skills and empowerment in a way that is appropriate for their communities.
Support for Roma Internet Radio
As part of our ongoing work with the Dzeno media organization in Prague Gabi is providing consulting services as Dzeno develops its contact database. She is also working with them on a publicity plan for the Internet radio station managed by Dzeno called Radio Rota.
It is planned that an intern from the newly established AP internship program will work with Dzeno this summer to raise the profile of the radio station and assist in the development of the database.
eRiding in Romania
RWN Website
Nora is providing a valuable link to RWAR to aid in the redesign of the Roma Women website. Last year the RWAR took on the design of the website but has struggled to collect information from activists and publicize the website. Nora has been tutoring the RWAR Director, Violeta, in good website design and navigability. Together they are surfing of websites for other networks and NGO coalitions to see how they present the work of partner groups. Using her grant from the Network Women's Program Violeta is now using a cable modem so connectivity and communications are vastly improved.
In the next few weeks Nora will be meeting with other Roma organizations from our target group in Timisoara and with a network of Roma organizations based in Cluj
eRiding in Hungary
DSL Installation
With a grant from the Information Program Gyula has continued his support for the network of Roma community centers throughout Hungary. He has begun installation of DSL at each center. This will enable them to control their telephone costs, get more computers and staff online and use higher bandwidth intensive applications such as instant messaging and online conferencing.
In June RIP began its support of the RCCs. The first step was to get them online and communicating. An e-mail discussion group or eGroup strengthened the network of the national association of RCCs and helped them recruit new members. They used it actively to discuss their statutes when establishing their group. They learned about the use of search engines thus they got samples of campaign strategies, campaign ideas and slogans through via the World Wide Web. Web tools contributed to money saving and the flow of information smooth and timely. After campaigning for three months with the ideas got from the web and brainstormed through the e-group, they won the national elections of the Roma Minority Self-Government.
The directors of the RCCs are usually traditional Roma men for whom using technology is a mystery. After getting their feet wet with the eGroup they began to use Instant Messenger. Thus they could always see when their partners was online and could share information with one another without calling each other or all of them coming from 10 different parts of the country and meeting in the capital city.
They also prepared the media campaign strategy online well in advance of a visit to a given community. They determined the most burning issues for that community before they went there and developed their platform and wrote their speeches tailored to the needs of the given community.
The RCC leaders fundraised together for a portable computer for the leader of the campaign to keep in regular contact while he was on the road. The leader of the campaign was on the road constantly and he began to make good use e-mail and the web. He talked to everyone in the network and updated them on current issues constantly. He used the e-mail and the Internet with success to achieve this task while traveling on the road.
Meeting with Roma MP
In February Gyula met with the Hungarian Undersecretary for Roma Affairs Laszlo Teleki and opened up discussions for his participation in online conferences with Roma NGOs on issues being discussed at the national level including education, health and employment.
Desegregation Support
Since October 2002, Gyula has focused on support for a group of individuals and organizations working on the desegregation issue in Pecs. They had begun their work with a lot of fundraising that was proving unsuccessful. After several brainstorming sessions facilitated by Gyula they decided to refocus on their coalition building and the groundwork for the partnership with the schools. These efforts bore fruit when they had their holiday party that was attended by parents, teachers, local government officials, students, school administrators and other community groups. A parental liaison office has now been established in the school their children attend.
After many fruitless attempts to gain support for their work they had all but given up on getting endorsement from any high level elected officials. With support from Gyula they decided to change tactics. They opened an e-mail account and sent e-mails to the Prime Minister and all the people around him. Several weeks later they received an e-mail back from the PM congratulating them on their work and heartily endorsing their initiative. This kind of endorsement has helped them in coalition building, lobbying with the local government and fundraising.
eRiding in Slovakia
Field Assessments and Workplans
Miro has completed four assessments of organizations in and around Kosice, Slovakia. He has started work by focusing on improving the website of the Roma Press Agency. Currently they are struggling with the system they have in place for updating articles and adding in new articles on their website.
Over the next few weeks he will be developing training and support programs for the organizations assessed including Schola, Lucia and Cereoc which focus on education reform, women and cultural issues and legal protection.
