The Association of Roma Women ‘Better Future’ is the first women’s Roma NGO in B&H, working in the area of Tuzla and throughout all of B&H. The reason for the establishment of this organization is because there is discrimination and violence against women, but particularly Roma women and Roma children. They are discriminated primarily by their families and their communities.
On occasion of the International Day of Roma, we spoke with Indira Bajramović, President of this organization.
‘’Our goal is to help our Roma women and children. We collaborate with other NGO’s, municipal and cantonal institutions as well as with foreign donors in order to alleviate or at least to help the Roma population to overcome the problems they face. The Association actively works to empower Roma women through the launching of Roma literacy courses, courses for homemade things, hairdressers, etc. One of the priorities is to help the elderly, disabled people, women who are victims of violence, single mothers, protecting the reproductive health of Roma women, gender equality, prevention of violence and development of projects in accordance with the program directions of the Association. The mission of the Association is to reduce social prejudices through their actions, economically empower Roma women, encourage equality and realizing their rights to health, education, politics and culture’’, said Bajramović.
According to Indira Bajramović, the position of Roma women is difficult, and they are exposed to discrimination on a daily basis.
‘’Roma women in B&H are subject to multiple discrimination. Roma women are discriminated on the grounds of belonging to the Roma national minority, and on the basis of sex, social origin or status. I would point to a very low level of education of Roma women and their participation in public life. This can be substantiated by the fact that we have commissions, advisory bodies at all levels, that we have Roma representatives in the same bodies but who are not sensitized to women’s issues. Also, Roma women are not included when it comes to strategies, action plans through the Dekada, preparations of other reports and documents tied to women’s issues’’
The plight of Roma women in B&H is highlighted by the state IV and V periodical report on implementation of the Convention on Elimination of all forms of discrimination on women. In this report, it states that around 90 percent of Roma women do not have any access to health, social protection or employment. In the part relating to political and public life, it states that women in B&H who want to be included in the political life face obstacles because they are women. Roma women are in an even more difficult situation because they face multiple discrimination and because they are Roma women. In the Association ‘Better Future’, great importance is attached to the empowerment of Roma women through various forms of education, and most are focused on economic empowerment in order to become economically independent from men, but at the same time to regain confidence.
‘’We cannot single out the biggest problems of Roma women because our problems are all closely related (education, health care and social protection, accommodation and employment). I think that with our training programs for Roma women in B&H, we have influenced their awareness and by using the existing mechanisms, the situation of Roma women has started to change, but we are also aware that this will be a long process’’, said Indira Bajramović for Sarajevo Times.
