The Ecumenical Humanitarian Organization has been implementing a project called "Mobilization and Development of the Roma Community" for several years.

As part of the new three-year cycle 2021-2024, activities will be carried out aimed at improving the knowledge and skills of representatives of the Roma community from 6 municipalities in Serbia. Participants in the project are representatives of Roma communities from partner municipalities, as well as representatives of institutions, local self-government and other interested groups. During this cycle, six partner municipalities were included: Zabalj, Arandjelovac, Smederevska Palanka, Surdulica, Novi Sad and Raska.

The goal of the project is to develop the capacity of representatives from marginalized groups in partner municipalities in Serbia through better access to services at the local level, as well as introduction to basic human rights, mentoring and development of their abilities, but also mobilization of community resources.

The target group of the project consists of representatives of marginalized groups, primarily representatives of Roma settlements, who have the potential and interest to improve their environment and provide better access to information and services to members of marginalized groups both locally and nationally, as well as networking of relevant institutions with representatives of the local community.

The project has so far been implemented in 16 municipalities / cities (Ruma, Titel, Novi Sad, Sabac, Sremska Mitrovica, Koceljeva, Opovo, Kovacica, Pancevo, Nis, Mionica, Vrbas, Ljubovija, Osecina, Obrenovac, Lazarevac) in cooperation with primary schools. and pedagogical assistants, representatives of Roma settlements, health mediators, representatives of local, provincial and national institutions, where we supported 18 local groups. During the first three years of implementation, we managed to jointly enable the establishment of more than 10 new civil society organizations, provide financial participation of local governments in funding the LAP for Roma, implement more than 30 local initiatives in Roma settlements (additional classes for children, workshops for preservation of health, cleaning and asphalting of settlements, providing bins for garbage disposal in the settlement, development of LAP for Roma and other activities)

The activities that would support the beneficiaries will depend primarily on their individual needs, but also on the common priorities defined before and during the training. Participants are expected to pass 2 modules with the following topics:

1. Communication skills with clients
2. Writing EU project

Each partner municipality will select at least 5 people from the local community to undergo these trainings, but continue to work on the implementation of initiatives set by the community as a priority. In the third year of project implementation, the formed local groups will be able to receive support through the Fund for Small Projects, and then through the establishment / improvement of cooperation with local institutions, but also the creation of sustainable support systems for the local community.

Implementation period: February 1st, 2021 - January 31st, 2024

Partners: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Coordinator: Gorana Sredanović > gorana@ehons.org