Roma React Article: The Bundesjugendtreffen of young Roma and non-Roma is a national youth meeting which takes place in Germany and is organized by Amaro Drom e.V.. Amaro Drom is a German youth organization for Roma and non-Roma (find us also on facebook). Besides its focus on youth work this organization is embedded in national and international networks for youth associations and organizations.
The Bundesjugendtreffen for young Roma and non-Roma is held once a year and lasts three days. After successful years with national meetings in different places in Germany like Duisburg, Berlin, Worms, Göttingen, the Bundesjugendtreffen took place in Berlin for the second time.
The annual meeting has a very important role in our youth work, bringing together youth activists and young people in one place for exchanging and combining experiences, building stronger networks between youths as well as learning something new or collecting new information on currents topics related to the situation of Sinti and Roma in Germany as well as in Europe.
With good mood and lot of positive energy the program started on 2nd of October in a beautiful atmosphere near to the lake Wannsee. Participants from different regions in Germany had the chance to take part in different topics in order to discuss political questions of the present and future, cultures and identities of Sinti and Roma, historical facts and human rights.
The concept of the program was in frame of different workshops like women’s empowerment, antigipsyim in German media, migration and asylum seeking, theatre, music and combatting antigipsyism through media activism representing the no hate speech campaign of the Council of Europe. All of these topics were dealt with showing examples. All groups created products for our webpage in order to spread the products and to develop them in the future.
The closing ceremony was held on 5th of October in the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (German foundation) which supported the event. The ceremony showed the organization’s work of Amaro Drom and the products of the participants during the national meeting.
Each working group chose a different creative way to demonstrate what they discussed, what they learned from this event and what they can share with others in the future.
I think this is a very useful and positive way for each young active person who lives in Germany or Austria. Here we can share our experiences and create contacts in order to improve our networks and collaboration work together. Also it is a chance to get more people engaged into local activism through showing them the diverse possibilities of political change.
Vedrana