The foundations of the first European youth online Roma radio were laid in Sibiu, Romania at an international meeting that took place from 8 to 11 April.
Nearly 40 young people from Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania and Italy discussed the name and visual identity of their future joint radio station. Each country's representatives will prepare podcasts and various music playlists to be listened to by their communities in Europe. During the meeting, the young people managed to record an announcement for the radio, they divided into groups and discussed the topics that they will touch on in it.
The future audio product will have profiles on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok, which will also be maintained by the youth.
The Bulgarian group, represented by 11 students from "Otets Paisiy" Secondary School, Medkovets village, Montana region, the deputy director of the school Svetla Nedelcheva and representatives of the CSCD Stanimira Hadzhimitova and Nancy Borisova, performed excellently and impressed their peers with their interviewing skills, recording and sound processing, which they acquired during their training in creating audio products in February. It was conducted by Nancy Borisova and Mario Denchev and aimed to give the children basic knowledge with which to build the frame of their radio.
Within the GEAR project, the purchase of professional equipment for recording and processing audio recordings is forthcoming, and you can expect the actual launch of the radio in a few days.
In the project, more meetings of the youth with their peers from the country are planned, to whom they can show what they have created, so that the good practices can be multiplied.
Further trainings for practitioners - representatives of NGOs and school staff to work with children of Roma origin and especially on the topics of equality between women and men and discussion of sensitive topics such as early marriages, sexual health and others - are coming in the next couple of months.