Roma Versitas Kosovo

Roma Versitas Kosovo is the only organization that mainly works with Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian students throughout Kosovo, on a daily basis. The work of this organization has been going on for more than five years, and the leading staff gained more than 5 years of direct experience in support of 500 Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian students in three resource centers of Kosovo, Prishtina, Prizren, and Peja. The main aim was, and it will continue to be to raise the performance and capacity in the academic and professional development of these three communities. We strongly believe in most students as great contributors to Kosovo and their own communities’ future. There are many organizations registered to work on advancing the socio-economic status of Roma. Ashkali and Egyptians in Kosovo. However, very few are led by Roma community members. Roma Versitas Kosovo staff members are a combined of nine members belonging to Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian community. Continuously, the staff of this organization already has an accumulated experience of more than 15 years in working with volunteers through different programs such as Balkan Sunflowers International. As a result of successful implementation, the project that started five years ago turned into an organization serving as a portfolio with programs that will work more towards the successes of all the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities in Kosovo. Currently, Roma Versitas Kosovo has three major programs which are implemented in the Kosovo region, the main programs include: ROMA VERSITAS KOSOVO PROGRAM: The main goal of the program is to increase the retention rate and academic capacities of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian university students. The project aims to improve the retention, performance, and graduation levels of at least 80 Roma Ashkali and Egyptian full-time tertiary students in Kosovo through the provision of mentoring, tutoring, and scholarship opportunities. EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, PARTNERSHIPS, AND GENDER EQUALITY PROGRAM The overall objective of the program is to contribute to social inclusion and poverty reduction of Roma (Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians) in Kosovo through the support of vocational education and training, facilitation of labor market, and empowering stakeholders to take measures to support the transition of Roma ( Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians) to employment. INCREASING ACCESS AND PARTICIPATION OF ROMA STUDENTS IN TERTIARY EDUCATION AND TRANSITION TO LABOR MARKET IN KOSOVO The program development objective is to increase the retention rate, academic performances, graduation rate, and increase education opportunities for Roma students and Roma while building the professional development of Roma students enrolled in tertiary education in Kosovo, while improving their professional and personal skills, over a 1 years period of time in order to contribute to its communities and Kosovo society in general. ROLLING FILM FESTIVAL Kosovo is inhabited by nationalities from all over the Balkans, regulating and balancing inter-ethnic relations as well, Roma Versitas Kosovo interest is also to represent the Roma community toward Albanian majority and internationals, in ongoing projects like Rolling Film Festival happening every three years, since 2009 Rolling Film Festival is the only available platform with the possibility to showcase the real-life stories here in Kosovo through locally produced films. During the last 10 years, this festival screened more than 150 films and has a database for over 400 films. INCREASING ACCESS AND PARTICIPATION OF ROMA STUDENTS IN TERTIARY EDUCATION AND TRANSITION TO LABOR MARKET IN KOSOVO (DG NEAR, TER-KOS 03): The project development objective is to increase the retention rate, academic performances, graduation rate, and increase education opportunities for Roma students and Roma while build the and professional development of about 7 Roma students enrolled in tertiary education in Kosovo, while improving their professional and person