Roma Education Fund Romania
Budget
€2,006,579
EP Access
0
accredited persons
Staff
1
0.1 FTE
EU Grants
€1,634,401
Mission & Goals
REF is an international network organization, founded in 2005 by the World Bank and Open Society Foundations. REF is dedicated to providing educational services and support for Roma children and youth, REF has extensive experience and knowledge in education in the Roma communities. The vision of the organization is to create a supportive environment for every child, young person, and parent with whom REF works, empowering them to develop personal resilience in rapidly changing societies. REF’s aim is to instill confidence and a sense of belonging, and to encourage active participation within their communities while emphasizing the importance of education as a catalyst for growth and development. Since 2005, the Roma Education Fund (REF) network has gained extensive experience and knowledge about the types of interventions and approaches to Roma education that produce results on the ground in 16 countries in Europe.
EU Legislative Interests
REF has not targeted any policy domain in relation to the EU insofar. REF is interested in all the policy measures that aim to contribute to improved social cohesion through increased education attainment and improved employability potential of the Roma communities across regions in Europe, as well to foster cross-country and regional dialogue and knowledge transfer. The organization is interested in contributing to the consultation processes and other initiatives evolving around the European Child Guarantee and the Western Balkan Growth Plan, as well as the in-country National Recovery and Resilience Plans of the member states. Also, the organization seeks to take part in the consultative framework around EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation.
Communication Activities
In terms of policy implementation in relation to the EU, the organization is at the beginning of the activities in the field. The organization is mainly interested to contribute to the public consultation processes. The organization implements educational projects for all levels of education, for Roma communities and, from this perspective, it is interested in all themes that come across the subject of education. Directly, the organization is part of the campaign “First Years, First Priority”, focusing on providing more support for education initiatives of the age group 0 to 6 years old. The campaign website can be found here: https://firstyearsfirstpriority.eu/the-campaign/. Indirectly, the organization contributed to the development of policies related to Roma, attending events related to this consultation: https://ec.europa.eu/research-roma-children/?publications/347/. In addition, it took part in events related to this initiative: https://epha.org/epha-analysis-health-in-the-2014-national-roma-integration-strategies/. Also, REF is in close collaboration with Roma for Europe - https://romaforeurope.org.
Interests Represented
Does not represent commercial interests
Member Of
-
Organisation Members
REF belongs to a network organization. REF RO per-se has no members as it is a foundation. The network of REF has been established in 2005 with the occasion of the Decade for Roma Inclusion. Information regarding the entire network can be found here: https://www.romaeducationfund.org/who-we-are/ref-network/. The individual members of the Board of the Foundation can be found here: https://roma.education/ro/members-of-the-board/. (5 members of the Board of the Foundation in Romania). Since 2005, the Roma Education Fund (REF) has gained extensive experience and knowledge about the types of interventions and approaches to Roma education that produce results on the ground. In its field of expertise, REF has either established in-country project or implemented activities in 16 countries in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, as well as the Western Balkans and Turkey (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine). Currently, REF RO takes over the role of main entity leading the network.
Additional Information
Actually, we did not incur any costs related to the activities covered by the Register. We are hereby applying the Register to be involved in consultation processes
Commissioner Meetings
No recorded meetings with EU commissioners.