Rroma HeArt Newspaper

ASIRYS Super Tineri

Project funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

The story of our project

Rroma HeArt

Rroma HeArt is: 

freedom



love



friendship



creativity



challenges



nature



passion



adventure



experience



knowledge

Rroma HeArt was an Erasmus+ project in Romania, where more than 40 participants from 8 countries united and created the first Rroma Experiential Museum. It took place between 4-13 August and it happened in a nomad way, where the youngsters had the opportunity to see and experience life in more than one place: Târgu Frumos, Băiceni, Bălțați, Zmeu and Ruginoasa. Spain, Turkey, Slovenia, Sardinia, Estonia, Cyprus, Greece and Romania put their print on the museum in a really unique way, trough a lot of challenging workshops. Starting with clay on their hands and finishing with painting the walls, the participants kept their positive vibe

and motivated themselves by creating bonds between work and self fullfilment.

Innitiated with the desire of learning about tolerance and new cultures, Rroma HeArt became a way of expressing ourselves and discovering how to emphatize with other types of people that can be hard to understand or to accept.

This experience was a proof that we can break the stereotypes and establish connections in order to work as an entity. At the end, we felt like nothing can compare with what we have accomplished in these 10 days full of challenges and memories that will always remain in our hearts.

Page 2: Killing the fears

“We are here as volunteers and we want to give something from our soul and we don’t need something in return. The payment is the satisfaction of doing something for the others, that will remain forever. I hope maybe someday my children will add another rock here, where I put the first one, and then the children of my children. I really like the house, since it’s something new for me. In my country, they are not like this. I feel really lucky that my organisation gave me the opportunity to come here.” - Nikolia Papadopolou (Greece)

“I expected this place not to be that cool.

Here are friendly, open minded participants, and most of them are not shy. In my country, people are living in huge houses, so here it’s understandable why they are so friendly, since they live in this village. And I admire that they help each other so much. The activities here are just… I always wanted to dig! In the first day of the project I wanted to go home, but I feel like in the last day we are going to cry because we leave. It is my first project and I think that it will be the greatest.” - Alan Heidmets (Estonia)

“I feel happy to be here, very integrated with the whole group and also the organizers. I feel like home, I’m spending a good time and I can express myself and my feelings, and I think all the group members can do the same. I really like at Băiceni. I like the nature and hat we we’re experiencing a real camping, also trying to create something in a primitive way. Somehow, we feel like gypsies. We “I’m very excited about the practical understand them.” Ilkan Koral work here in Băiceni. I’m feeling a good (Cyprus) connection with the other participants, “I like being in the nature. I love the working all together, making jokes, using place and I think you did a really god few tools, it improves our creativity and job. The people in the village are very also the cooperation of the group. I don’t nice, I met an old lady and she really wanted to speak with me, even if I was- care if it’s hot and we don’t have showers in the camp, I’m just following the n’t talking Romanian. Mostly, we just flow. Even if the hot weather can’t smiled to each other, but somehow we eclipse these amazing days! It’s the first managed to exchange named with the help of body language. I feel I’m like the project in which I’m feeling the real learning process. I think we should rekids who are looking fascinated at us, hangind around the house: fascinated.” - flect more about the approach that we have with the Rroma community.” - Ana Alina Morano (Slovenia)

Perez (Spain) “I have learnt things that I’d never imagined I could learn. The meeting with the Romani teacher Creţu was very useful, he helped us a lot and he was very kind with us. I like the camp and I’m enjoying the work. It’s the first time I do something like this and I think it’s very useful.

We should be careful about our attitude when we want to discover oher cultures, maybe reflect more about the right way to get to know them.” - Alba Membrilla Esteban (Spain) “I want to feel involved with the gypsy culture, I’d like to know everything about their songs, their habits, their clothes. I think it’s gonna be hard to stay here but I believe we’ll manage it. It would be nice to have a museum with a signature, to leave our print here.” - Elif Nur Usta (Turkey) “It’s very very exciting, this experience it’s the most beautiful one! I think that there were very interesting days with all our funny games and that we have a good connection with the entire team.” Valentine „I’m part of the Romanian team and because of this, I see the things different than I used to do. When we were preparing for the project, I was thinking that it will be very difficult and that we will have a hard time, but now, working with the other participants, everything was easier, the atmosphere was magical and we had a lot of fun together.” - Ștefana Vintilă (Romania)

Page 3: Work, work, work

“The architecture workshop was pretty hard, pretty smelly and also really messy. But I don’t care if I get dirty or not.

The people that were working with me at workshop didn’t know a thing about clay, so they have learnt something new.

It took really long to actually make the clay and people got tired of it pretty quickly so we had a lot of people joining and leaving the architecture teams job because they couldn’t be bothered of making the clay over and over again. I have done this kind of work before because my mindset is that I just got to somehow finish my job.” - Gregor Kelder (Estonia)

“I tried my best to do everything at the landscape workshop, I digged holes, built the tents, and we brought all the mattreses. We did the fences, put all the sticks together, we really worked hard.

