The education and development programme UPre Women, implemented by the Carpathian Foundation and its partners, seeks:
To help Roma women build their self-confidence and acquire the necessary information and skills to make independent decisions.
To be able to gain financial independence and stability and secure their livelihoods.
To become agents of change in their communities and to positively influence or lead other Roma women.
To break down prevailing harmful stereotypes about Roma women, especially on the part of employers, and to alleviate the combined discrimination that Roma women face to a greater extent than non-Roma women, but also than Roma men.
Within the framework of the programme, Roma women are educated in the field of work (writing a CV, preparing for an interview, visiting potential employers…), financial literacy (setting up a financial diary, tracking income and planning expenditures, etc.), as well as in the field of personal development (gender equality, gender-based violence, strengthening communication skills, development of digital skills, self-defence course, etc.).
The entire process is carried out by experts and expert organizations in the communities (read more about trainers and training HERE). The Carpathian Foundation also cooperates with employers in the regions to create job opportunities for participants. As part of the programme for employers, it has also produced a document summarising the barriers and recommendations for employing women from the MRC.
The programme is currently running at Lunik IX in Košice thanks to the support of the Karl Kahane Foundation and the Starbucks Foundation (read more HERE).
And thanks to the support from the European Union within the Slovakia Programme in the amount of 293 423,20 EUR, the programme is expanding to other localities in the East and will support 100 Roma women (more HERE).
The pilot part of the programme was implemented from January 2022 to August 2023 in marginalised Roma communities in Veľký Krtíš and Dobšiná in cooperation with theLabour Agency of the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region, the civic association Detstvo dětomand theCommunity Centre for Minorities Veľký Krtíš,and from November 2023 at Luník IX in Košice in cooperation withETP Slovakia.
You can read more about the individual activities of the programme in the NEWS section.
UPre in Romani means up/uplift. The name UPre is also a pun, as UP in English also means up.
The significance of the UPre women thus symbolizes the upliftment of Roma women in society.
The current year of the UPre Women program is co-financed by the European Union as part of the Slovakia Program.
The pilot project UPfor Women: a Programme for the Development and Increasing Employability of Women from Marginalised Roma Communities was supported by the Norwegian Grants 2014-2021 and the State Budget of the Slovak Republic.
To find out more about Norwegian grant-funded programmes and projects in Slovakia, please visit www.norwaygrants.sk.