Campsite
After receiving training in the use of the content management system designed by CAMP called Campsite, Miro is helping the Roma Press Agency migrate to this much more user friendly, robust and simple system.
eRiding in Bulgaria
Support for Desegregation Organizations
The issue of desegregation of education is a hot button issue in Bulgaria thanks to the work of a group of eight NGOs all supported by the Roma Participation Program of OSI. They have all had some group trainings and support each other when they run into difficulties. Communications are uneven and they do not make good use of the support they could receive from the Equal Access Foundation which is based in Sofia and working on desegregation on a national level.
Maria took long and sometime hazardous three day trip across Bulgaria to assess the capacities and needs of these organizations. She focused on their ability to communicate with each other and the people they are supporting. Maria found that most of the staff are in need of basic computer training and the upgrading of some of their systems. This will be her focus in the coming months.
She will also work with Equal Access Foundation to develop a website and system for communicating with the network of organizations.
More Work with Young Roma Women
In February she made a presentation of RIP to a group of young Roma women that were brought together by the OSI National Foundation in Sofia. She will be working with this group of young women to implement the survey begun by Enisa and her colleagues in Macedonia.
Website Development with Eastisoft
AP has signed a contract with the Bulgarian-US software company Eastisoft. As part of the contract Maria will be working from the Eastisoft offices one day a week and will receive consulting and technical support from them.
As part of the partnership RIP is working with them on a joint project to develop a content management tool for Roma NGOs to use to develop websites. Currently they cannot develop and maintain sites because of the ongoing costs and a lack of technical skills. With this tool they will use a Word like interface to develop and update pages from predefined templates. We hope to expand this tool so that other Roma NGOs in other countries with support from the eRiders can also make use of it.
RIP Update: February 2003
Contents:
Circuit Rider Round Up Conference
March 6th - 13th: Three RIP eRiders will be attending the Circuit Rider Round Up in Oakland, California. The Round Up is a yearly event that brings together those working in the nonprofit technology field. This year there are over 200 participants registered from over 20 countries. This will be the first trip to the US for Gabi from Czech Republic, Maria from Bulgaria and Miro from Slovakia.
Maria will speak on a panel facilitated by The Advocacy Project (AP) on international eRiding with Tom Battin from Compasspoint, Stephanie Hankey from the Open Society Institute (OSI), Maiya Tsyganenko from OSI - Kazakhstan and Bill Lester from NinthBridge. Maria will focus on what it takes to start a technology assistance program from scratch in Bulgaria with a network of Roma organizations working on desegregation. During the panel we will show a film made by AP on the eRider training held in Kosovo in November 2002. The film highlights the RIP project and other projects being implemented by international eRiders.
For three days after the conference the eRiders will take part in additional training that focuses on strategic planning, training of trainers and technology troubleshooting. 6 other eRiders from other OSI funded projects will also attend. It is valuable time to build on the ties forged at the Kosovo training and continue to foster the development of the international eRiding network.
Taking eRiding Global - Webpages
A new Tech Soup website content section called 'Making the Connection - Taking eRiding Global' has been developed to highlight the work being done by non profit technology assistance providers outside the United States. The section will launch at the same time as the Round Up in Oakland on March 7th.
The new section contains a series of articles written by members of the International eRiding community including four written by eRiders with the Roma Information Project. Maria Metodieva focused on women and technology in her community. Gyula Vamosi looked at the use of IT for empowerment by minority communities. Miro Olah asked what could he contribute to his community as a tech expert and Gabi Hrabanova wrote about youth and technology within the NGO movement.
Other articles include: Managing eRiders on a Shoestring in Kazakhstan, Funding the eRider Movement, Open Source and eRiding and The First International eRiders - the story of Poland.
For those not familiar with the web portal, Tech Soup is a website devoted to content for non profits on the use of and implementation of technology in their work. This new content section was developed in partnership between The Advocacy Project and Compasspoint.
In the next few weeks these articles will be repurposed and posted to the AP website and will form part of a new section devoted to RIP.
Camp Training
In May 2003 in partnership with the Center for Advanced Media (CAMP) in Prague, Czech Republic the six RIP eRiders will go through a five day technical training. The training will focus on tech skills including database design and planning, image manipulation, audio and video files, content management systems, community building tools and open source and free tools.
Gabi is arranging all the logistics for the CAMP training described above and will put together several sessions with local Roma NGOs and the Roma university students association so the RIP eRiders can see the work of Roma NGOs in Czech Republic.
The week after the training the eRiders will attend the Khamoro Roma Cultural Festival in Prague. This is one of the largest Roma festivals in the region and will be a good opportunity for them to meet and network with interesting organizations and other young Roma. Artists and Experts from the following countries take part in the festival: Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Yugoslavia, Canada, Italy, Germany, Poland, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Argentina, The Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, Greece and Ukraine.
Mentions of RIP
As some organizations are already aware USAID has issued a Request for Assistance (RFA) for work with Roma communities in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. RIP was mentioned prominently in the RFA as an example of an innovative project that should be built on and model replicated. Great to get the recognition.
Gyula was interviewed on the national Hungarian television station along with Laszlo Teleki, Hungary's First Under Secretary for Roma Affairs. They discussed the Finish initiative to create a pan Roma consultative body. Gyula discussed the work of Roma NGOs and the support offered to them by RIP.
Other AP Roma Work
AP Advises on Creation of a European Roma Women's Network
The Advocacy Project has been assisting European Roma women's activists in the formation of an International network that can lobby for an improvement in the social conditions of Roma women in East Europe.
Iain Guest (AP Coordinator) gave a presentation on networking at a two-day meeting for Roma women in November, organised by the High Commissioner for National Minorities of the OSCE, the European Monitoring Center on Racism, and the Council of Europe. The meeting brought together women from 19 European countries, including five accession countries that have applied for membership of the European Union. The goal was to review the first draft of an OSCE paper on the health of Roma women, which is due to be discussed at a Ministerial meeting in March.
The OSCE report is expected to show that Roma women across Europe face many common obstacles to health. At the same time the November meeting dispelled many negative stereotypes about Roma, particularly Roma women. Several participants have launched highly effective campaigns, and even taken legal action against their governments.
Reports From the Field
eRiding in Macedonia
RWN Website
Enisa is helping to lead a team of Roma women activists to redesign the RWN website. The site was first launched in March 2002 and has already undergone one substantial redesign. The current changes are aimed at making the activist database more accessible and providing regular news and information on the work of Roma women. Under development is a new, more comprehensive database of Roma women's groups and activists.
As part of her work Enisa is working with Azbija Memedova with the Roma Center of Skopje and Roza Ilic of the Roma Information Center on the development of the database, survey tool, database structure and collection of activist profiles.
ARANJ Training
In late January Enisa helped to facilitate the training of a new young Roma women's organization in Pecs, Hungary. The ARANJ training was aimed at spreading the young Roma women's empowerment project first started in Macedonia. The project involves a community survey that looks at people's attitudes towards the virginity cult and sexual taboos. Training focused on practical skills of how to implement the survey, how to ask questions and collect data.
For most of the participants this was their first training. In a traditional community such as this it was a big deal for them to leave their homes, husbands and kids for two days. Some felt guilty and other reveled in the freedom but all felt they got a lot out of the training.
'One of the women was so much motivated by the questionnaire that she took around Enisa's booklet in three villages, reading out the questions to them and the purpose of the initiative. She told Marika (Coordinator of ARANJ) that Roma were very positive and thought it was fun. Some older Roma said she was a 'gadji' to do this thing. Marika says they are all very motivated now.'
Groups in Serbia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Romania are at various stages of implementing the same research with support from their eRiders. A website was developed by Enisa and her colleagues in Macedonia to present their research and spread the concept. As new groups undertake the same research the results will be posted on the site.
The Power of SMS
Enisa presented on RIP and the sexual taboo survey project at a meeting in Skopje of the Women's Program Coordinators (WPCs) of the National Foundations of OSI. She introduced them to the services an eRider can provide and to the other eRiders on the team. The WPCs are now in touch directly with the eRiders in their own countries.
Enisa's networking and eRider skills were put to the test at the meeting. While at the meeting the WPCs were struggling to find the phone number of a prominent Roma women's activist in Hungary named Blanka Kozma. Finally after much searching they thought to ask Enisa. In no time she had sent an SMS (simple text message from a mobile phone) to Gyula who found the number (Blanka had been a co trainer at the ARANJ training) and sent an SMS back to Enisa with the number. A little technology can go a long way.
eRiding in Czech Republic
Manushe Computer Training
From the 24th - 28th Gabi will be training a group of Roma women who work with Manushe a Roma NGO based in Brno, Czech Republic. She will train them in basic computer skills such as web browsing, e-mail and word processing. The training will take place in an Internet connected computer lab at a technical high school in Ostrava.
