The key is in your hands

Campaign activities January – May 2006

INTRODUCTION

Education is the main precondition for resolving of the other problems that are burdening the modern living, such as the unemployment, the low standard of living, protection of the human and minority rights, better social integration, coping with various forms of violence. The reality of Roma people in Macedonia is widening to early leaving of the primary school, parallel educational system in private flats, impossibility to enrol at a university, non-engagement of the Roma intellectuals, poverty, unemployment and rejection of the society. According to the data of the State Bureau of Statistics out of 7.868 Roma that had enrolled at school, only 600 finished it. These data come as a result of the social economic background of the pupils, the low level of education of their parents, the lack of motivation and the negative attitude towards the school, as well as non-inclusion of the kids in the pre-school institutions. The situation of the Roma in the education is in one causal-consecutive connection where on every edge of the triangle lie the parents, the schools and the state institutions. Out of all the most important is the side of the parents. It depends up to them if the Roma children will continue their education and how successful they will be in it. Therefore, the most important part of the campaign of NRC is composed of work with the parents. NRC according to the gained experiences and knowledge of the Roma problems is coping for reducing the problem and increase of the number of educated Roma. For this reason, we’re acting multilateral. The main targets in the project are the Roma parents and their kids. In the project we have visit and work with 3.000 Roma kids in age from 6-18 years or 1.000 Roma families in Kumanovo, Skopje and Prilep. Indirectly the project refers to all non-Roma in Macedonia who will have to accept the Roma kids without prejudices and stereotypes. The project refers to the state educational institutions that will have to engage in increasing the number of Roma kids within the schools. In the frames of the project we are organizing several months educative campaign intended for:

The Macedonian media
The state institutions
Parents and kids

We are realizing the project basing on several basic objectives.

In relation to the objective Roma parents to be motivated to send their children on regular classes, we are still realizing the visits in their homes. We have come to a general conclusion the parents really want to send their children to school, they have the awareness about the meaning of education and believe that when their children are educated they would have a better life. In our office (after the visits of the filed motivators), people come with problems and the interest how to solve them so that they could enroll their children in schools. During the consultations with non governmental organizations whose contacts and information were put in the brochure intended for the parents we found out that there is a great interest among them, for education of adults, especially with those who only have a year or two to finish certain degree.
Decreased stereotypes and prejudice toward the Romany children – in relation to this objective we have been working with Macedonian journalists. For that objective the media lobby group works on permanent placing of information in order to inform the non Roma about the desire of the Roma for education and equal living. For realizing of this objective we have organized a Conference on which representatives from the Government attended, also the Ministries for education and labor and social policy, Local self government, elementary and high schools from Kumanovo, Prilep and Skopje as well as representatives from Embassies, foundations and NGOs.
Increased number of Roma students in elementary and high schools – for the effects of this activity and strategy, we’ll inform in the second trimester of the realization of the project.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

In relation to realization of the implementation plan, in the last three months period 70% of the planned activities were realized. So far there has been work on several activities, meetings, conferences and preparation of strategies. Now on going are the visits and gathering of data about the standings of the Roma families and education conditions. During the so far visits and analyses of the data, we have come to a conclusion that the condition with the Roma is really alarming and far worse than the one shown. That points out for the need of quality work with the Roma population for overcoming or at least mild the current state with the education. In the forthcoming period we will be doing analyses of the entire condition, analyses of the questioners, gathering of information from schools and representatives from the local self government. After the prepared analyses of the data, we will send official information in the public, especially to all of the public institutions and non governmental organizations who work on the problematic.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

In realization of the project we consider that the following points are significant:

recalling of the educational issue in the Roma families
interest for the current programs for the Roma education
positive acceptation of our questioners and deliverance of information to them
intensive engagement of Macedonian journalists in the media lobby group
interest of the participants on the Conference for state officials which we organized on the 05.04.2006

While realization of the project we have encountered some changes, but they did not influence on realization of the objective, they were more related to technical realization of the activities.

