workshops workshops workshops - roots.utopia.sk
Workshops, workshops, workshops
Workshops or trainings have been part of the work of the URMC for many years. They are a very useful tool in the effort to "uplift the Roma woman", which the Union considers its main goal. For Roma women, the first step towards emancipation is often just the fact that they have the opportunity to slip out of their everyday stereotypical activities, travel to another city or region and spend a few days together with people they would not otherwise meet. However, the topics of the workshops, their quality and the atmosphere are also extremely important.
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At a workshop on the solidarity economy, the activists of ÚRMC are thinking about what kind of enterprise they would set up and how they would run it.
The simulated selection procedure showed the activists what discriminatory practices they can encounter when looking for a job.
At the workshop on participation, the activists discussed how to support Roma women candidates in local elections.
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Utopia together with ÚRMC organized several workshops for Roma women activists long before we started preparing the project "Emancipated Roma Women Fight Discrimination. During and after these workshops we discussed and thought about how to increase the capacity of the Union and activate other Roma women. We prepared a series of workshops that complement each other and offer a comprehensive approach to emancipation in different areas of society. We have brought in external partners to ensure their quality even in topics that we do not focus on intensively.
We covered different contexts and topics: politics and civic participation, democracy, discrimination, gender equality and gender-based violence, solidarity in the economy, forms of organising and soft skills. We have always been driven by the desire to answer the question of how to expand the autonomy of Roma women. How to empower them in a way that would enable them to take action to break free from various forms of oppression and gain real power over their lives. Our goal was not for them to integrate into authoritarian institutions and participate in their reproduction, but rather to co-create spaces that will have transformative potential and bring us all together towards a just society. This is not a small goal, but that does not mean that we cannot take small steps towards it.
In the end, 90 people attended all the workshops, the vast majority of whom were women. As the URMC is primarily a self-help women's network, there was always plenty of room for mutual support among the participants, discussions about personal problems, joys, successes and needs. We also talked about the problems in each community and looked for solutions.
One of the main target groups was the youth, or young women, who have their whole lives ahead of them and could contribute significantly to the development of the activities of the URMC. Many of them encountered the topics discussed for the first time and we believe that they are better prepared to fight discrimination than they were before.
Actually, we are all better prepared for it. And that's a good result.
Translated by deepl.com. Not edited.