A beautiful project is being created in Slovakia, that will help Roma women to find their inner strength, to be able to take care of themselves, to develop their community and to find a good job. It’s called UPre Women and the idea came from Veronika Miškech Fričová from Košice, who worked with the Indian organisation AZAD Foundation on the successful and groundbreaking Women With Wheels programme. When she saw how positively the lives, but also the unfavourable position of women in Indian society were changing, she wanted to try something like this here.
In the interview you will read
- how India’s extraordinary taxi service is changing the world of women,
- what the UPre Women programme will bring to Roma women in Slovakia,
- why many English men and women want to work in the NGO sector…
How does a woman from Košice (Slovakia) get into an Indian and very successful NGO?
It was 2011, I was living and studying in London, just doing my MA in Development Studies and Social Anthropology. A professor told me about AZAD and a book that had just come out about the Women with Wheels programme. I was very interested and I emailed AZAD to see if I could help them in any way. I had not only studying but also good work experience in marketing and communication. They agreed, and as a volunteer I worked on their fundraising activities, especially in Europe. After some time, I was hired and I lived alternately in India and Slovakia.
So volunteering helped you to get a job?
It certainly did. In London, I first worked in different companies, but I quickly realised that the private sector was not for me and I was attracted to the NGO sector. However, in England, getting into the non-profit sector isn’t easy because many people want to work there. Without experience in the sector it is almost impossible. So, if you want to work in the non-profit sector in England, you usually have to volunteer first. This beginning makes a lot of sense to me; it gives you a chance to try working in a non-profit from the bottom up. That’s also why volunteering is quite common in England, and even young children are encouraged to do so. For example, when I was still working at Macmillan Cancer Support, we used to organise a charity breakfast every year. Residents all over Britain joined in, baking and selling cakes or coffee, and the proceeds went to the organisation. It happened almost everywhere – in communities, centres, workplaces and schools where children got involved. There are many opportunities for young English people to volunteer, and through this, they learn a lot about themselves, gain experience and skills essential for future careers, find out about a job field that interests them, and, of course, do a good cause. They can even volunteer in developing countries abroad, which is a huge life experience.
This is the life experience that the AZAD Foundation and their Women With Wheels programme gave you. Why was the idea of creating a women’s taxi service so groundbreaking?
Women in India face many problems, discrimination, and challenges. In addition to their weak position in society, they also experience a lot of violence. And not just domestic violence; they are often subjected to sexual violence in public spaces and public transport. Thus, AZAD set up SAKHA Cabs, a social enterprise or women’s taxi service, to provide women from India’s slums with employment opportunities and safer transport for all women. It must be said that when this idea was conceived 12 years ago, no one believed it would succeed. Women from the lowest class in India are encouraged to look after the household, look after the children, obey their husbands, and, if they work, they are employed in traditional occupations such as domestic workers or seamstresses. AZAD is trying to change their mindset, helping them find the inner strength to understand that they can make their own decisions, that they can study, work and change the lives of themselves and their families. It is important for women to understand that boundaries are imaginary and set by society and that they can overcome them if we allow them to.
How?
First of all, it is the work of the woman on herself. To make her realize that she doesn’t have to be just a mother and a housewife, but that she can really accomplish anything. Secondly, it’s working with society, the family, the community, which often create those limiting barriers. One doesn’t work without the other, we have to work at all levels if we want to change opportunities for women. AZAD is succeeding in this, they recently sent me a message that after years they have finally managed to convince the management of a transport company in Delhi to modify the discriminatory conditions for the intake of bus drivers. These were set in such a way that an Indian woman did not meet them because she was too short. Negotiations between AZAD and the management took years to lower the minimum amount and as a result AZAD trained the first female bus driver in India and managed to employ her. There was even an agreement that the company would employ more women drivers, and thus the attitude of Indian society towards women is changing step by step.
How does the programme work?
Initially, it is important to unlock all the locks in women’s heads. That is, it focuses on women understanding why they are living their lives this way, why they are experiencing violence and discrimination, and that it is not okay and they can seek help. Just understanding that it doesn’t have to be that way and works differently elsewhere brings great relief. The programme has 14 different training modules and focuses on communication (how to communicate properly with a customer), English language (this is a status issue in India, and only the upper class knows it), sexual and reproductive health (a woman has the right to decide when and if she wants to be a mother), gender justice or even self-defense classes. They are run by the Delhi Police not to get women into fights but to teach them how to work with their bodies, to feel their ability and strength to defend themselves, and this naturally raises their self-esteem and mental strength, too – they start to have more confidence in themselves. And, of course, they learn to drive. When they pass the exams and training modules, they are employed either as private chauffeurs in the family or by the taxi company SAKHA.
"Roma women give their children everything they can at that moment and in that environment. It may not seem enough to us sometimes, but a woman can give as much as she can give herself.“
And are you doing something similar now in Slovakia?
