Project name

Rroma inclusion is extremely complex and is one of the most intractable social issues facing Romania today. Progressing on this front takes long-term vision, unity of purpose and applied coherence. However social interventions are usually fragmented, vertical and short-sighted. This project is an unprecedented partnership of Rroma and non-Rroma NGOs bringing together development actors who excel in their own areas of expertise but who may have otherwise worked separately. For the first time they will join forces in targeted geographical areas in a coherent, community-based and integrated manner, with a view to bringing tangible results on the social inclusion of the underprivileged. Terre des hommes and its partners have painstakingly designed a collective methodology, sharing a common vision. Once they handover the project in 40 months’ time, they will leave behind empowered community leaders/members who share the same vision and who will carry on with this much-needed work: a virtuous spiral of inclusion. The Consortium will not solve all problems faced by the communities in which the project intervenes within 40 months, but all partners will all move in the same direction and hasten the wind of change.

The project title, “zefiR”, symbolizes the wind that was born out of the ashes of Europe decades ago and still blows today, albeit discreetly, in the same direction. While this gentle breeze is facing opposing forces, at times violent, it continues to push relentlessly – it reminds us of a pleasant zephyr in a late afternoon spring day. An auspicious balval that blows along the Danube valley, bringing good omen. zefiR is an acronym in German but the word is known in Rromani, Romanian, English and French. From a European history perspective, the movement goes from slavery, samudaripen (“killing of everybody”), forced assimilation and pogroms, to a situation where Rroma are increasingly respected, included, consulted, elected, listened to – in one word, empowered.

This project belongs to a historic movement: the wind that starts from z for zigeuner and ends with r for Rroma. With a capital R.