With the project “YOUNG ROMA WOMEN: DIGITALLY PREPARING FOR INCLUSION IN THE POST-COVID-19 REALITY” we wanted to provide an answer to this situation of need for roma women, but that should also be useful for others, and that would stop exclusion due to the lack of digital adaptation after the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, we set ourselves –and have fulfilled– the objective of creating a non-formal digital training methodology for young roma women in this post-COVID-19 reality, to increase their inclusion in a society that turns its back on us, using something that everyone can usually access: their smartphone (one of the few digital tools that they master autonomously and with ease). But we have also achieved the objective of the training strategy we have created being useful for other social organizations that work with other groups with obstacles to access the digital world. Our methodology is dynamic, simple to apply, and appealing, so it is easier to connect with them and get them involved in non-formal education processes that enhance their inclusion autonomously and independently, also managing to generate networks of friendship.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a hard blow to the learning and inclusion processes of young roma women due to their social, economic, and health vulnerability, but above all because the digital society that has emerged since is very hostile towards them. At that time, a too rapid digitalization process began that ended up discarding on-site attendance, and the processes we need to enhance our social, economic, educational, cultural, and labor inclusion became fully virtual or telematic. Although the worst moments of COVID have passed, nowadays applying for social support or carrying out social security procedures is still made via complex digital platforms, in addition to the fact that many training courses have online assistance, looking for a job also involves electronic applications or virtual interviews… All of this, which was set in motion to be useful during a health emergency and for the society of the future for most, has become an obstacle to the inclusion of minorities who have specific barriers, low qualifications, large family burdens, low digital skills… and of course economic difficulties, as many young roma women usually have.