Beogradska 38
Dositeja Obradovica 4/1
76300 Bijeljina
Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Human rights
- Others
- Youth and education
“Otaharin is Bijelina based non-government, non-profit organization that supports youth Roma population by formal education, and acts towards strengthening the capacities of Roma communities and increasing the level of knowledge and awareness among the Roma population”.
The Mission of the Association of citizens "Otaharin" is directly related to the improvement of living standard among Roma population, especially among youth. Besides direct works with the Roma population, Otaharin permanently disseminates information on Roma and raise public awareness on Roma minority issues.
1. Empowering Roma youth in Bijeljina
2. Ensuring safety and wellbeing of children and youth by establishing a task force as a multidisciplinary mechanism to ensure safety protection of all children
3. Developing a new/different approach of supporting the integration of Roma through education
4. To foster economic empowerment of Roma women in Bijeljina aimed at increasing chances of employment and active participation in local community
Our projects/activities are following our strategic objectives:
1. We have activities focused on empowerment of Roma youth – “Peer to peer education”, project financed by Porticus and SHL foundation; duration: 24 months; budget: 90.000 €. The project aims at both, educating youngster on certain subjects they face in their everyday life such as sexually transmitted diseases, violence, discrimination etc, and mobilizing them to become proactive members of the society. The project is based on the principle of creating a space for joint action of young Roma and Non-Roma, aiming at breaking existing prejudices and consequently promoting social inclusion of the Roma minority through peer education. The emphasis of the project is a peer education program that incorporates the “Join in circuit” methodology. The peer education program consists of a capacity training session for 20 young Roma and Non-Roma, in which they gain knowledge and practical skills to become facilitators of the “Join in circuit” methodology. After they have become experts and certified peer educators we will organize peer education workshops, in which youngsters will transfer their knowledge to their peers. Educational workshops will educate school students in primary and secondary schools, because peer violence is mostly present in these two school forms.
Also, we are promoting volunteerism and cooperate with Local voluntary service in Bijeljina and by supporting community actions of volunteers.
2. Activities focused on safety and wellbeing of children and youth – project “Safety for children in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, financed by GIZ; duration 7 months; budget: 1.500€. Main activities are focused on informal education of children beggars and their parents and to support of Working group for protection of child’s safety and promotion of the Protocol of cooperation. Working group concept is a multidisciplinary approach which
3. Otaharin’s new/different approach of supporting the integration of Roma through education is visible in project “Integration of Roma children in education system from all Roma communities in Bijeljina and Živinice”, financed by Roma Education Fund, duration: 24 months; budget: 39.635€, and project “Quality education – quality life”, financed by United Nations Development Programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNDP), duration: 9 months, budget: 21.320 €. Main activities of these projects are additional classes from Serbian language and Mathematics for Roma pupils in primary schools. On these classes pupils are provided with: special program adjusted for their level of knowledge, individual work, school material, food, Roma assistant. Teachers on additional classes are following closely improvement of knowledge and keep monthly records for every pupil (following their absence, grades, behaviour, knowledge...). Also, the most important aspects of our work are field work and meetings with parents, where our Roma mediator and field workers are constantly present in the Roma communities and with conversation are trying to overcome numerous problems which cause irregular school attendance. We formed a Mobile Intervention Team which consists of representatives of schools, City administration, Social Welfare Centre and Day care centre. Role of this team is to visit families of pupils who are not coming to school regularly every month. This approach showed good results. REF project is also focused on preschool and secondary education, so we are enrolling children in kindergartens and support them to enrol to secondary school and faculties. In 2015 first Roma enrolled to faculty in Bijeljina and Otaharin supported her from primary school.
Our activities include programs for parents: workshops for positive parenthood and workshops of literacy.
4. Otaharin supported founding of association of Roma women in Bijeljina and these women have meetings on a weekly basis, with topics they identify as interesting and useful (literacy, meetings with representatives of Social Welfare Centre, Police, Health Centre – to talk about family violence, social protection, discrimination, sexually transmitted diseases, workshops about entrepreneurs...). We employed two single Roma women/mothers.
We have a ten years long experience in a field of multicultural dialogue that we would like to share with other organizations which support civil society. Our experience is very specific and valuable due the fact we are tackling problems of one of the most vulnerable groups – Roma minority. In Bijeljina lives the largest number of Roma in Republic of Srpska. To achieve better integration of Roma into society we have to focus on various areas: work with children, with youngsters, parents, institutions and also non-Roma citizens in order to overcome discrimination. Our approach is innovative and focused on quality, and our work is recognized from European Commission which awarded Otaharin in 2014 for the best projects for Roma integration in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Otaharin was recognised on local level through humanitarian aid by providing help to Roma during and after floods in May 2014. As a result of these activities Otaharin gained award from City Major of Bijeljina for voluntary contributions in 2015, and 2014 especially for providing help to Roma people during and after floods. Also 4 members (1 female, 3 male) of association have won awards for the voluntary contribution in 2015.
In our work we pay great attention to networking and cooperation with other organizations because we think it’s very important to gather strength and knowledge of every organization individually and use it in a best way in achieving the same aims. Number of ALF Network members present great potential to generate positive changes in civil society and we want to contribute to those changes. Also, we think our organization can improve its capacities throw following examples of good practices of other member organizations.