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The Community Moderators of six centers for community development in Bulgaria visited the Center for Community Development in the city of Targu Mures, Romania. The visit took place on June 21 and 22 under the project “Promoting fieldwork at local level among traditional and marginalized groups of the Roma community”, funded by the Daphne Program of the European Commission. The purpose of the visit was that community moderators on both sides could exchange their experiences and learn about the problems regarding the Roma community in the Province of Mures, Romania.

The Bulgarian side was welcomed by Mrs. Smaranda  Enache, President of the Liga Pro Europa, Romania and partner of Center Amalipe in the implementation of the project. The presentation of the project’s activities was later presented by the Romanian Community Moderators themselves: Alexandra Bershi and Regina Moldovan. Early marriage and dropping out of school are the most serious problems for the community in Mures, Romania, the moderators reported. The community has preserved its tradition and customs, including the vicious practice of early marriages. The most of the efforts of the community moderators in Targu Mures are directed to this basic problem. For this purpose they organize lectures in schools with students, parents and young mothers about the importance of education today. The organization of such events takes place in collaboration with school principals, local government, Roma health and school mediators, and Roma leaders. Another problem area is the housing – the lack of paved streets and sanitation, as well as containers.

The participants had the opportunity to meet Mr. Zelariu Petru – the regional leader of the Roma party which party is the only one represented in the Romanian Parliament. Mr. Petru said that in his province 33 Roma were elected as municipal councilors in local elections last week. He stressed the importance of the preliminary agreements directed to development and investment in the Roma community which his party signed with the candidate-mayors and today, after the elections are validated. ‘Mayors must keep their promises before the elections regarding Roma otherwise they will receive a protest vote’, said Petru.

What is to be a Roma and how many barriers you need to pass the ordinary Roma in order to build authority and to be accepted by the majority as an authority was the topic of the speech of Mr. Rudi Moka - a Roma actor, journalist and writer. Mr. Moka shared in front of the audience how difficult was for him until graduating “Puppetry”. He stimulated the moderators to not give up in what they do even sometimes the results to not be the desired ones.

During the meeting the community moderators also had the opportunity to enter Roma houses in two communities – Glodeni and Apalina. In Glodeni Roma shared the details of the crafts to knit baskets and furniture. They talked about how they live, showed how to make handmade wicker furniture and ended singing the Roma anthem “Djelem, Djelem”. In Apalina the community moderators attended the last school day of the children from the primary course of the local mostly Roma school. The children prepared poems, songs and dances for the guests from Bulgaria. In a subsequent conversation in the staff room, Romanian teachers mentioned the difficulties faced by children during classes because in this area all Roma children are trilingual. They speak Romanian and Hungarian as well. A big support is that they have a compulsory education in Romani language with Roma teachers in every school where there are Roma children and school mediators – also Roma who support the relationship between teachers and parents.

In the end of the meeting the participants met with Mr. Florin Hajnal, expert on Roma issues in the administration of the Mures Province. Mr. Hajnal introduced the community moderators with the Romanian National Strategy for Roma integration, explaining the forthcoming process of the decentralization strategy at local level and the process of monitoring which will be carried out on it. “There will be established a special working group which includes regional experts from various fields, expert in Roma issues and Roma NGOs who will gather every month and monitor the process of implementing the strategy”, said Florin Hajnal. He thanked to the moderators from Bulgari and expressed his hope that they will be those awaken citizens who are going to watch the correct implementation of the Roma strategies.  

At the end of the visit the team of both organizations – Center Amalipe from Bulgaria and Liga Pro Europa from Romania – exchanged some gifts as a sign of friendship and collegiality. The common objective of both organizations is the institutionalization of the community moderator position.