in stead of one brochure we have decided to prepare one for each city (Kumanovo, Prilep and Skopje) so that we could offer information to the parents for the place in which they live in and the necessary contacts. We also prepared a fourth brochure for the institutions where we put all of the information we considered necessary for the representatives of the institutions and to other non Roma.
In relation to the announcement that we will print t-shirts as a propaganda material, we have decided to print caps, due to realization of the activities in winter time and the non possibility to wear t-shirts.
While preparation of the documentary film, we have made a change regarding to hiring of a director and we hired Dragan Antonovski from Sitel TV and made a contract, he to promote the film on 2 national televisions, and a larger sum for preparing of a quality documentary film.
With the daily newspaper Dnevnik we made an agreement for free of charge announcement of the text of journalists from the media lobby group. We realized cooperation with several other journalists who announce information together with us.
Means for paying of space in the media in which we renamed them for organizing of a Conference, on which were called all of the directors of elementary and high schools in Kumanovo, Prilep and Skopje, representatives from Ministries, other government institutions, donor organizations and NGOs.

ACTIVITIES

Motivated Roma parents that send their children to school regularly
1. To bring to the parents the meaning of the education for them and their children

Preparation period

In the preparation period of realization of this activity we have worked on organizing of the first activities, analyzing of the Law for education, the National strategy for education of the Roma in Macedonia and other significant materials and documents. We have organized several meetings of the team included in the realization of the project and the organizational structure of the activities was set. We have started with a preparation of a data base for all NGOs, institutions, organizations, journalists and individuals with which we will work in the forth coming period. At this time I we have sent an official information in a kind of call for cooperation to all of the non governmental organizations, as well as to institutions and individuals which work on the Roma’s education. After the call for cooperation to the government institutions, the President of the state, non governmental organizations we have sent a request for support in regard of realization of the campaign. We have pointed out the meaning of education for the Roma population and the need for intensifying of the activities in this field to overcome the educational problems, as a basis for solving of problems of the Roma. Many supports were sent to our address and readiness was expressed for cooperation with many non governmental organizations. NGOs from other cities (outside from the are of realization of the campaign – Kumanovo, Prilep, Skopje) have shown interest for cooperation and realization for this kind of activities in their cities.

Preparation of a propaganda material

According to the first plan, two brochures were predicted, one for the Romany parents and one for the institutions. However after consultative meetings of the team included in the implementation we have come to a conclusion that it would be more practical if the brochure intended for the Romany parents was to be made separately for each city so that it would br easier for the parents to read them. Due to the changes we decided to make 600 posters, which we will distribute through cities, in front of schools and educational institutions. In order to gather the necessary from the non governmental organizations which work on the field of education of the Roma in Macedonia we have sent out a call to point out their activities so that we could put them in the brochure intended for the Romany parents. As feedback we have received information from 4 organizations from Kumanovo, 4 from Prilep and 5 from Skopje. After work and selection of the information, the data about their work were put in the brochure. Parallel with selection of the information with the designer we have worked on preparation of the logo of the campaign and preparation of the design of the brochure, notebooks and the poster. The logo represents a key for opening of the door towards prosperity and overcoming of the problems with education of the Roma, as a symbol for the desire of the Roma towards their own integration and progress. The logo is inputted on all of the propaganda materials (brochures, posters, notebooks, pens and caps) We have prepared 1.000 brochures for Kumanovo, 1.500 for Prilep and 2.000 for Skopje. 10.000 notebooks and pens were printed out which we delivered to educational centers, as well as to families during visits. While distributing of the materials we have come to a positive acceptance with everyone, especially with the students so they often came by to the office looking for notebooks to use in schools. In regard of printing of t-shirts there were slight changes, because of the winter period when the visits were realized. So we decided that it would be more representable and more visible if the field educators wore caps with the propaganda message instead of t-shirts.

