COVID-19 fundamentally transformed our life concerning public services; a great percentage of face-to-face interactions between citizens were forbidden or restricted in the interest of curbing the pandemic. Access of services - for example: public schools, government services - became restricted and mainly online, meaning underprivileged, marginalized groups got simply excluded. The situation became particularly difficult for the Roma, partly because of existing discrimination and marginalization, partly because lack of access to digital tools and the necessary competences to operate the tools efficiently.
Digitalize was a response to this situation developed by four civil society organizations from Germany, Romania, Hungary and North Macedonia, supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The project aims to increase access of Roma adults to public services by developing tools which help the communities to adjust to similar situations, enhancing the resilience of communities.
Within the frame of this project the partnership
Transnational meetings
The first Transnational Meeting of the project had to happen online due to Covid-19 and organized by Amaro Drom e.V. The partners went over the project aim and objectives and the general outline of the project. Also, it was discussed and identified the management elements between the partners. During the meeting, the project partners discussed how we see the artistic tools and intellectual outputs as Basic Digital Skills and Digital Skills for All.
The second Transnational Meeting of the project happened in Resita, Romania where the partners discussed about the evolution of the Booklet and each of them explained where they were at their parts. The partnership and management also was evaluated in different spheres.
The third Transnational Meeting of the project happened in Ohrid, Macedonia. The finalized Booklet was presented by Egyutthato Egyesulet, the partners gave their feedback and the translation process started. Besides, the partnership discussed about the creation of movies, good examples were shared by different partners and a common ground for the videos were established.
Training of mentors
The training of mentors was held from 09 to 11 May 2022 in Brebu - Romania. The training was attended by previously selected mentors from Northern Macedonia, Romania, Hungary and Germany who shared the will and interest to participate in this project. The training lasted for 3 days, and a lot of topics which are of utmost importance for realisation of the project were discussed using different methods such as: research, debate, team work, presentation, drawing, learning through games etc…
On the first day of the training, the participants had a brief round of introduction and an opportunity to get to know each other with the help of energizers, name games and teambuilding activities.
On the second day of the training, the mentors received more detailed information about the pros and cons of social media, how to use social media, online shopping and banking, how to protect data security, digital fingerprint information - secure internet. Mentors became more familiar with their role as mentors, as well as accessing online services. The mentors were very engaged in the process of learning and doing research and as said by them the most interesting part was when they were doing research and finding information about the facilitators using the internet, and after the results realizing how important is the digital footprint and how much precautious we should be about what we share on the internet.
On the third day the topics which were covered were cyber bullying on social media, and online hate speech. Mentors were given the opportunity to hold an Oxford debate about the thesis ‘’Freedom of Speech allows hate speech’’ , after which they had follow up discussion.
Local Activities
“DIGITALIZE” aimed at not only developing curricula but to pilot those via local workshops organized by the partners.
In Hungary, Együttható Egyesület organized the local activities between the 13th of October 2021 and the 10th of August 2022, ten parents' meetings as the local activities within the framework of the project. The meetings were planned in order to facilitate the use of digital tools and to transfer digital information to parents of the students of "Hatáspont Tanoda" after-school program that the organization has been running since 2014, where the majority of the students are Roma ethnicity and live in segregated areas in Gyöngyös, Hungary. The main goal of the first five meetings in 2021 was to deliver knowledge about basic ICT concepts and how online tools may be utilized to make daily living easier, as the pandemic made it challenging for people to access many services in traditional ways.
The parents were introduced to local and secure online services that they can use. After the mentor training course which was held in Romania, in each meeting, the topics covered in the training course, and the booklet were emphasized by presentations a the workshops of the voluntary mentors. Main focus was on digital security in those various topics. In the first meeting after the presentation on creating a strong password & how to keep it safe, a workshop was held where the participants created their own sample secure passwords based on what they learned from the presentation, and they reinforced the learning outcomes by evaluating each other's examples. Afterward, they checked their current social media passwords via the online tool suggested by the mentors which allows them to see if their passwords had been compromised. The definitions of the terms “data” & “digital footprint” with their places and effects in our personal and professional lives, were covered in the second meeting, which aimed to raise awareness on what we leave behind and what data is collected from us each time we browse the internet, plus what steps we can take to secure our digital footprints. Following the theoretical info presented, parents googled themselves to view their own digital footprint and discussed the findings of the individual investigation. The third and fourth meetings concentrated on cyber protection which includes subjects from cyber-bullying & hate speech, the questions need to be asked before posting and/or making connections on social media regarding avoiding the misuse of information technologies for both our own and others' well-being, to what we can do to keep our money and identity safe when using online shopping & banking services. The goal of the last meeting was to inform our parents on Hungary's electronic public services and how to take advantage of them.
