Empowerment Examples

As mentioned earlier:

• Empowerment does not mean redistribution or shifting of power from one individual (or community) to another.
  
• Empowerment means equilibrium across the gender, race, and age, religious, economic and social spectra.
  
• Empowerment means equality and respect for the hopes and aspirations of each and every individual.
  
• Empowerment means ensuring that individuals have the capacity and opportunity to equip themselves with the skills and knowledge necessary to make informed life choices.

Education, in particular, is considered by many to be a central tenet of the empowerment process and the pursuit of equality between the genders:

"Educational attainment is, without doubt, the most fundamental prerequisite for empowering women in all spheres of society, for without education of comparable quality and content to that given to boys and men, and relevant to existing knowledge and real needs, women are unable to access well-paid, formal sector jobs, advance within them, participate in, and be represented in government and gain political influence."

World Economic Forum (2005)

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Example of good practice - from the TC E.M.power

The Bulgarian Roma Student Society (SSDID)

In 2000 in Bulgaria, two large NGO programmes were formed and established in relation to the problems of minorities, including those of education.

These were the Roma Programme of the Open Society Fund of Sofia and the program of the International Centre for Minorities and Cultural Interactions, Sofia. In that historical moment, we, the Roma university students in Bulgaria, were so few that nobody was speaking about us. And only 47 of us declared in public our Roma identity.

We had become aware that education was very important not only to our personal development but that it is also one of the most important social values.

Moreover, we reached the idea that education is the only sure way of long-term improvement of the situation of the Roma community in Bulgaria.

From becoming aware of this idea to taking practical actions for its development and realisation, there was only one step, and this step was made. This was the beginning of the Roma student movement in Bulgaria, the SSDID.

Roma integration is impossible without the necessary civilisation resources: political, economical, and educational. But among the diverse resources and levers of social integration, education is the most crucial as it addresses the causes of the society's diseases rather than just the effects. Therefore, our main priority is the acquisition of higher education by young Roma.

Over 75% of our project participants are young women. One of the main approaches we use to achieve our goals is organising applicant student training courses, these courses are designed to help young Roma prepare for the entrance examinations for university places.

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Our courses include:

• Access to additional teacher support and tuition
• Advice on University courses and entrance requirements
• Meeting the costs of entrance exams, taxes, additional tuition
• Motivational support to increase their belief in their own capacities

Last year, of the 57 students that we prepared for entrance examination 39 are now first year university students.

> For further information visit: http://romastudents.org/en-5511.php/

You want more examples? check these ones:

• Feminist Self Defense (Sweden)
• Dream Girls / Girl Dreams (Belgium/Flanders)

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