On September 18, 2013, the team of the project “Promotion of social inclusion of young people in marginalized rural Roma communities”, attended the national conference “Promoting social inclusion of young people from marginalized Roma communities in rural areas: good practices and steps forward”, in Sofia, Bulgaria. The conference was organized by the Center for interethnic dialogue and tolerance “Amalipe” from Veliko Turnovo.

The national conference represented the end of the two-year project financed by the European Commission, and implemented by Amalipe (Veliko Turnovo, R. Bulgaria), Liga Pro Europa (Tirgu Mures, R. Romania) and National Roma Centrum (Kumanovo, R. Macedonia).

Several representatives gave their review of the issue of the young Roma from rural communities: Rositsa Yankova (deputy minister of Labour and social policy from R. Bulgaria), Ivan Krastev (deputy minister of Education, R. Bulgaria), Cornelia Andrei (European Commission, DG “Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion”), Ibrahim Ibrahimi (deputy minister of Labour and social policy from R. Macedonia), the moderators from centers for support of the communities, etc.

One of the conclusions of the conference was that we need political will and effort for a longer period of time in order to be sustainable and to see the beginning of changes which are necessary in order to include these communities in the social structures.

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