BERA - Basic Education for Roma Adults
The Erasmus+ project “BERA – Basic Education for Roma Adults” was developed in order to give adult Roma and Roma families a possibility to easier gain access to basic education.
Roma still face discrimination and exclusion, as a 2012 study, conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, shows. Around 20% of Roma adults consider themselves as illiterate and about 14% of Roma children don't attend school at all. Not having access to education has a lot of negative aspects like increased risk of poverty, high number of unemployment and so on.
The six participating organisations from Austria, Bosnia, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Serbia are all working with Roma people in different projects. All partners came to the same insight, that education is a basis for Roma to get employment, but also to give them perspectives for the future. The project is developed as an European project since in our opinion the topic does concern many countries and therefore solutions should be looked after on an European level.
Within the scope of this project three manuals have been developed. The first manual focuses on adult Roma and the second one on learning in family groups. Until now families have been rarely considered as a learning space in basic education, but family is a very important place for Roma which will be of use. The manuals will also take into account the specific living and social situation of Roma people, like for example travelling Roma or Roma living and working outside their home countries. So naturally it will be developed for the use in different countries, according to the resources each country has.
The third manual is a collection of Best Practice examples, links and resources on this topic.
So far, there have taken place five transnational meetings of the project partners, conversations with experts and Roma and altogether 240 interviews with experts and Roma. Furthermore Best Practice examples have been analysed and data has been collected and discussed. The findings of all this are integrated in our intellectual outputs.
Up to now 4 newsletters and one press release in each country have been sent out, 5 encounters with Roma communities in each country have taken place and the first testings of our learning material have been conducted. Furthermore we had the chance to present the project on various channels, like for example at the Komensky-Fond in Vienna and at the international conference „Roma People in Europe – Pastoral care and social integration“ in the Vatican.
Further, it is important for us to make the public aware of the situation of this ethnic minority and increase the awareness about discrimination factors. To achieve this, the project results, in the shape of our intellectual outputs, will be released and the public will be included in the discussion of our results at our upcoming multiplier events.
The Multiplier Events will take place in each partner country at the following dates:
- Caritas für Menschen in Not – Austria: 17. May 2018 in Linz
- Fondazione Caritas Ambrosiana – Italy: 3. May 2018 in Milano
- Caritas Subotica – Serbia: 26.-27. April 2018 in Subotica
- Caritas Alba Iulia – Romania: 10. May 2018 in Targu Mures
- Caritas Bosne i Hercegovine – Bosnia Herzegowina: 20. April in Sarajevo
- Cáritas Diocesana de Viseu – Portugal: 23.-24. April 2018 in Viseu
In case of interest in taking part, we are happy to receive emails to katharina.schmid@caritas-linz.at. Your request will be forwarded to the respective organisation.
The aims of the project are to raise awareness (especially in the areas of politics, pedagogic and social studies); increase the self-consciousness of Roma (by inclusion) and to develop concepts that can be used and implemented easily. The long term results the partners hope to achieve are better chances for Roma in the future due to an easier access to education and due to a higher awareness in the Roma community about the importance of education.
Hungary?