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Center Amalipe
ContextThe mission of Amalipe is to stimulate the empowerment of the Roma community in Bulgaria. To promote an active participation and equal access to the development processes and resources with a priority focus on access to quality education and healthcare and social services.
The Long-Term Goals of Amalipe Are:
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Area of Work:
Eastern Europe Contact Person:
Momchil Baev |
Our Activities
- Currently Amalipe runs nine projects within the sectors of: education, health care, social services and advocacy. Financed by the European Commission, Open Society Institute, Roma Education Fund, Bulgarian Ministry of Health.
- Amalipe works with a network of 180 schools all over the country. The objective is to decrease the dropout rate of the Roma population, introduce intercultural education, promote life-long learning in the Roma community and raise the educational status of Roma. Essential part of this work is by empowering Roma parents to take part in the school life of their children and converting the school into a center of the community.
- In order to foster the self-organization of the Roma community, Amalipe has established six Roma Community Support Centers in the six regions of Bulgaria. Everyone of these centers operate with a network of three to six local community groups.
- In addition, Amalipe cooperates with grass-root Roma organisations all over the country to organise advocacy campaigns and Roma integration activities in different fields such as: education, health care, social services, etc.
Approaches to implementing Community monitoring/accountability
Amalipe believes in the equal integration of the Roma people in society by focusing on the preservation of the Roma identity and on the modernization of the Roma communities. By knowing their own history and culture it increases the self-esteem of the communities. At the same time, overcoming the feeling of defeatism and exclusion it requires breaking some traditionalist behavior and norms that are hampering access to opportunities in modern society. Introducing civic values and developing civic leadership within the Roma communities it will help overcoming social exclusion and marginalization. The local and national Roma community based organizations will act as a catalysts for modernizing their communities, voicing out their needs and actively participating in changing existing policies, attitudes and prejudice towards Roma among institutions and the society at large.
The key to social inclusion is access to a quality education and social and health services. Effective work with health authorities, schools, teachers, children and their families will result in a new generation of Roma with higher level of education. Higher level of education will open opportunities for jobs and thus a better quality of life. Increasing the quality of social and healthcare services will assist overcoming the current poor health and social status of the Roma community people.
Equal integration of Roma in society requires change of policies and institutional practices at the local and national levels and genuine engagement of local and national institutions with a focus on Roma inclusion. They will address and work with Roma like with any other Bulgarian citizen. Roma will be represented in the local and national governance and administration. Policies for Roma will be formulated, planned, monitored and improved with the active participation of the Roma people.
Systematic communication on the benefit of inclusion of the Roma communities by both institutions and the media will help overcome prejudice and negative attitudes of society and increase awareness on Roma as part of the development rather than a problem for development.
The key to social inclusion is access to a quality education and social and health services. Effective work with health authorities, schools, teachers, children and their families will result in a new generation of Roma with higher level of education. Higher level of education will open opportunities for jobs and thus a better quality of life. Increasing the quality of social and healthcare services will assist overcoming the current poor health and social status of the Roma community people.
Equal integration of Roma in society requires change of policies and institutional practices at the local and national levels and genuine engagement of local and national institutions with a focus on Roma inclusion. They will address and work with Roma like with any other Bulgarian citizen. Roma will be represented in the local and national governance and administration. Policies for Roma will be formulated, planned, monitored and improved with the active participation of the Roma people.
Systematic communication on the benefit of inclusion of the Roma communities by both institutions and the media will help overcome prejudice and negative attitudes of society and increase awareness on Roma as part of the development rather than a problem for development.
Results and lessons
- The strength of the type of community monitoring undertaken by Amalipe is its ability to transform the relationship between communities, service providers and decision-makers at the local level. It focuses on community experience as the central indicator for assessing both access to and quality of services. Strengthening community mobilisation as well as establishing sustainable community structures (such as Local Community Development Groups, Community Development Centers)appears as an essential element of the model.
- Amalipe is now leveraging their monitoring efforts to promote the validity of community experiences to inform policy and practice and secure additional space for civil society and community participation. For example, in early 2012, the Bulgarian national Roma strategy and action plan was approved by the Parliament, but it did not contain provisions for the inclusion of civil society participation and/or community perspectives in monitoring or specify ways to strengthen government’s own monitoring mechanisms. In June 2012, Amalipe organised an European Commission Hearing on the monitoring components of the national Roma strategies and action plans. By influencing the monitoring aspect of the national strategies and action plans, we hope to complement our community monitoring work and create additional space for advocacy based on community experiences.
- In the future, Amalipe proposes to expand the community monitoring work throughout Bulgaria using a network of community and health-social centers we have established with EU funds. We hope that this strategy will help ensure that the results of multiple monitoring efforts are relevant for national advocacy.
