"SUPPORT, INFORMATION AND JOINT ACTION CENTRE OF ROMA NGOs IN TUZLA CANTON"

There are 15 Roma NGOs in Tuzla region. Each and every of them has their aims and activities, which sometimes overlap.

Unfortunately, many organizations have no annual plan, but they work campaign-style, i.e. when they face a concrete issue. Reason for this kind of problem lays in the fact that they have not had a vision nor conducted any survey among their members in order to find out about their needs. Therefore, the beneficiaries of the projects are not always sufficiently informed.

Numerous Roma organizations have no educated staff to run the organization. In most cases, same people would play both the role of the project creators and project managers, since most of the Roma population is illiterate or moderately literate. Many young Roma people are literate in Tuzla Canton nowadays, but they are scarcely active in Roma organizations. There are two reasons for this; firstly, young people are not interested, and secondly, the leaders are not willing to train and educate youth to work in NGO sector.

Even though some of the organizations are active for ten years, many of them had not organized one single board meeting, so the same people lead those organizations for three mandates, without their members being aware of anything going on in the organization. This means that Roma leaders take their organizations for their property. Numerous Roma leaders still treat each other badly, trying to set each other up. Moreover, many of the organizations facilitated and equipped, which makes the Centre's activities harder to maintain. 

Many Roma organizations have no educated staff to implement projects, i.e. capable human resources. Young organizations have no experience, and therefore very little success finding donors and implementing projects. We want to help them fortify their organizations' structure. There are very few young people in Roma organizations, and it is necessary to support and aid youth, especially young women. They need to be given a chance help themselves and Roma NGO sector with their fresh ideas. It is also known that Roma people from Roma NGOs relate negatively towards their compatriots from other NGOs. This antagonism and rivalry represent great obstacles to the cooperation and progress of the Roma community. Many organizations were run had individual approach towards the authorities until year 2005, and this fact made Roma organizations' work and progress thornier.

This problem can be solved by working together, which is the main aim of the "Support, Information and Joint Action Centre" in Tuzla Canton region. Roma "Support, Information and Joint Action Centre" has to work on Roma leaders' conscience-development. Roma organizations are responsible for survival of the Roma NGO sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Request sent to authorities by Roma organizations were individual and ambiguous in all social spheres (education, healthcare, social welfare, etc.). Therefore, the authorities stayed motiveless to the disarray of the Roma organizations towards the authorities, as well as the donors. We have an opportunity to change this mind-set. This Centre, as a crucial factor for the problem-resolution of the Roma people in Tuzla Canton, drew attention on multiple meetings and press-conferences. The Roma organizations and the "Support, Information and Joint Action Centre" are called for active participation in the implementation of the "Roma crisis resolution strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina," passed by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the Roma official representatives.

In addition, the Strategy invites the Roma NGOs to network and create partnerships, not only with other Roma organizations, to plan joint activities, to organize and perform more efficiently, which is an immense gain for all Roma people. There is no authority in Tuzla Canton except for Tuzla Municipality, Municipal Council and Tuzla Cantonal Assembly, that deals with minority issues, and that leads Roma national minority to marginalization. It is anticipated in the Amendment to the Election Act, which regulates the participation of the minorities in the municipal councils, for every municipality to synchronize their statute with the aforementioned Act. Thus far, Tuzla municipality is the only one to have amended the Statute, although the Act was enacted in year 2004.

 Centre's tasks: (zadaci)

• Enhancing the growth and development of new NGOs
• Follow-up on activities of the other Roma and non-Roma organizations
• Connecting and coordinating the activities of the Centre member
• Networking different social sectors (NGO, local authorities, international
• Organizations, media, etc.)
• Establishing new initiatives state-wide, as well as on the level of
• municipalities, cantons, entities, etc.
• Organizing ad hoc actions for the society's wellbeing

The Resource Centres are, actually, services for citizens' organizations, which serve and aid organizations, media, citizens, authorities.

Action plan: (planirane aktivnosti)

 Starting the initiatives for forming the committees for minority issues within the municipal councils and the Cantonal Assembly. Given that the committees are working according to the rules of procedure of the Municipal Council and the Cantonal Assembly, we will lobby political parties for amending the rules of procedure of the Municipal Council and the Cantonal Assembly. However, we will first start the initiative for amending the rules of procedure. All committees of the municipal councils are financed from the municipal budget. The desired result of this action would be that committee considered the issue of minorities and suggested certain solutions to the authorities. Moreover, it should influence enacting certain laws concerning the minority issues.

Another action is lobbying Municipal councils for synchronizing the Statutes with the Election Act, which regulates the participation of the minorities in the municipal councils. Given that the Amendment to the Election Act, which regulates the participation of the minorities in the municipal councils has already been passed, and that it should be enforced on the municipal elections in 2008, we will work on synchronizing this Act with the municipal Statutes, so that minority clauses within the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina could be enforced after the 2008 elections.

• The Roma issue strategy development 2007 - 2010 (Izrada strategije)

Aims: Our goal is to enhance the resources of the Roma NGOs and their participation in the development of the civil society through informing, initiation, idea brainstorming, securing a healthy communication and coordination between the organizations, donors, authorities, and media. This aim can be accomplished through the Support, Information, and Joint Action Centre of Tuzla Canton.