The Conference “Strengthening of Young Roma Families to Reduce Asylum Seeking” was held on Wednesday, 5 December 2018, at the premises of ADRA Serbia Foundation. For the third consecutive year, ADRA Serbia has been implementing the project “Strengthening of Young Roma Families”, supported by the German Foreign Office (GFO), in cooperation with ADRA Germany. The main implementing partners are “Branko Pešić” School for Primary and Adult Education, SOS Children’s Villages Serbia and Know How Centre. The project objective is to contribute to poverty reduction of Roma through economic empowerment, vocational training and business entrepreneurship.

The conference was attended by more than 60 participants – partners and friends from civil society, state institutions, foreign embassies, representatives of employers/companies, beneficiaries.

The conference was opened by Mr Igor Mitrović, ADRA Executive Director.

The introductory words on behalf of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs of the Republic of Serbia were given by the State Secretary Ms Stana Božović. Her message was that the state will always support such projects and initiatives and that Roma inclusion is one of the key priorities of the Serbian Government.

Ms Leonie Reimers, Head of Development Cooperation at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany highlighted the very successful cooperation between two countries and the importance of the projects implemented by ADRA. She added that the German Government will continue to support the implementation of projects related to the inclusion of Roma. Deputy Director of the Belgrade National Employment Service Branch Office, Mr Siniša Knežević, emphasised the importance of synergy, trust and cross-sectoral cooperation for the achievement of the best possible results when it comes to the employment and self-employment of Roma.  Mr Frank Brenda, Program Director for development cooperation of ADRA Germany, said that this, not so big project  has changed the lives of people, and in this sense it  has an enormous significance for the individuals who have participated in it.

According to his words “Regardless of whether it is a big or small stone, when thrown into water, every stone creates a circle of waves – and those circles grow bigger and bigger. This is exactly what we experience and create in our projects”.