3rd place of the 5th Dosta! Congress Prize - City of Madrid (Spain) - Alliance of Cities and Regions for Roma Inclusion

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Sedef CANKOCAK
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Please note

The term “Roma and Travellers” is used at the Council of Europe to encompass the wide diversity of the groups covered by the work of the Council of Europe in this field including Roma, Sinti/Manush, Calé, Kaale, Romanichals, Boyash/Rudari, Balkan Egyptians (Egyptians and Ashkali), Eastern groups (Dom, Lom and Abdal), groups such as Travellers, Yenish, and the populations designated under the administrative term “Gens du voyage”, as well as persons who identify themselves as Gypsies.

3rd place of the 5th Dosta! Congress Prize - City of Madrid (Spain)

Neighbourhood workshops for social inclusion

Romanian Roma of the community of Madrid often suffer exclusion and difficult circumstances. Set up with the aim to fight racism and to struggle for equality of opportunity, Madrid’s project is based on a networking plan for the promotion of Roma women in Madrid.

The whole project is based upon the training of Roma women in order to become the new point of contact between the gypsy community and other cultures. This group of Roma mediators organized various workshops, debates and neighbourhood meetings for the purpose of improving employment promotion, peaceful co-existence in the neighbourhoods, whilst building a climate of non-discrimination.

Besides, the Project has generated a network called RED ARTEMISA that implies various associations sharing the same goals since 2006. As a result, thanks to the joint efforts by all social stakeholders, between 3500 and 4000 persons participated in the events.

The successful group project helped to improve the equality of opportunity as well as health conditions, education and gender equality, amongst others.

Furthermore, it had an impact on the behaviours of the Roma community: School drop-outs and absenteeism have decreased, and many women now follow family planning programmes.

Carlota Santiago, president of the federation RED ARTEMISA, hopes that this project will be a part of a global action plan: “We want to believe that Europe, Spain, as well as the whole social policy, will keep betting on this challenge and preserving this kind of thrilling projects to reach equal rights for all the citizens”.

More on the first place, the City of Ghent (Belgium).
More on the second place (ex-aequo), the City of Kragujevac (Serbia).
More on the second place (ex-aequo), the City of Reggio nell' Emilia (Italy).

Short overview of the projects.
General Dosta! Congress Prize overview