01.05.2013Roma organizations joined in Union of Roma Organizations - "Change"
Nineteen Roma organizations established Union of Roma Organizations – “Change”. This happened on April 30th, after national meeting of Roma NGOs, initiated by the organizations which left the meeting of the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues (NCCEII) on April 8th and demanded the creation of a new administrative framework and real consultative process for the implementation of the National Strategy for Roma Integration. Among the organizations that created the Union are Center Amalipe - Veliko Tarnovo, Integro Association - Razgrad, Roma Academy for Culture and Education - Sliven, World Without Borders Assosiation - Stara Zagora, Association LARGO – Kyustendil, Foundation "Sham "- Montana and others.
The organizations involved in the union retain their autonomy and join their efforts to achieve the requests sent to the Prime Minister Raykov on April 18th: the establishment of community council to implement the NSRI, which would include institutions and national coalitions of organizations, working for the Roma integration, executive body responsible for cross-sectoral interventions for the implementation of the NSRI and the State Commission for control of the implementation of NSRI. Thirty-six organizations from across the country have so far supported these requests. They are expected to join the Union of Roma Organizations- Change.
On the meeting the Roma NGOs discussed also their short-term strategy to achieve these demands. As a first step, they have decided to leave NCCEII, which they will do on May 7th . Then the organizations are planning to collect thousands of signatures in support of their demands and to deposit them at the Council of Ministers.
The organizations also identified a Coordinating Council of the Union, which includes Stela Kostova, Deyan Kolev, Lili Makaveeva, Bistra Andreeva, Yuksel Yasharov, Gancho Iliev and Sergi Karakashev.
