Advocacy
Advocacy is an important part of our organisation’s activities, and includes media monitoring, informing, and educating the society about the Roma community and human rights, representation of the Roma community’s interests in front of the Government, and assistance to the various socially excluded groups we work with.
We support the internationally accepted idea of community empowerment ‘Nothing About Roma Without Roma’, so we try to involve the Roma community itself in different activities, ensuring that their voices are heard. Every year, together with the community, we celebrate International Roma Culture Day (April 8), Roma Genocide Remembrance Day (August 2), International Roma Language Day (November 5), and organize educational sessions and public debates.
We are involved in public policy making, especially in the field of education and Roma integration. We are members of the working group of the Vilnius Roma Integration Society 2020-2023 Program as well as members of the Monitoring Committee. We cooperate with different authorities – the Department of National Minorities under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman, Vilnius city municipality and others with whom we share our professional experience in social inclusion and informal education.
Every year we organize educational activities for students of Vilnius College Faculty of Pedagogy and Mykolas Riomeris University. We aim to promote active citizenship of young people through volunteering. We provide training for representatives of non-governmental organizations on working with Roma and other vulnerable groups.
Comprehensive support for families is important to us, so wetake into consideration the needs not only of children but also of adults. We act as mediators when it comes to housing, employment, and social security issues. In cooperation with the Food Bank and the “Ne apie mane” Foundation, we provide regular support to families with foodand other essentials.
