Group of people from Diakonissalaitos working on the new project to support Roma womenOur Finnish member Diakonissalaitos is currently expanding its work on promoting the social inclusion of Roma people to Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova.

Diakonissalaitos has actively been working to improve the living conditions of the Roma community in Bulgaria, Romania, and Kosovo for 25 years now. The “Roma Women’s Power” project, which our member started last spring in Moldova, Belarus, and Ukraine is then a natural follow-up to its ongoing projects in other former Soviet countries.

The aim of the project is to foster the active citizenship and employability of Roma women to improve their financial independence and bring them into more decision-making positions. That will be done by creating a strong umbrella of Roma organisations active in the region and by training women in private entrepreneurship.

The first part of the project has already been launched. In Moldova, for instance, relationships have already been established with private companies with the aim of providing Roma women with a job or a traineeship opportunity.

 “For the majority of those women, this is the first-ever traineeship and work contract. This has a huge impact on women’s self-esteem. The social structures, attitudes, and gender stereotypes sustain discrimination and prevent Roma women to access, for example, employment, health or childcare, and social services. As a result, the possibilities to participate in public and political life are non-existing or minimal”, Anca Enache, Diakonissalaitos Project Coordinator, said.

The project aims to reach a total number of 7,000 Roma women in Moldova, Belarus, and Ukraine by the end of 2022.

 

To know more about the “Roma Women’s Power” project, please check our member’s website.

Photo ©Diakonissalaitos