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Hi, my name is Marian Daragiu.
I'm running the Ruhama Foundation:
it is an NGO based in Romania.
We work a lot on
community development issues in the,
on the Roma minority.
This is one of the departments that
we are focused, but our approach it is a complementary one.
So, we are also focused
on different other
departments like elderly people, or education, or housing.
The way
that we would try to respond better
to the vicious
circles that the Roma community
especially
finds out.
And to give you a very short insight of about the minority
in Romania,
from out of 21 million population,
Roma people
it's around 2 million.
It is known as being one of the poorest,
minority not only in Europe
but all over the world.
In Romania, mainly throughout our organization
we tried for instance last year
to focus a lot on the education, understanding that education is
the
future for the children, for our children.
Focus on children it means that in 10 or 15 years we will be able
to
have a new generation.
But also we cannot stand passive
with the problems that the families of the children face. That's why
when you approach the community development and
education we try to respond
also to the other aspects. What I've been impressed
in my visit here, in this study tour in US,
visiting the
Harlem Children's Zone, I saw a complimentary approach. It's about
community development, it's about structuring the community
the way that
public administration,
the government should include into
the policy,
policies,
that measures that could answer best
to the complementary problems that
the community face.
It is well known that the way that,
the moment that you address a community,
a Roma community, you have to see
from different perspectives, from different angles, what chances have that community
to
develop themselves.
One of the aspects that I've learned here besides the services that we
address to the community,
are the political
aspects. How do we influence the agenda,
And I am a lot interested in finding out how,
what means should we use, what tools should we use to influence
the policy-makers, the decision-makers,
to bring into the attention of the public
also how important it would be that
these measures should answer
also to the community, to the
Roma community members.