Serbia Archives

One in One Hundred: Drivers of Success and Resilience among College-Educated Romani Adolescents in Serbia

One in a hundred Roma makes it to University, why is that? The study One in One Hundred: Drivers of Success and Resilience among College-Educated Romani Adolescents in Serbia, is a collaboration between the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University (Harvard FXB) and the CIP Center for Interactive Pedagogy in Belgrade. The research goes beyond the scrutiny of educational deficits and obstacles to find out what actually works.

Researchers studied the responses from surveys, interviews, and a “Writing Romani Lives” workshop conducted with 89 Romani adolescents who made it to college and 100 who did not. The findings showed that strong teacher and peer support systems, access to early childhood development services, and a high level of education among immediate family members corresponded to educational success.

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Realizing the rights of Roma children and women in Eastern Europe

Summary analysis of key findings from MICS surveys in Roma settlements in the three countries.

The lack of information on Roma communities, especially children, young people and women, hinders the development of effective social inclusion policies. In response, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia are taking crucial steps to end Roma exclusion, by monitoring progress and developing policies to prevent discrimination. These bold initiatives set a valuable example for other countries to follow.

Drawing on these efforts, the UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe/ Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) has produced a study on the situation of Roma children and women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Serbia to find out how Roma children fare in comparison to non-Roma and where positive progress has been made in social inclusion. This study fills a major gap in available research and disaggregated data on Roma children, young people and women.