POLICY CENTER FOR ROMA AND MINORITIES

FOUNDATION

standing for the EDUCATION of ALL

 w h o w e a r e

Policy Center for Roma and Minorities Foundation

(PCRM) is a non-governmental organization founded in
2008 in Bucharest, Romania, whose vision is built on
the fact that the right to education belongs to every
human being. Thus, through education, Roma living in
poor and marginalized communities are empowered to
become active citizens of the society.

PCRM supports the social inclusion of Roma and fights

discrimination using a wide array of instruments -
education, arts, sports, community organizing,
research, policy-making and advocacy campaigns. Its
mission is to engage Roma and non-Roma citizens,
public and private institutions and non-profit
organizations, in a common effort to provide equal
opportunities for everyone, regardless of their social
and ethnic background.
 T h e A l t e r n a t i v e e d u c a t i o n c l u b ( A E C )

Our flagship program is The Alternative Education

Club, a non-formal education program started in 2010,
which currently serves nearly 150 children in
Ferentari. It is one of the few long-term innovative
educational programs in Romania and the only such
initiative that has been running continuously for the
past eight years in a neighborhood recognized as the
poorest in Bucharest, notorious for drug use,
trafficking and prostitution. Since its foundation, the
AEC is placed in two schools close to the ghetto type
areas Aleea Livezilor, Iacob Andrei, Tunsu Petre and
pangarati. 

The AEC aims to empower children to break the vicious

cycle of marginalization, poverty and hopelessness in
which they find themselves. Not many children
graduate from high school and college. Moreover, the
children face ethnical discrimination and the scorn of
the majority of population who still looks down upon
them because they belong to the maligned Roma
community, which is widely discriminated against in
Romania.
 f o u r m a i n g o a l s o f a e c

to develop innovative approaches focused on improving school attendance

and performance, as well as cognitive, artistic and creative skills
development;

to strongly promote the idea of active citizenship and respect among Roma
children and not only and parents involved in the project;

to develop a core sports team to increase discipline, self-esteem, team

spirit, respect, and to help the children discover their abilities in order to
succeed in finding a job later in the future;

to create a safe, creative and challenging space for the students and
children from the Ferentari ghetto whithin the premises of the school.
 REMEDIAL EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS
Romanian and financial and social education,
mathematics, educational storytelling workshops,
assistance, individual health education, prevention
stimulation of drug use, healthy nutrition
classes
218 children
participated in our
activities
in 2018

COUNSELLING NON-FORMAL EDUCATION

psychological & vocational THROUGH ARTS AND SPORTS
counselling, personal development theatre, street-dance,
for 8th grade students handmade activities, football
 COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
In 2013 we started building brick by brick what later became the Mothers' Club - a civic initiative
group of Roma and non-Roma women form Ferentari, trying to work with local authorities in order to
address the needs of their community. In 2017 we finalised the study "Access to electricity and living
conditions in poor areas in Ferentari" (with financial from Enel Romania, one of our main partners),
offered assistance for heat allowances and access to electricity, developed community projects
addressing the poor housing and home conditions.
In 2019 we started a new series of community projects, whose philosophy is tge solution finding by
the citizens directly affected and the habit of taking action for the good of the whole community,
 P O L I C Y A N D A D V O C A C Y
We are working on making the ghetto a better place by advocating for structural change targeting the
local authorities and by empowering the adults in the community to strengthen their civic voice and to
engage in community development. In 2017, we were selected by the Sector 5 Mayor's Office as one of
the members of the local action group. We also contributed to the development of the local Action Plan
focused on the need to solve the water access for the residents of the Ferentari ghetto.
In 2019 we engaged in a project with sociologists, urbanists and experts to work together on a urban
development strategy in Bucharest. We participate annually in the ATD Fourth World conferences at the
European Parliament in Bruxelles, and share with other education experts stories and effective methods
to use in our work with the children, as well as education strategies to propose at the local level.
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