Yes, since AZAD has been improving this program for years and the results are amazing, we thought we could use a lot of it here. Because women from marginalised Roma communities face similar challenges and problems. Their discrimination is really extreme – they are women, they are Roma, and they live in segregated communities. All of this reduces their chances for a full and happy life. I have been working for the Carpathian Foundation for several years, and the Roma Community Development Programme is our key programme. We do a lot of activities focused on early childhood development, and in the past, we also focused on employment support and housing. But so far, we haven’t focused directly on women and their empowerment. Roma women are forgotten in the national context. Yet research shows that it is women who can have the greatest impact on their whole community and society. For example, there is a lot of talk now about early childhood development and how we need to focus on it, but we cannot just focus on young children. After all, the mother also plays a key role in early childhood development so that the child develops properly and progresses in the best possible way. Unless that woman has the ability to stand on her own two feet and do what she would like to do for her family, it is not going to work. Based on various studies, but also my work experience, we have come to realize that women represent the strongest potential for change in communities. Because if women are empowered and start earning, they are more likely to invest the money in their family, their children and back into the community. While men from marginalised communities often spend it on alcohol, gambling and the like. Thus, the investment in women pays back many times over by developing not only their family, but the entire community. We often hear that Roma women do not take care of their children, but this is not true. Roma women give their children everything they can at that moment and in that environment. It may not seem enough to us sometimes, but a woman can give as much as she can give herself. That is why, as a society, we should think about what obstacles we are creating for them. This is also why at UPre Women we also work with society, with the family and the community. Because our research has shown us that women can change their lives and find work if they are supported by their families, partners and neighbourhood.
What kind of research?
In the beginning, we wanted to have the deepest possible knowledge and information about what it is like for Roma women when they work, what their journey to work was like, what helped them on it, what were the most difficult obstacles, and how they overcame them. We also wanted to map the status and situation of Roma women in the communities to know what the baseline situation was before the programme and to compare it in a few years’ time. However, we also needed to understand what this empowerment means for Roma women in each community. That’s why we created the UPre study, in preparation for the implementation of the UPre Women programme. It was implemented by experts from June 2021 to spring 2022 and provides many interesting insights into the path to employment. Among other things, it has shown us that it is important for all these women that their children will do better than they did. And further, even though these women are working and trying, they can’t get out of these segregated communities and feel like they don’t belong anywhere. They don’t belong in mainstream society, but they also feel that they don’t belong in a society like Luník IX and don’t want their children to be exposed to the dangers of Luník IX. They feel they live between these two worlds and cannot integrate into either. Although we allow them to work, we continue to discriminate against them and do not allow them to penetrate our world. That is what we are trying to change, step by step.
How does UPre women work?
It is a learning and development process and takes almost a year. First and foremost, we, like AZAD, strive for inner empowerment and a change in the inner attitudes of women. At the same time, we prepare them to get a job and to be able to keep it. We prepare them for interviews, we improve their communication skills, for example, professional terms in the Slovak language that they may encounter in the workplace, we focus on their financial literacy (their quality of life is often affected by debt and usury, so we work on their ability to manage their finances and get out of the cycle of bankruptcy, etc.) and the third part is personal development. Setting personal goals, what they would like to achieve in life, how to achieve it. So let it be about that woman, her aspirations and we’ll just help her do that. We also address the topic of gender equality, how it works in Slovak, Roma society, what women can do to change their lives. They also take a self-defense course, but it is largely devoted to how to prevent conflict, how to communicate in an escalated situation. We also focus on the topic of health (especially sexual and reproductive health, self-care, mental health).
So, to sum it up, you are trying to make sure that Roma women know what they can do and that they believe they can do it.
Yes, but it has to be said that we are not doing it alone. The Carpathian Foundation does not work directly with communities, but we support organisations in the field. We can bring know-how, but we need partners. Therefore, we have chosen the Community Centre for Minorities in Veľký Krtíš (Komunitné centrum menšín Veľký Krtíš), Childhood to Children Civic Association (OZ Detstvo deťom) in Dobšiná and the Labour Agency of the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region, which has excellent experience in strengthening the employment of Roma women. Various experts and lecturers work with women directly in their environment, such as experts from the Human Rights Counselling Centre, the civic association My Mamy from Prešov, etc. Each woman also has a mentor who accompanies her throughout the programme, helps her, motivates her and talks to her.
What happens when the year is over?
We will help women find employment. While AZAD has created a business where women are employed as taxi drivers, we want them to have the opportunity to choose what they want to do and to give them that opportunity. We have been working with potential employers for a year to understand the context of Roma women and what it means if they employ them, and to prepare them for that. At the same time, we believe that we will continue not only in these communities, but that we will also bring the programme to other parts of Slovakia. This first year will teach us a lot, we may improve many things, we hope to enthuse new organisations and donors for this idea and help us to gradually change the lives of more and more Roma women. Over time, we want to create a platform of inclusive employers. It will bring together employers who are interested in employing women from marginalised Roma communities to share experiences.
Thank you for the interview.
UPre in Roma language means up/uplift. The name UPre is also a pun, as UP in English also means up. Thus, the meaning of UPre women symbolizes the upliftment of Roma women in society.
UPre Women programme was supported by:
