The Bihor County Roma Youth Forum was established with the support of a project that took place in 2007 with financial support from the World Bank. The aim of the project was to actively promote civic involvement within the ranks of young Roma and to develop social skills in order to involve them in information campaigns and community development actions. The active youth from the Roma Education Centre held a campaign for identifying young Romas enrolled in high school or in arts and craftsmanship schools in Bihor County as well as those enrolled in universities in order to invite them to join the Roma Youth Forum.

Following the campaign over 50 young Romas, school children and students were identified and a meeting was held in order to get to know them and to inform them about the Roma Youth Forum and the importance of its activity. The youth expressed their desire to form a group and to take part in the forum during this meeting. Between June and October 2007 the young Romas took part in retraining sessions on the topics of Community Development, Public Relations, Communication and European Values. These training sessions were given by Roma expert trainers who became models for the forum youth. The role of promoting these models was to contribute to giving the young Romas an identity to assume by sharing their own life experiences. The first training session took place in June 2007 on the topic of Community Development and Cross-Culture. The purpose of this meeting was to inform and raise awareness among the youth about what cross-culture really means but also that of preparing a campaign for promoting cross-culture in schools. At the training session on Communication and European Values they learnt about what it means to be a European citizen, about what communication is, how to communicate and the forms of communication. This training session was led by Valeriu Nicolae who is a Roma figure on a European level and who represents an important model for the Roma youth. The training session regarding Public Relations was aimed at training them about the role of public and private institutions, about the competences of European institutions and especially those of the European Union.

                                 

During the project’s implementation 2 work meetings of the forum members were held as well as 3 social meetings. The work meetings were focused on planning future events that the forum would undertake while the social meetings were aimed at attracting new members and consolidating the young team. The young active Roma took part in the meetings of the Local Council in their commune or in neighbouring ones,  in order to observe the process of decision making at a local level and in order to develop their civic skills.

                            

Moreover the young Romas took part in the meeting of the Mixed Work Group held by the County Bureau for Romas within the Institution of Prefect. Over the course of 2007 a campaign for information and raising awareness was held regarding tolerance, cross-culture and fighting discrimination called “A new geometry: different but equal”. It was held in 8 towns in Bihor County, in public institutions, shops, markets, schools and on the streets. The youngsters wore visual identification marks during the campaign: hats, t-shirts printed with the key message of the campaign “Different but Equal”. They took part in the meetings with Roma parents during the Summer Kindergartens in order to raise the parents’ awareness about the importance of school. They distributed flyers in the non-Roma community and sent a clear message of promoting tolerance and non-discrimination. During the campaign “A new geometry: different but equal” that was held in schools, the forum’s members sent messages to the school children and the teachers about tolerance, non-discrimination and cross-culture in classes and they handed out flyers. The young Roma and non-Roma members of the Forum were real models for the Roma children in school. Following the campaign the foundation got requests to extend the campaign in other schools and high schools in Bihor County. During this campaign more than 2.400 flyers were handed out and more than 100 teachers were informed.

                       

The forum members attended a series of meetings and events held at the Roma Education Centre. They took part in the meeting for the launch of the County Network of Teachers for Inclusive Education in Bihor County. The young Romas took part in the visit of the President of the National Agency for Roma at the Roma Education Centre at the offices of the Ruhama Foundation where they presented the forum, the activities they deployed and their future plans. They also took part in the study visit held at the Roma Education Centre within the conference “Responses to violence in everyday life in a democratic society” held by the Bihor Teaching Department. In partnership with the Pro Democratia association the forum members held a civic education campaign in 20 Roma communities regarding the Euro-parliamentary elections during which more than 1.000 information materials were handed out. In the Roma communities, they informed the Roma citizens of what voting means and the importance of voting. Moreover the youth took part in the activity of monitoring the Euro-parliamentary elections in 50 towns in Bihor County. In December 2007 6 young Roma members of the Forum took part in the training session “Lobby and advocacy in the relationship with the local authorities and other relevant factors” held at Sinaia. Here they honed their lobby and advocacy skills as well as the communication skills with the local authorities and exchanged experiences with a team of young Romas from Botosani, each of them presenting the activities that took place at the level of their county.

“A new geometry: different but equal” campaign in figures: