Amaro Foro is offering counselling and support for integration into the society of the Sinty and Roma in Berlin, also running the largest social contact point for Roma in Germany which is funded by Berlin local government. It provides advice on employment, education, health, housing and social security issues and support Roma in their affairs with the administration. After the Corona virus problem appeared and all the services moved online we realized that we have a big problem when it's about offering the usual services to our beneficiary because they can't access them trough internet. We had discussions with our partners from Romania, Hungary, Macedonia where our partners face similar situations and we tried to identify a solution for this. This lead the Roma adults to face a much bigger exclusion, their access to public services being much more restricted booth because of economical situations (they don’t afford devices from where to access internet and they don’t afford to pay the internet bill) and because of educational situation (more than 40% of the Roma adults are illiterate – Fundamental Rights Agency data) Being a group with a high percentage of illiteracy we needed to identify an innovative way of teaching how to use internet with as less as possible written information's. Project objectives: With our project we aim to increase the access of Roma adults to public services by developing a tool which to allow them to learn easier how to use internet for this. The project objectives are: 1. To develop 2 innovative artistic tolls which to make easier the learning process of the Roma about internet and how to use the internet for daily life activities during this project. 2. To increase the ICT knowledge and skills of 80 Roma adults from 4 partners countries during the project 3. To increase the knowledge and skills of 20 social workers, health mediators, NGO people and volunteers about how to support adults to develop their internet skills and knowledge during the project 4. To capacitate Roma and pro-Roma civil society organizations in working with Roma using modern technology The number of participants are 80 adults from four countries whose ages can be divided into two groups, young Roma adults between 18-35 and middle-aged Roma adults between 36-55. Besides, 20 social workers, health mediators, NGO people and volunteers will be included. The participants’ profile: We will have Roma adults who cant easily access internet and cant get social services provided via internet (social services, shopping, banking, school, health services, information and also a social life), and most of them are illiterate which means they don’t know how to write and read. We will have diverse grup of Roma people from ghettos, segregated communities, rural areas, migrant or very traditional Roma and Roma in middle class standards. We will have also 20 social workers, health mediators, NGO people and volunteers from staff of NGOs who work with Roma in order to help them to increase the knowledge of those people to be able to benefit from internet and offer them online support. Activities: 1. We will create 2 intellectual outputs ("Basic Digital Skills" and "Digital skills for all") first aiming to teach basic digital skills about how to use internet devices and online communication channels for illiterate people mainly based on illustrations and second one about safe use of internet to access public services and to do daily life activities like shopping, banking, education and other. This one will also use illustrations but also small movies and small text. In order to do that we will work for each guide in 3 stages (making the tool, testing the tool and gathering recommendations and reshaping the final version). For the evaluation we will involve 20 mentors from Romania Germany, Hungary and Macedonia, 5/ country and 80 adults, 20/ country. The mentors will be trained in a 3 days training. The Roma adults will receive each one tablet and will be supported in the learning process by one mentor. To gather suggestions and recommendations we will have two evaluation meetings during the testing phase. The tools which we produce will be wide disseminated at national level in the 4 countries where we tested but also at European and international level with the help of ERGO network The methodology of the project will involve different approaches from research, experts meetings, practical testing in Roma communities of the tools to international dissemination conferences where we will disseminate this project. We expect that the developed tools, based on principles of digital citizenship will help Roma adults and other disadvantaged groups to quickly mitigate knowledge and skill gaps of utilizing the internet as well as define the appropriate and responsible use of technology among the users. Roma adults as digital citizens will promote and poses the following values:respect, educate, and protection of human rights
The project aimed to develop, test and disseminate curricula for young Roma adults reinforced by educational booklets, videos and proper equipment to access and use internet services in the times of constant change. The process was achieved by a variety of tools and methods, including transnational events, local workshops, group and individual mentoring. Further aim of the project was to foster dissemination and mainstreaming of the tangible project results, which was achieved through a website developed for the project available at digitalizenow.eu, as well as four conferences organized in each partner countries. The dissemination events were organized in the participating countries involving local stakeholders and decision makers to ensure sustainability of our activities.
Direct beneficiaries of the project “Digitalize” project were Roma adults facing poverty, lack of housing, segregation and discrimination – all these particularly evident during the lockdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, as despite requirements of digital participation for everyone, public institutions failed to offer proper support and equipment for those not able to afford it otherwise. „Digitalize” was a strategic project to support marginalized communities in a digital era. The project aimed to develop, test and disseminate curricula for young Roma adults reinforced by educational booklets, videos and proper equipment to access and use internet services in the times of constant change. We identified 3 target groups we wanted to work with and all had similar need: easier access to public services and daily life activities which became increasingly online/digital due to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. We also identified other needs: - Roma adults needed to learn how to use technology more efficiently in order to make their life easier - The civil society organisarions needed new and innovative tools which support the learning process of Roma adults better - The staff of civil society organisations needed to develop their skills and knowledge about how to mentor Roma adults in their learning process with the help of new tools which are based on more basic pictures/short videos etc.