Beskrivelse af organisationen

Amaro Drom is an intercultural youth self-organization of Roma and non-Roma, which creates space for young people to become active citizens through empowerment, mobilization, self-organization and participation. We believe in the mutual efforts to create trust and mutual respect between Roma and non-Roma youth. Amaro Drom is active in the field of youth work, adult education, social inclusion and art and culture, including non-formal education, empowerment of young women, capacity-building of young adults and youth leaders, and the promotion of volunteering, voluntary service and active citizenship. Recognizing that stigmatization and marginalization constitute the root causes of social exclusion, Amaro Drom creates dialogue on all levels, and raises the awareness of society, media, schools and authorities about stereotypes, antigypsyism and discrimination.
Moreover, Amaro Drom works for the social inclusion of migrants, especially Roma, from new EU Member States in Berlin through advisory and educational support, as well as empowerment, enabling the people to address their own needs and interests towards local authorities to enjoy the full citizens’ rights and responsibilities.

Amaro Drom e.V. is member of the youth organization “djo-Deutsche Jugend in Europa”, which is member in the German National Youth Council DBJR, as well as member of ternYpe – International Roma Youth Network, and founding member of Phiren Amenca, the network of Roma and non-Roma volunteers and voluntary service organizations.

Regular activities of the coordinating organization:
1. Coordination of local youth groups and regional networks: Mobilization mostly takes place on a local or regional level. There, young people run self-organized meetings on a regular basis, organize local cultural or youth festivals and many other kinds of activities. Amaro Drom e.V. has the responsibility to support the local self-organization, council, guide and train them, and to support the establishment of new local groups and regional networks.
2. Youth Newspaper, Youth Information and Publicity: Amaro Drom e.V. puts a special emphasis on youth information with the purpose to
a. improve the opportunities and the access of young Roma to existing structures/programmes/information: scholarships, travel and work opportunities, seminars and trainings,
b. give young people a voice to state their opinion in creative ways,
c. strengthen the visibility of the active citizenship of young Roma, as well as to strengthen their recognition and participation in the Roma community and the majority society.
To achieve this we publish a youth newspaper twice a year , a monthly e-mail newsletter, and we constantly update the websites www.amarodrom.de and www.romayouth.com as well as our facebook pages and groups with current news.
3. Seminars, trainings and international youth exchanges: One of our main objectives is the capacity-building of youth leaders in order to strengthen their active citizenship, their creativity, their voluntary engagement and their leadership. Based on our own resources or through our networks “ternYpe” and “djo-Deutsche Jugend in Europa” we enable the participation of our youth and youth leaders in seminars and training-courses on local, national and international level about project management, fundraising, creativity and intercultural learning. Additionally, using the mobility tools of the “Youth in Action” programme we give our youngsters the opportunity to participate in international youth exchanges all around Europe. In all our youth activities we work with methods of non-formal education and a low-threshold approach.
Starting in the beginning of 2011, voluntary service is a new field of work for Amaro Drom e.V. In the last years we have supported several Roma organizations in Germany as a coordinating organization, with every step in the project, from the accreditation until the concrete implementation of the project. In April 2012 Amaro Drom e.V. and other partner organizations have founded the international association called "Phiren Amenca".