Field visits

After preparation of a concrete plan for conducting of the field visit we have made a selection of the educators. 6 persons were from Kumanovo:

Nexat Murtezovski
Ferdijan Demirovski
Anife Sabedinovska
Demir Ismailov
Safet Sakirovski
Safet Zekiri
Orhan Demirov

The following people were engaged from Skopje:

Orhan Bekirovski
Emil Fetaovski
Edis Hasan
Dehran Bislim
Emina Destani
Merhan Sadriovski
Demir Ali
Fatima Xemailjoska

For the field education in Prilep 5 people were involved:

Nesime Salioska
Ljupco Serdarski
Hasanovski Husein
Natasa Tutunxievska
Erxan Ismailoski

According to the planed, for realization of the field visits 20 educators were to be engaged although during the work (especially in Skopje) we faced with some problems with the responsibility of the educators, so that is why we made some changes and we supplementary engaged some of the educators from Kumanovo. We prepared questionnaires for their work which were needed to be filled out during the visits of the Romany homes. The questionnaires were prepared with cooperation with the Roma Education Fund. Through filling out of the questionnaires and analyses of the information we expect to receive the concrete image of the current situation regarding the motivation of the Romany parents for education of their children, as well as the problems with which the children are facing. From here the propositions for the future actions will come out. A week before the official start of the field activity, we organized a training for the educators bout the way how to approach the citizens. Before the start of the field visits, we have made monitoring on the field and we concluded that there was no interest for the questionnaires, which is a result form their manipulation during political elections. So we considered the need for informing the public about the intent of our visits. Official information were publicized through the media, and we evaluated that including of neighborhood people as educators will be most appropriate for best reception. We started with the field work in Kumanovo first of all, so that we could identify the problems and to eliminate them on time. During the visits the educators were accepted without any bigger problems, which is owed to several years work of the educators in that area. The educators, after finishing of the visits every day came to the office and together with the assistant looked over the filled out questionnaires. After we reviewed all of the possible difficulties we worked on their removal and started to prepare the field for Skopje and Prilep. Several meetings were organized on which was discussed about the most appropriate approach with the residents there and the possible risks and rejections of the field activities. In Skopje we faced with greater difficulties and the people we engaged there were very serious about their work and therefore we engaged the people from Kumanovo, during the second month of the field activityin Skopje. Due to the great number of residents we, covered only 40% of the residents and in Prilep we covered about 60% of the total number of Roma in this town. While preparing the report input of the data was carried out through a specially designed program for saving and analyses of the data. Through this program a detailed analyses will be performed with a special accent on the educational degree of the Romany population, as well as the acceptance of children in schools and the problems they are facing.

Documentary film

During realization of this activity we have faced several delays. Firstly, we worked on the idea with the director Marjan Janevski but the cooperation with him was not on a satisfactory level, so we decided to change him. We hired the well known journalist and author of documentaries Dragan Antonovski. In cooperation with the director we made some small changes in relation to the previous script and we decided that through this documentary to send out a clear message to the Macedonian public that the Roma can realize clear positive results. Several interviews have been made in the documentary with well known Roma from Macedonia and abroad: Nicholae Gheorge (OSCE ODIHR), Rutko Kawzynski (ERTF), Martin Demirovski (assistant in the European Parliament), Saip Jusuf (author of the first Romany grammar), Vaska B. Mustafa (adviser of the Ombudsman), Nezdet Mustafa (deputy in the Assembly of R.M) Te filming took longer than expected due to the engagement of the interviewees. In the period of preparation of this report we montaged the film. Showing of the film will be realized on 2 national and several local televisions.

Recording of the song

In the period of preparation of the report, the song was not yet recorded, because of working on the documentary. It was agreed with the composer Valentino Skenderovski, to prepare the song after he has seen the film so that it could be appropriate to the content and the needs. According to the first plan the song should have contained a vocal, but later we evaluated that it would be more appropriate if the song contained Romany motives and instruments without a vocal. 1. Decreased stereotypes and prejudices towards Roma children 1.1. To work on sensibilitation of the Macedonian journalists on the Roma issue

Media Lobby Group

According to the planed activities within the frames of the project, at the beginning of January we formed a media lobby group from 5 journalists: – Zoran Ivanov, director of the Macedonian Informative Agency,

Dragan Antonovski from the national TV Sitel,
Stole Naumov from the national radio Kanal 77,
Ljubica Grozdanovska, newspaper DNEVNIK
Mirdita Saliu from the Romany redaction of MTV.

