Youth exchange "Roma HeArt"

Youth exchange “Roma HeArt” is focused on youth 18-25 years old. This program took part in Tirgu Frumos, Romania from 3-14 August 2018. Youth exchange included 40 participants from 8 different countries: Estonia, Turkey, Cyprus, Spain, Romania, Slovenia, Italy and Greece. Main aim was the development of solidarity and the promotion of tolerance towards minorities, especially Roma.

Here is a text from the Greek participation that summarizes the experience of this program:

"The project 'Roma HeArt' was held in Romania from 4/08/2018 to 13/08/2018. The participants came from 8 countries: the hosting country (Romania), Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia and Turkey. We were in total about 40 participants, five coming from Greece. The places where the program took place were in northern Romania, included the city Tirgu Frumos and several villages in surroundings.

The aim of the project was the introduction and better understanding of Roma’s life, of people who live in Romania specifically in the areas we visited, but also to raise the participants’ awareness about this minority group. In order to attain this goal, we took part in a number of different tasks. We visited Roma communities and schools so we get to see where they live, how they live, which habits they have and finally to try to understand how these people are different. Also, we lived in tents in nature with no comforts, in order to gain more practical knowledge about everyday life of those people, and the problems they might face. Moreover, we exchanged views and knowledge regarding the way Roma people live. In this way we can have a more complete view of the situation. Since the project had a strong artistic side as well, we created a museum that features objects and visual art elements related to Roma community. This shows our respect and solidarity towards this distinct minority group."