Empowering At-Risk Roma Girls' Mattering through Reproductive Justice Final Conference

Empowering At-Risk Roma Girls' Mattering through Reproductive Justice

Final Conference

Background

RoMoMatteR is a transnational project that aims to tackle gender discrimination by empowering Roma girls to envision their own futures and choose motherhood only if and when they are ready. More than 100 Roma girls took part from Bulgaria, Romania and Spain, with the support of their families, communities and researchers during 2019-2021. The International Conference marks the final phase of the project, with the target of involving all RoMoMatteR participants to present the project’s progress and commit to advocacy, dissemination and sustainability to support Roma girls’ dreams. See image below from the RoMoMatteR Infographic:

Evidences highlight the relevance of moving from sexual and reproductive health and rights paradigms to new approaches focused on sexual and reproductive justice. This entails placing civil society and the communities themselves at the forefront.

COVID-19 prioritized reproductive as it increased inequalities on gender, health and social spheres among Roma girls and their communities. These circumstances were acknowledged during RoMOMatter project, when several girls dropped out from the activities to take care of their youngest sisters and brothers, to oversee housework or even to get married.

RoMOMatter in times of COVID-19 reinforced the idea that we, researchers, and institutions, shouldn’t be only offering care but rather defending citizenship rights by creating spaces for Roma communities to raise their own voices. The way in which researchers and communities are producing knowledge to confront the new realities, overcoming the impact of the pandemic on the most impoverished families is a critical issue that must be addressed.

RoMOMatter’s Final Conference must take stock of what has been done, offering spaces for debate, and promoting critical reflection, while developing and reaching consensus on new structures, networks or initiatives that follow this direction. It is as important to share:

• • ● What we did versus what was planned?
  • ● What could we not do because of the pandemic?
  • ● Adaptation process during COVID-19: The multiple roles of researchers and communities
  • ● Emerging needs and priorities
  • ● New ways of doing we have discovered that are necessary
  • ● Strategies and methodologies we have discovered or now obsolete
  • ● Actions we have not known how to do because we lacked resources, skills and competences to do them
  • ● Challenges and opportunities of researchers-community partnerships

Objectives

The final conference will present the whole project’s progress on linking Romani girls’ mattering to reproductive justice. The conference will have three main actions:

(1) Girls will present their dreams—expectation for their lives—and recommendations for pursuing them.

(2) Community partners, facilitators, and other local actors will present their challenges accompanying girls, best practices and provide recommendations.

(3) Researchers will present the key results in order to influence through advocacy, sustainability and dissemination.

The COVID-19 impact and how the new reality will affect Romani girls in terms of new opportunities and challenges will be addressed across these three actions.

This event will also provide a focused forum for discussion of results of other complementary studies, conceptual analyses, future roadmaps, etc., and to decide and formalize the best ways for transferring project results

Structure

When we were designing RoMOMatter, at the beginning, the final conference was envisioned as a great event for all of us to meet and widely disseminate the work that we—girls, families, communities, and researchers—had carried out for two years. All of us planned to meet in Pecs (Hungary) to celebrate and for a public demonstration to tell European authorities what girls need to thrive and have a dignified life. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic has obligated us to change the venue and structure of the final conference but has not broken our commitment for advocating for a prosperous future for Romani girls.

The final conference will ensure that it is a time for reflecting and sharing the work done, critical analysis, and planning for the future. It will also provide opportunities to compare with other experiences and celebrate what we have achieved. To accomplish this, the conference will utilize several media (i.e., online vs. face to face and recorded vs. live) and three target audiences (i.e., girls, community organizations and scholars) in three different periods (i.e. pre-conference, conference, and post-conference) as shown in the figure below.

(1) Pre-conference. A series of pre-recorded materials will be prepared and sent to the Coordinating Team and posted on the website. The materials should be available with plenty of time before the conference in order for all those involved to have access and time to prepare for the discussions during the live conference. The pre-conference products will also be used for advocacy and dissemination during the other periods.

(2)   Conference. The three conference days will be live on Zoom and hosted by HLDMI partners. Pre-recorded materials from the pre-conference should be reviewed, presentations prepared and used most of the time for discussion.

