Help for Roma in 28 municipalities

An Agreement on Local Self-Governments Cooperation to help the Roma population, together with a UNDP agreement, have been signed in Belgrade today. The Human and Minority Rights Ministry, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), is conducting a project called “Reducing Precarity for Roma in Serbia”. Help for Roma in 28 municipalities The project will generate funds to allow local self-governments to implement action plans for the Roma population through small UNDP loans. The commission for granting, monitoring and evaluating the project’s success has received and approved motions to prepare projects for the implementation of these plans. Meanwhile, Labor Minister Rasim Ljajic has opened an Office for Roma Issues in Kursumlija and donated 81 sets of school-books to Roma children. Ljajic said that so far 35 such offices had been opened in Serbia and that 18 new ones were expected to be opened in the next year. Recently he said that the goal of opening these offices was to improve the plight of the Roma minority, which he said, was in an extremely bad way. "We intend to open 69 of these offices by the end of 2009 in Serbia’s municipalities. This kind of model of appointing a coordinator in local self-governments is unique in the region, and its goal is to recognize the Roma community’s problems and tackle the most serious ones,” Ljajic said.

Help for Roma in 28 municipalities

The project will generate funds to allow local self-governments to implement action plans for the Roma population through small UNDP loans.

The commission for granting, monitoring and evaluating the project’s success has received and approved motions to prepare projects for the implementation of these plans.

Meanwhile, Labor Minister Rasim Ljajić has opened an Office for Roma Issues in Kuršumlija and donated 81 sets of school-books to Roma children.

Ljajić said that so far 35 such offices had been opened in Serbia and that 18 new ones were expected to be opened in the next year.

Recently he said that the goal of opening these offices was to improve the plight of the Roma minority, which he said, was in an extremely bad way.

"We intend to open 69 of these offices by the end of 2009 in Serbia’s municipalities. This kind of model of appointing a coordinator in local self-governments is unique in the region, and its goal is to recognize the Roma community’s problems and tackle the most serious ones,” Ljajić said.