ESC: MAKE A CHANGE

Nevo Parudimos Association it’s a nonprofit apolitical organization which was founded by a group of teachers, Roma activists and Roma students from Caras-Severin county, in the south-west of Romania in 2008. The aim of the Nevo Parudimos association is to decrease the economic, social, educational and cultural differences in the society. Objectives of the Nevo Parudimos association are: - To develop activities which promote democracy; - To promote tolerance, diversity and equal chances in the society; - To create community development programs to fight against prejudices towards Roma people; - To increase the organizational capacity of Roma people; - To help Roma communities to develop their own competences and abilities to solve problems; - To develop professional, social, cultural, economic activities and civic commitment. Our activities are split in more fields like: education, culture, social work, community development, human rights, youth work and volunteering, as well as specialized internships for students of Social Work department in Eftimie Murgu University. In the youth work field our activities are in most cases connected with the other activities of the NGO. Until now we have implemented 16 Youth in Action/Erasmus + projects as coordinators and we have on going other 6 from which 3 are strategic partnerships one on youth and two on adult education and one it’s an EVS project. All our youth projects have as beneficiary disadvantaged young people: Roma young people, youth from foster care, youngsters from rural area and youth coming from very poor communities. We were involved as partners until now in more than 70 youth projects, where we sent participants with fewer opportunities coming from very poor and disadvantage communities from small groups up to 35 people groups. Nevo Parudimos is a member of more national and international youth networks: - Youth Express Network – member since 2011 - YES Forum – member since 2010 - Roma Civic Alliance from Romania - ternYpe European Roma Youth Network – funding member since 2015 - Phiren Amenca – member since 2014 - European Roma Grassroots Organization Network – associated member since 2015 Our expertise is well known and recognized in disadvantaged young people’s inclusion projects. Nevo Parudimos in” Roma Youth European Youth” projects I – IV have develop a guide for the youth workers regarding Roma youngsters „9 steps guide in working with Roma youngsters”, guide which now is used at international level by all our partners. Beside this our work with disabled young people in the last years was recognized as a very important and quality one, the project "Yes we can!" – youth exchange with disabled youth - being promoted by the Romanian National Agency as a good practice. We promote inclusion in different ways: using arts in theater related projects, developing citizenship especially for the young people from Rural areas, by developing voluntary work and increasing participation. Also we have a great expertise in educational projects, a big part of the members and staff of Nevo Parudimos being also teachers which work with Roma kids or in very disadvantaged communities. Another important area of expertise of our NGO is the civic involvement and voluntary work which was extended from the youth department also to the social and community development departments, one of our project being nominated as finalist to Erste Stiftung Social Inclusion Projects Award (For a kid smile- rehabilitation of the child section of the municipal Hospital from Caransebes) In the last four years, we developed a constant activity together with our international partners in the field of education for remembrance, an international event aiming to promote the recognition of the Roma holocaust. The most important activity in this direction was the meeting of 1000 Roma and non Roma youngsters from all around the world (25 countries) organized in 2014 in Krakow, Poland in partnership with tenYpe and Phiren Amenca, where Survivors of the Holocaust met the young people and shared their life stories. The event repeat itself in 2016, when we brought together more than 80 young participants from Romania, Roma and non roma (in total there were 380 participants) and in 2017 when we brought together 12 Romanian Roma in an international group of 200 participants. In all our activities, we try to give space to the members of disadvantage communities and especially to Roma communities to be heard and to express their needs as equal citizens.