In Macedonia, RROMA organized the local activities. The mentoring process lasted for 7 months and the mentors had 2 meetings per month with their target groups. After obtaining the most basic knowledge for the devices the mentors started with the phase of supervision i.e for which purpose the device will be mostly used from their target groups. They concluded that as some of them use their phones, they mostly use these devices for multimedia content on Youtube, online communication with relatives via Viber/messenger, but they also concluded that even though they partially know how to use these apps, they don’t know how to independently register on them or create account, their profile is created by someone else. So that is how the mentors approached by explaining them how to download an application from the multimedia service "Google Play", which was explained to them as an online store for music, movies, books and applications for Android and that the content could be free or charged. Also the users got acquainted with the so-called digital dictionary, that is, to explain to them certain IT terms that will be used in the digital world such as: browser, Android operating system, online communication, digital identity, hate speech, personal data, registration, keyboard, etc. The participants in the second month show a significant improvement in handling the device, that is, with the touch screen during assigned tasks.
The mentees got acquainted with social media communication media for culture and creativity, that is, to learn how to register and even better use the tools of each of the social networks that they use most often. They also got acquainted with the basic terms "hate speech" and "antigypsyism’’ and their meaning, as well as how to consider different ways of reacting and reporting hate speech, dealing with online discrimination, intolerance and the rise of violence, racism, extremism and xenophobia. In addition to this, users also learned about the terms "digital identity" and "online reputation" and what they mean, i.e. what could be the consequences of identity "theft", as well as advice about which information should not be shared publicly to prevent the same. During these month the target group was given to search for examples of both topics through keywords, which has already made progress in their analytical skills and online reporting of hate speech cases.
Booklets and videos
"My Booklet for Using ICT Tools" was developed with the intention of creating a resource that will serve as a handbook for Roma adults to have awareness of safety in the digital era, to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes in the areas of how to create secure passwords and safe usage of social media as well as online shopping and banking services, data protection and managing digital footprint, protection from cyber-bullying & online hate speech, and access to electronic public services.
As the 2nd Intellectual Output of the project, illustrations and small movies were being prepared in a way that the target group could understand. We splitted the movies into 5 chapters as also done in the Booklet.
Tablets distributed
On 15th of June 2022, the Regional Roma Educational Youth Association distributed 20 tablets for the aim of the project, DIGITALIZE – tools for Roma adults to use Internet and promote education’’. Prior to receiving the contracts all of the five previously selected and trained mentors signed a contract and each of their focus groups (four people per mentor) signed a contract for using the device as well. The target groups who received the tablets were adult Roma people who didn’t know how to use the device at all, or partly knew for purposes such as YouTube, Facebook…. On the day of the distribution of the tablets every mentor introduced to the aims of the project to each person of their focus groups, what will be their responsibilities, what are the incoming activities they will take part in and what is expected of them to learn throughout the process. After receiving the devices and signing the contracts, each of the mentors facilitated their focus groups to give them knowledge about the basic steps on how to maintain the device, how to charge it, how to turn on/off the volume, how to search through the menu, how to connect it to the WiFI, etc.
Dissemination events
The dissemination events of the project ,,DIGITALIZE – tools for Roma adults to use Internet and promote education’’ were taken place in 2023 in where each of the partner countries on national level to increase the outreach of the project. The national participants were local beneficiaries of the project, representatives of civil society organisations, representatives of public institutions, ministry of education, universities and training centers.
The activities were organised accordingly in each partner country, Amaro Foro in Berlin, Nevo Parudimos in Bucharest, Együttható Közösségépítő Egyesület dissemination event in Budapest and Regional Roma Educational Youth Association (RROMA) in Skopje.