My grandfather always tells me that I’m studying and that I can’t know the real struggle of working outside. My hands are in pain, but I like it. It’s my 5th project and is very different from previous ones because it’s more about experiencing the nomad life. It’s practical, and we get to know this kind of lifestyle, especially because it’s not the first time I’m camping, but it’s definitely the most unique one because I don’t have a car or a town near to buy food, we need to cook it.” - Vasilis Dimitriodis (Greece)

“In spite of it being composed of very few people, the "Symbols' Group" did a remarkable job in contributing to the decoration of the museum. During the project, we created a "head in the hole" of a gypsy girl dancing, which was placed outside the entrance of the museum and was used for photoshooting. In addition, using bendy wood from the pieces of wood available, we created a wooden wheel, a gypsy symbol that is being shown on the gypsy flag. This was painted red, as it is depicted on the flag, and was placed on the wall, whose background had the same colors as the flag, so in a way, the flag was recreated using the 3D replica of a wheel. The group also made an "Instagram frame" and some labels with "hashtag quotes", which were used for photo-shooting during the experiential museum opening event. Last but not least, other symbols such as a fortune teller's crystal ball were created and added in the museum, in order to contribute to bringing the gypsy spirit in the house. Creating these objects was a very fun and creative process. We worked using the materials available and often had to think outside the box in order to overcome some minor inconveniences. The group bonded very well after working together and we learnt a lot more about the Rroma symbols and habits.” - Sofia Lampitsi (Cyprus)

“We cooked some Turkish meal like rice (pilaf) that are most famous foods in Turkey and we made potato salad. We helped each other while doing the cooking workshop because in our team, the one who was good at slicing did it, the one who was good at cooking did it, and the one who was good at visually, prepared the dinner table. For example, I am good at desserts, so I made one whose name in “Etimek”. We cooked for almost 50 people because we had guests except the participants and it was a bit difficult to cook for so many people, but because we had the opportunity, the equipment and help from the others, it was entertaining and made us feel we can cook for even more if we know how to work together and cooperate. The best part of cooking is to know that you will eat that food from your country with friendly and lovely people and you will make them have knowledge of your country cuisine.” - Izem Vatandaș (Turkey)

Page 4: Rroma Experiential Museum A participant perspective

Marina García (Spain)

“When we arrived to the future Rroma Museum, the walls were white with stains and cracks. But we, a group of heart-artists, felt that in one or another way, these walls could express the culture and the history of the Rroma people. Together, we planned how to paint the walls including Rroma symbology, traditions and history. First of all, we painted the right room, the “historical room”. In this room, you can find a paragraph of a famous gipsy speech written and some traditional symbols from Rroma legends. We painted that because one of the most important claims of the Rroma people in Europe

is the historical memory. A community that doesn’t know its history is destined to disappear.

Secondly, we painted the hall, the “Rroma Flag Hall”. To made it, we collaborated with the symbols teams.

We painted the room blue and green, and they made a red wheel. We did that to represent the Rroma flag.

Rroma flag express the grass, the sky and the red wheel of progress and movement. On third, we painted the left room. This is the room of the actuality. There, you can find a wall with different words in Rroma language, another with a traditional symbol from Rroma culture that

“We discovered a lot of things about the history and the Rroma traditions. Working in a cooperative intercultural team was also a challenge. ”

express the movement (three horses and a red wheel) and some abstracts draws that express the diversity of the Rroma people. We decided to paint this to value the Rroma identity but also to show the Rroma people with their diversity, breaking the idea of the Rroma people as an homogeneous group of people. Finally, we painted the walls outside blue and we drawn some traditional symbols from Cucuteni. We painted them like this as a close up to the local communities. When we were in Targu Frumos, a Rroma guy showed us some traditional houses and they used to be blue.

Also, when we were walking in the village, we saw a lot of traditional symbols from Cucuteni. We took all this art references to paint the walls outside.

Also, on a lateral wall you can find a draw of two Rroma people dancing. I felt really empowered, because we could transform our knowledge in art painting the walls. Also, because to paint it we had to learn a lot from the local communities and the Rroma identities.

We discovered a lot of things about the history and the Rroma traditions.

Working in a cooperative intercultural team was also a challenge. We had to plan, to organised ourselves taking into account the time… and all of that breaking the borders of the language!

But, finally, we achieve it because we work together.”

Page 5: Feelings in words “I think the project rather had a very good impact especially on the Estonians because our idea of Rromas and their culture was very different from what we saw and experienced during these 10 days. And we are grateful that we had the chance to change our assumptions and understanding about everything related to Rromas. Not a lot of Estonians and other Northern European countries have that chance.”

