Project helps one hundred Czech Romanies find jobs in Prague

The Support for Romanies project has helped some 100 Czech Romanies find jobs in Prague, Jelena Salajdzicova, director of the Slovo 21 (Word 21) civic association, told journalists today.

The goal of the project is not only to find jobs for Romanies but also to provide them with necessary education that would increase their chances on the labour market, she said.

"Its importance goes far beyond the 10 percent of successful job applicants," director of the Romany group Romea Jarmila Balazova said.

Many participants in the projects have been prepared for secondary school and university entrance exams or have come through re-qualification, she said.

The project includes individual programmes that help Romanies assert themselves on the labour market. For instance, the Internet labour bourse Romea at present has more than 320 users and almost 60 groups that offer work to Romanies, Balazova said.
She said that 18 people have found employement in this way in the last two years.

Out of the 24 secondary school leavers, six students have been prepared for university studies within the project and 122 elementary school pupils have been prepared for studying secondary schools of whom 54 young Romanies started attending these schools.

Within the re-qualification courses organised as part of the project the participants learnt English and computer skills.
"The final goal of the project is to establish a new complex model of education and employment of Romanies," Salajdzicova told journalists today.

Similar projects are under way in Portugal and Slovenia where foreign partners have been found for them, she said.
The organisers want to submit the assessment report to the government and they hope that they will help create a system of education and employment of Romanies in the Czech Republic, she said.

Slovo 21 is implementing the Support for Romanies project in cooperation with Romea, the Prague City Hall and foreign partners from Portugal and Slovenia.

The three-year project costs almost 27 million crowns and is financed from European Union funds and the Czech state budget.