These women form the foundation of a new nation wide network of Roma women who have attended empowerment and self esteem building workshops put on by Manushe. Over 80 women have participated so far and over 50 have attended a second round of training. The women are now starting to self organize between trainings and are holding regular meetings in local restaurants to discuss and work on issues in their communities.
The story of one participant in the empowerment trainings is particularly compelling. A divorced mother of two teenage sons in her late 30's living on social welfare in Brno heard about the Manushe call for participants in their first training. She had a lot of free time on her hands now that her sons were grown and wanted to do something for herself. At the training she was surrounded by other women just like her trying to improve their lot in life. She was motivated to ask Manushe how she could get involved in their work. They had just the project.
Manushe had recently agreed to take on the collection of testimonies from Roma Holocaust survivors that would be submitted to the Department of Defense who would work for reparations from funds set up in Germany. But Marta, Manushe's director was swamped with other work and had only been able to collect 4 stories. She set this new recruit to collecting the stories along with another volunteer. In no time that had collected 120 stories, taught themselves to type, were written up in a major magazine and one secured a job as an advisor in Brno's local government offices. Marta is having a hard time keeping up with all their new ideas. They were eager to polish their self taught computer skills at the training Gabi will offer at the end of February.
Her story shows the value of trainings that focus on more then just making women better mothers, wives, cooks or seamstresses. The Manushe trainings focus on self esteem, communication skills and empowerment in a way that is appropriate for their communities.
Support for Roma Internet Radio
As part of our ongoing work with the Dzeno media organization in Prague Gabi is providing consulting services as Dzeno develops its contact database. She is also working with them on a publicity plan for the Internet radio station managed by Dzeno called Radio Rota.
It is planned that an intern from the newly established AP internship program will work with Dzeno this summer to raise the profile of the radio station and assist in the development of the database.
eRiding in Romania
RWN Website
Nora is providing a valuable link to RWAR to aid in the redesign of the Roma Women website. Last year the RWAR took on the design of the website but has struggled to collect information from activists and publicize the website. Nora has been tutoring the RWAR Director, Violeta, in good website design and navigability. Together they are surfing of websites for other networks and NGO coalitions to see how they present the work of partner groups. Using her grant from the Network Women's Program Violeta is now using a cable modem so connectivity and communications are vastly improved.
In the next few weeks Nora will be meeting with other Roma organizations from our target group in Timisoara and with a network of Roma organizations based in Cluj
eRiding in Hungary
DSL Installation
With a grant from the Information Program Gyula has continued his support for the network of Roma community centers throughout Hungary. He has begun installation of DSL at each center. This will enable them to control their telephone costs, get more computers and staff online and use higher bandwidth intensive applications such as instant messaging and online conferencing.
In June RIP began its support of the RCCs. The first step was to get them online and communicating. An e-mail discussion group or eGroup strengthened the network of the national association of RCCs and helped them recruit new members. They used it actively to discuss their statutes when establishing their group. They learned about the use of search engines thus they got samples of campaign strategies, campaign ideas and slogans through via the World Wide Web. Web tools contributed to money saving and the flow of information smooth and timely. After campaigning for three months with the ideas got from the web and brainstormed through the e-group, they won the national elections of the Roma Minority Self-Government.
The directors of the RCCs are usually traditional Roma men for whom using technology is a mystery. After getting their feet wet with the eGroup they began to use Instant Messenger. Thus they could always see when their partners was online and could share information with one another without calling each other or all of them coming from 10 different parts of the country and meeting in the capital city.
They also prepared the media campaign strategy online well in advance of a visit to a given community. They determined the most burning issues for that community before they went there and developed their platform and wrote their speeches tailored to the needs of the given community.
The RCC leaders fundraised together for a portable computer for the leader of the campaign to keep in regular contact while he was on the road. The leader of the campaign was on the road constantly and he began to make good use e-mail and the web. He talked to everyone in the network and updated them on current issues constantly. He used the e-mail and the Internet with success to achieve this task while traveling on the road.
Meeting with Roma MP
In February Gyula met with the Hungarian Undersecretary for Roma Affairs Laszlo Teleki and opened up discussions for his participation in online conferences with Roma NGOs on issues being discussed at the national level including education, health and employment.
