„At the age of 11, they sold me to a 43 year old man for a chicken, a crate of beer and 100 Euros.” (Tatiana, 19 years old, from Belgrade)

“When I got pregnant at the age of 14, I needed to move in with my boyfriend. I did not know about the consequences of pregnancy and birth. Nobody told me how to feed, bath and take care of a baby.” (Liljana, 16 years old, from Skopje)

“At the age of 14, I wanted to become a model, at 16 I dreamed of my own beauty salon. Now that I am pregnant with my third child, I do not have dreams anymore.” (Nadia, 21 years old, from Buzau)

“The only positive consequence of child marriage is that five generations can sit around one table.” (Zsófia, 32 years old, from Baja)

These or similar statements can be heard from Roma girls and women all the time. They are full of tragic and motivated us to break a taboo! In a modern society, that follows joint European values, it can just not be accepted that Roma girls

• Are poorly or not at all sexually educated and emotionally immature
• Hurt the honour of their family by losing their virginity
• Loose their childhood, “skip” adolescence and become women from one day to the other
• Drop out of school, do not go through a professional education, or participate in lifelong learning
• Are forced into the role of a mother and housewife at a young age, are not able to work themselves and depend this way economically on the husband and his family
• Put their health at risk by early, often quick successive and multiple births
• Are left alone with the education of the children, stay poor and cannot freely develop. Therefore, we did not only want to speak openly about child and forced marriages and deal with their reasons and consequences. We also show alternatives. Because we believe in a society in which each girl and boy has an unburdened childhood and the chance of education and self fulfilment. Of course, child marriages and forced marriages are forbidden in the partner countries as well. That finally all attempts of state and non-state initiatives failed to enforce this prohibition, is on one hand due to the tabooing of this subject by the Roma themselves and because the mentioned initiatives were developed “from the outside” without involving Roma actively.

In our project, Roma women from the partner countries present alternatives leading the Roma girls and their families to a rethinking so that necessary changes will be achieved from the middle of the Roma society. This way, the European context and the specific situation of the according Roma Community will be considered.

• the removing of taboos in relation with the subjects sex live and marriage through an intergenerational dialogue within Roma Communities, within the Roma families, and particularly between mothers and daughters
• the promotion of sex education, family planning and preparation for being a mother
• the perception of education and lifelong learning as basis for the personal development, of economic independence and of social participation
• a new thinking of the role allocation between man and woman within the Roma Communities, particularly the questioning of the sense and necessity of patriarchal structures and certain values

1. 7 documentaries in which three Roma women each from the local Roma Communities of the partner countries show alternatives to child marriages as protagonists by telling the story of their lives
2. A European Documentary that was generated from the country movies, with English subtitles
3. Curriculum and training material for the education of documentary mediators („DocuMedis“) and Manual for their practical work
4. Recognition of the „Education of DocuMedis“ as adult education measure by the Institute of Adult Education at the University of Szeged (HU)
5. 20 educated DocuMedis
6. 32 trained multipliers
7. 43 implemented film events with involvement of more than 1,000 participants in which the documentaries were screened and afterwards discussed together with the DocuMedis

Further information can be found here.