"Without education, there is no progress in the Roma community," said Suzana Krčmar, president of the Croatian Roma Federation Kali Sara. "Roma women rarely work outside the house and are less educated than Roma men, but this is changing. Every year, we have more and more enroling in faculties or four-year education programmes."
About 200 young Roma women attended workshops on the social status of women and the importance of education for Roma, organised as part the project.
"Educated Roma women can help children learn, more easily find employment on the demanding market, economically help their families and take part in political and social developments," Krčmar said, but added that despite completing their education, many Roma women don't get job opportunities.
Prejudice, stereotypes and Roma discrimination will probably never go away, but everything must be done to reduce them, said Roma MP Veljko Kajtazi. "About 90% of Roma in Croatia are Catholic, they know our language and culture. If we don't give them importance, I don't know where our society is going."
The workshops raised the issue of gender-based violence, poverty and prevention of teenage pregnancies, Kajtazi said, adding that Roma should be educated from the pre-school age onward. "If both parents don't work, a child can't be enroled in kindergarten. If children from the majority population couldn't go to kindergarten, they certainly wouldn't know the Croatian language well. It's the same with Roma children."
The head of the Zagreb City Office for Social Protection, Lora Vidović, said she was sure the capital would soon have universal access to kindergartens and that this would greatly help Roma families.
As for further education, she said the city this year awarded 100 scholarships for Roma pupils and 20 for Roma students, each amounting to €360 and €500, respectively. "About 55% of the recipients... are girls, which shows they are more motivated to stay in the education system."
Deputy Prime Minister Anja Šimpraga said that as a woman and a member of a national minority, she had a very good understanding of the challenges faced by young Roma women. "On the one hand, women in our society haven't achieved full equality, and on the other, minority communities are often patriarchal and closed for the full development of women, their education and employment."
A group of people lives in Croatia, Roma, "which is 17 times less literate than the majority population," Deputy Parliament Speaker Davorko Vidović said. "The measure of a developed and civilised society is the ability to detect the weakest and the most vulnerable."