Desegregation Support
Since October 2002, Gyula has focused on support for a group of individuals and organizations working on the desegregation issue in Pecs. They had begun their work with a lot of fundraising that was proving unsuccessful. After several brainstorming sessions facilitated by Gyula they decided to refocus on their coalition building and the groundwork for the partnership with the schools. These efforts bore fruit when they had their holiday party that was attended by parents, teachers, local government officials, students, school administrators and other community groups. A parental liaison office has now been established in the school their children attend.
After many fruitless attempts to gain support for their work they had all but given up on getting endorsement from any high level elected officials. With support from Gyula they decided to change tactics. They opened an e-mail account and sent e-mails to the Prime Minister and all the people around him. Several weeks later they received an e-mail back from the PM congratulating them on their work and heartily endorsing their initiative. This kind of endorsement has helped them in coalition building, lobbying with the local government and fundraising.
eRiding in Slovakia
Field Assessments and Workplans
Miro has completed four assessments of organizations in and around Kosice, Slovakia. He has started work by focusing on improving the website of the Roma Press Agency. Currently they are struggling with the system they have in place for updating articles and adding in new articles on their website.
Over the next few weeks he will be developing training and support programs for the organizations assessed including Schola, Lucia and Cereoc which focus on education reform, women and cultural issues and legal protection.
Campsite
After receiving training in the use of the content management system designed by CAMP called Campsite, Miro is helping the Roma Press Agency migrate to this much more user friendly, robust and simple system.
eRiding in Bulgaria
Support for Desegregation Organizations
The issue of desegregation of education is a hot button issue in Bulgaria thanks to the work of a group of eight NGOs all supported by the Roma Participation Program of OSI. They have all had some group trainings and support each other when they run into difficulties. Communications are uneven and they do not make good use of the support they could receive from the Equal Access Foundation which is based in Sofia and working on desegregation on a national level.
Maria took long and sometime hazardous three day trip across Bulgaria to assess the capacities and needs of these organizations. She focused on their ability to communicate with each other and the people they are supporting. Maria found that most of the staff are in need of basic computer training and the upgrading of some of their systems. This will be her focus in the coming months.
She will also work with Equal Access Foundation to develop a website and system for communicating with the network of organizations.
More Work with Young Roma Women
In February she made a presentation of RIP to a group of young Roma women that were brought together by the OSI National Foundation in Sofia. She will be working with this group of young women to implement the survey begun by Enisa and her colleagues in Macedonia.
Website Development with Eastisoft
AP has signed a contract with the Bulgarian-US software company Eastisoft. As part of the contract Maria will be working from the Eastisoft offices one day a week and will receive consulting and technical support from them.
As part of the partnership RIP is working with them on a joint project to develop a content management tool for Roma NGOs to use to develop websites. Currently they cannot develop and maintain sites because of the ongoing costs and a lack of technical skills. With this tool they will use a Word like interface to develop and update pages from predefined templates. We hope to expand this tool so that other Roma NGOs in other countries with support from the eRiders can also make use of it.
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- Africa – Pygmies
- Bangladesh – Empowering the Blind
- Bosnia – War and Recovery
- Cambodia – Civil Society and the Tribunal
- Central America – Civil Society After Hurricane Mitch
- Ecuador and Oil
- Guatemala – Indigenous Advocacy
- India – The Global Movement for Children
- Kosovo – Civil Society after the War
- Nepal – Democracy and Discrimination
- Nigeria – Trafficking to Europe
- Occupied Palestinian Territories
- Peru – The Search for Truth and Justice
- Roma and Gypsies
- Roma Information Project
- Profile: Enisa in Macedonia
- Profile: Gabi in the Czech Republic
- Profile: Gyula in Hungary
- Profile: Maria in Bulgaria
- Profile: Miro in Slovakia
- RIP Update: February 2003
- RIP Update: April 2003
- Additional Resources
- Serbia – Fighting Repression
- Southeast Asia – Violence Against Women
- Sri Lanka – Rebuilding After the Tsunami
- The World Bank and Human Rights
- UK Travellers and Dale Farm
- AP Diaries and Staff Blogs
Services
Fellows+
Dissemination+
Training+
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FIND A PARTNER
The Advocacy Project develops partnerships with advocates on the frontline and with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In so doing, we take our cue from partners and tailor any support to their needs.