(3)   Post-conference. The post-conference is meant for activities related to participation in academic conferences, and any other activity for dissemination, advocacy, and sustainability, including the submission of a new proposal.

To clarify, we have provided some examples of activities which will be implemented during these different periods.

In pre-conference sessions with girls, families and significant adults, a face-to-face session with girls on each local context may be conducted to record products such as the girls singing or performing a theater. Meanwhile, other activities can be conducted using an online format – i.e. girls recording TikTok videos, facilitators preparing presentations for the conference, etc.

The in-conference sessions will be held on an online format; however, if conditions allow it, groups can reunite face-to-face to attend the meeting (girls and facilitators, a small group of researchers…). Recordings from the pre-conference will be used to enhance discussions on the conference sessions, while discussions themselves will be held live via Zoom.

Finally, post-conference sessions may be organized face-to-face (i.e. completing the last steps of the infographic with Roma girls) or online (i.e. partners meeting via Zoom in order to finalize the policy brief).

Host and venue

The final conference will take place in a hybrid structure – via Zoom and partially in-person for the local contexts. According to the Grant Agreement, the final conference is coordinated by the Universidad de Sevilla and hosted by Health Leadership and Management Development Institute (HLMDI) which leads the Health Leaders Partnership with the departments of Public Health and Operational Medicine of the University of Pécs.

Participants

Each partner is encouraged to invite all relevant guests to the conference. The pandemic has brought new actors to the scene, while at the same time uncovering the limitations of others. This has generated new potentials and opportunities that we are not prepared for, new ways of doing that require new actors.

• • • • • • ●  Girls, mothers, and other significant adults – Participating Roma girls and their families, as well as key adults from their communities, including members from Local Coalitions.
            ●  Facilitators – Roma women facilitators who have been involved throughout the project.
            ●  Role models – Women who were invited to take part on RoMOMatter activities as role models. Role models who were not able to participate on RoMOMatter activities can also be invited to participate in this Final Conference event.
            ●  Community partners – Members from RoMOMatter community organizations are welcomed to participate. The participation of key actors from other grassroots organizations, policymakers, national health networks, or public health institutions should be encouraged.
            ●  Research partners – Apart from RoMOMatter research partners, the participation the scientific community, including other researchers or research institutions with experience or interested on these matters will be welcomed.

*Each FWG should please add all of their participants to the following participant list here

Dates

• Pre-conference: From now until 13th June.
• In-Conference: 14th (afternoon schedule), 15th and 16th June (morning schedule)
• Post-conference: From 17th to 30th June.  

Types of presentations

The conference should ensure that everyone who has been involved in RoMOMatter has space and a voice, even those who have not been able to do so now have an opportunity to share their views. With this in mind, we know that not everyone has the same preferences for telling us about their experience and we must overcome the academic-style presentations as an only option. We invite everyone to be creative – i.e. by sending us their participation through voice mails, e-mails, videos, stories, songs, games, etc.

To make this possible, the conference will include spaces for formal presentations, round tables, discussion groups, posters, etc. All those who want to tell us about their experiences in person, want to record them, want to send them in advance and want to discuss them afterwards will be guaranteed a space.

Language. The official languages of the conference are Bulgarian, Romanian, Spanish and English. HLDMI will ensure the simultaneous translation for the conference sessions that require it.

Resources. At the local level (in person):●  Secure 1-3 venues (depending on each context COVID-19 restriction

• • • • ●  Projector and sound
        ●  Computer with camera
        ●  Wi-Fi (please ensure the connection 30 minutes prior to meeting times)
        ●  Zoom
        ●  Snacks/drinks for girls and families on Day 1

Note: Day 1 will have a longer break for the girls to snack/rest between topics.

Deliverable 5.6. Specific documentation to be turned in:

• • ●  Invitation & agenda
  • ●  Signed presence list. There will be two forms of attendance sheets. (1) The signed attendance sheet to the    online conference will be replaced with the participant record provided by the Zoom platform and (2) at the local level a signed attendance sheet will be provided
  • ●  Report of the event. Photos, presentations, feedback questionnaires.

Written by Fischer Zsolt