Kelly Kurs “They are amazed by the project and the experience in general, I'm very happy because they have been able to communicate and they integrated a lot in the big group, that is something usually very difficult for them due to the language barrier and they shyness.” Lallo, Italian partner

“It was one of the most affective project that me and my team have took part. Very sensitive, full of energy and learning a lot.”

Baran Koç “The young participants (15-17 years old) are now more aware about their skills, they trust more in their capabilities and they believe in themselves. Some of them improved a lot their communication skills in English, because they put a big effort in that and both the other participants and the organizers were very helpful. The members of the association Asirys worked very hard to guarantee a high standard of the youth exchange and they perfectly managed to match our expectations. The participants of my national group were fully satisfied and now they want to be more involved in European initiatives, thanks to this experience. We had the unique opportunity to meet some members of the gypsies communities in Romania, and I think we really need to have these kinds of cultural exchanges to develop a peace-based culture.”

Giulia Cara Palmas

Page 6: The Youthpass of the project

Communication in mother’s tongue: We helped each other from each team to express better our thoughts, feelings, idea and contribute actively to the project, even if we didn’t know how to do it in English. Our team spirit and need of involvement made us to participate in every activity and this meant that we needed to communicate a lot in our national language in order to decide, discuss together and also with the others from different countries.

Communication in foreign language: In order to understand the aim of the project, the activities and to communicate with the participants from the other countries, we talked in English and improved our skills in this language. Trough public speaking, presentations and international team activities we learnt new words and new ways of expressing our ideas in front of people that we don’t know. We also learnt words and expressions in other languages than English.

Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology: Since we participated in the cooking workshop, we had to calculate for each ingredient how much we need to have enough for everybody. We developed our mathematical competence trough real situations in life where we had to decide and calculate how many kilos of vegetables we need, how much time will take us to cook everything and how much food we need for everybody.

Digital competence: For completing some tasks, doing research on the internet, looking for specific information and creating presentation we needed to use computers and internet. We had learnt how to use technology in order to achieve a new ability (like public speaking) and how to use it, so we can share from our culture, knowledge, ideas and feelings. Trough this competence we discovered that there can be a connection between technology and people.

Page 7: The Youthpass of the project “The Youthpass certificate helps to document the development of competences, as well as to confirm participation and describe the respective project.�

Learning to learn: We did a lot of activities where we needed to manage our time, our energy and to be divide the task so everybody can do what he does the best. We had the opportunity to reflect at our learning process, to get involve in the activities that suit us the best, the watch what we begin to learn, what we improve during the days, what more we can do for our self development and how the project helped us in this direction.

Social and civic competences: Since the project was focused on discrimination and breaking stereotypes, the competence that we developed the most is regarded to the fact that we learn more about how to accept the others. Now we want to get more involved in our community’s problems, to discover people, their way of living and thinking and to create bonds between each other, no matter our differences or what made us seem different for the others.

Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship: Because we had a lot of different workshops with different topics, a diversity of activities where we had to work in a team, some people developed the sense of initiative. The leadership spirit is a very important competence that the participants grew during the project trough important decisions that they took with their teams, innovative ideas for creating more special workshops and motivating the others to participate.

Cultural awareness and expression: Not only that now we know more about Rroma people, their culture and history, but we also had the opportunity to discover details from the other countries that got involved in the project.

Trough the intercultural nights, the sharing that we had with the food, the traditions and the dances that we had, we managed to create a beautiful exchange of what makes every country and culture a beautiful one.

Page 8: And we promised a “See you soon!”

We organize festivals and we everywhere we go, we try to talk about what we have done in this project. For example, FOLCLORISTICA is one of our long lasting projects with the main aim to promote our region’s traditions trough young people and their talent. We want to connect these two fields with non-formal education and to create an unique event. At this edition which took place between 15-16 September in Tomesti, we disseminated our results, we talked to people about the project and we tried to make them feel a little bit of what we had learnt there.

About non-formal education, Erasmus+ and Rroma HeArt we talked during the conference “Erasmus in village” which took place also in Tomesti. The authorities and teachers from the schools came to be better inform about the European program and how they can improve their skills in order to help youngsters evolve and learn new and different things. As example of a good practice, we showed them our project and we talked sincerely about what happened there, what activities we did and what was the atmosphere.

The Romanian participants spoke about their experience and how Rroma HeArt influenced their way of seeing things.

We celebrated The European Day of Languages with Europe Direct Iași, at “Unirea” highschool from Pașcani. We were invited to talk about our project in front of dozens of youngsters who wanted to find more about Europe, Erasmus+ and the opportunities that they have. We presented them Rroma HeArt project, trough memories of the Romanian participants, so they could feel the impact that it had on the long-term. Even teachers expressed their interest in discovering more about volunteering activities, Erasmus+ program and non-formal education. The students had the opportunity to put question, share with us some of their experiences and ask for more information about European opportunities.

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.