OSCE Mission to Serbia supports economic education programme for Roma women

BELGRADE/NIS, 26 June 2007 - A three-month education programme for the economic empowerment of Roma women ended today in the southern Serbian city of Nis with a discussion on how to improve municipal support to their business activities.

The programme, consisting of training seminars, was a part of an OSCE Mission to Serbia project to empower Roma women, organized in co-operation with the non-governmental organizations Women's Entrepreneurship Academy and the Women's Space Nis.

The seminars focused on how to create a business plan and succeed at running a company.

"Our aim is to help the women break out of the circle of poverty by providing them with education and a friendly social environment," said Hannelore Valier, Head of the OSCE Mission's Democratization Department. "Put together with their own initiative, it makes a winning formula."

Assisting Roma is a priority for the OSCE Mission, in line with its mandate and the Decade of Roma Inclusion, an initiative of nine Central and South-Eastern European countries to improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of the Roma minority across the region.