Roma Employment Initiative - REI

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Country/partner countries
Croatia/ Varaždin County

Project lead partner/organization and contact person (e-mail, links) project website
Croatian association Roma for Roma
Otona Župančića 6
10 000 Zagreb
Tel/Fax: +385 1 6144 806
e-mail: roma-for-roma@inet.hr

Project information – start and end date (if available)
23/11/2007 - 22/11/2008

Summary (goals and purposes of the project)
The share of Roma national minority in the entire population of Varaždin County is one of the highest in Croatia. At the same time, most of Varaždin County's Roma are unemlployed. The reasons for this are numerous and they vary from prejudices, lack of information for employers on the advantages of employing the Roma and lack of information for Roma on being employed, to some general characteristics of the Roma community such as low level of education, being used to ''living on the dole'', etc.
As a reaction to familiar problems, the project tried to contribute to the inclusion of the Roma national minority into a wider social community through actions focused on improving their employability and creating favourable surroundings that would eventually contribute to easier Roma employment.

Results of the project
By approaching the problem in an elaborate manner, and thus taking into consideration general characteristics of the Roma community, we feel that it is possible to contribute to the process of Roma inclusion into a wider social community. The project Roma Employment Initiative contributed to this process by focusing on critical points in bypassing Roma employment problem in Varaždin County.

Who will benefit from this project (target group)
The target group of the project was the Roma national minority in Varaždin County. 61 members of the Roma community have sucesfully finished the educational programmes.
30 Roma finished the ''Small entrepreneurship development'' workshop, 11 Roma finished the iron recycling programme, 10 were trained for assistant carpenters and 10 females finished the sowing course.

Sources of funding
Total costs: 108.326,13 Euro
EU co-financing: 83,34%

Link
www.romaei.com
www.romizarome.hr