19. 11. 2021
At the EU Info Center in Podgorica on Friday, mediators for the Roma-Egyptian population were given computers to use in the next year, while at the same time the opportunity was used to discuss the tasks on which they are assigned in institutions – employment bureaus, centers for social work and health care facilities in 11 municipalities where the project is implemented in the next 12 months.
It is a joint project of the European Union and the Government of Montenegro “Social inclusion of Roma and Egyptians through mediation “, which is implemented within the European Union and Montenegro Program for Employment, Education and Social Protection.
The project is implemented by “Help”, which will be the employer of mediators in the next year – in partnership with the municipalities of Podgorica, Ulcinj and Berane.
Overall of 34 mediators, who received professional training and certificates, will be deployed in 11 municipalities in the next year, with the task of providing members of the RE community easier access to local institutions, easier exercise of basic rights, and thus better inclusion in society.
In the period of few years, since 2016 until today, Help has tested this model and trained and hired numerous mediators in the field of employment, social, health care and education. The practice has shown that during that period, with the engagement of mediators in these areas, the obstacles faced by the Roma-Egyptian community in their daily attempts to exercise these basic rights were significantly reduced.
Help expects that by the end of this project, state institutions at both, local and national level will recognize the importance of intermediaries between RE community, one of the most vulnerable categories of the population in Montenegrin society, and local services in the field, that this model will be recognized as one of the key instruments for facilitating the social inclusion of the RE population in society, and that finally mediation will be established as a formal job in administration. . We are convinced that this is in line with the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians 2021-2025, and the Action Plan 2021.
In addition to finance provided by the European Union, as co-financier of the project, the purchase of a number of laptops for the needs of mediators in the next 12 months, as a donation, was financed by the American humanitarian community of the Church of the Saints on the Last Day, better known as the Mormon Church.
Representatives of the religious organization, whose mission is to help the Roma-Egyptian population here, Larry and Debbie Draper, handed over a pair of laptops to the Roma mediators ten days ago, as well as they do today in the EU Info – center.