Since the beginning of the forming of the lobby group we organized several meetings on which we agreed about the way of their work and activities. They began with preparation and placing of information in the media they work in, with a duty for each of them to write a column which will be announced in the newspaper DNEVNIK. For that purpose, the coordinator and assistant in the project have organized a meeting with the main editor of paper Katerina Blazevska, and we received total support and DNEVNIK has official media coverage of the campaign. All of the information about the Roma education in Macedonia were publicized in this newspaper, as one of the most read newspapers in the state. In relation to the media lobby group we have made changes during the first month of the work. In stead of the first hired journalist Ristem Muslievski we hired Ljubica Grozdanovska, because of the non satisfactory work of Muslievski.

Working session for journalists

06.02, Best Western Hotel, Skopje

20 journalists positively replied on the invitation for presence at the session and ten more representatives from non governmental organizations and state’s educational institutions. But because of the bad weather conditions 10 journalists attended and 15 representatives from NGOs and institutions. But the general conclusion for the session is positive. The journalists expressed their support for future cooperation and at the same time a contact was made for placing the information through the State Informative Agency. The director of the Board for development and promotion of languages of nationalities expressed his interest. The present ones brought a conclusion that there is an obstacle in communication between the Romany and non-Romany media. The journalists explained that they themselves many times have been led by their own stereotypes and prejudice in informing and that they always look for attractive events or affairs so that they could sell their information to their editors. Everyone agreed even the Roma activists themselves that they need to engage more and to acquire the media with information. They need to find a way to approach the journalists instead of criticize them that they are not interested enough. A positive aspect in the entire situation is that Macedonia is a good example for most states, in regard to the treatment of the Romany issue and that is why the cooperation between the journalists and the Romany activists need to continue intensiflly. During the session the journalists filled up questionnaires, and after analyses we received the following information. From total of 10 journalists, 6 of them replied that they often inform about the Roma and 4 of them rarely. All of them publicize information in daily-informative emissions. They have so far informed only about social and educational problems, but now they have started informing more about the happenings in the Roma Decade.

Press conference

The National Roma Centrum held the press conference on the 16.03 in “Holiday Inn” hotel. We organized it when we had enough information for the public. We decided for the press conference to be held in Skopje due to the presence of the national media. We informed every electronic and written media in Skopje, we sent them invitations by mail and fax and also phone conversations to ensure their presence. The fact that we organized a meeting before the press conference positively reflected and because of that the invitation was expected and positively accepted. Besides the fact that at the same time, the press conference scheduled by the Minister of education of Macedoni, together with the Minister of Bulgaria however the attendance of the journalists of NRC’s conference was satisfactory. Vojislav Marjanovic addressed at the press conference, adviser on Romany language with in the Board of education of languages of members of communities with the Department for education and science, also Ljatif Demir, Romany writer and publicist as well as Asmet Elezovski, project manager of the National Roma Centrum spoke at the press conference. Information were brought out at the conference from the current campaign and from the visits of the Romany homes and the need for improvement of the condition. Mr. Marjanovic showed the real situation with the education with numbers which the Board has as well as the changes which arose with awarding scholarships to Romany students. Ljatif Demir brought out the most important elements from the Romany culture and tradition which influence on education, while Asmet Elezovski through presentation brought out the latest data about the Romany movement in the world and influence of education. The press conference and the publicized information were placed during the whole week through electronic and written media. From special significance was the Roma education caused interest with the journalists and after the organizing of the working session they intensiflly contacted our office in search of information for their articles on the subject Roma education.

Conference for government representatives

On April 5th in the “Holiday Inn” hotel the National Roma Centrum organized a Working session for more concrete suggestions and solutions for the problem with the education of the Roma in Macedonia, on which attended government representatives, local self government, Romany non governmental organizations and journalists. The first plan for organizing of this working session was limited to a smaller number of participants and with smaller costs, but as the campaign was p