The main speaker during the 3 meetings with students from Vocational High School for Light Industry, Montana, "Otets Paisiy" Secondary School, Medkovets village and a volunteer group from "Kosharnik" district, Montana, was Valya Gerasimova - secretary of Local Commission for Combating Human Trafficking, Montana.
She explained to the young people what aggression is and what types of aggression there are. During the discussion, it became clear that many of the attendees had been or were currently victims of aggression, but rarely shared with teachers or parents. It turns out that girls are significantly more aggressive, and often they are not only victims, but also perpetrators. Sometimes teachers also show verbal aggression towards children.
The topic of bullying at school continued with what cyberbullying is and how to protect yourself from it. Among young people, it often takes the form of threats and extortion, and sometimes violence in the real world. A large part of the young people are not aware of how to protect themselves in the event of such acts of aggression, and they also expressed that they do not trust the institutions as an authority in dealing with such type of problems.
Some of the attendees shared personal stories of violence in families, in their schools, neighborhoods or villages, and one of their main concerns is that often the aggressors go unpunished, and people who have complained about them can easily become victims again.
Child marriage did not remain a taboo topic for the lecturers Valya Gerasimova and Nancy Borisova from the Center for Sustainable Communities Development. The tradition of selling brides is still alive, although young people are against it and are increasingly aware of the equality of women and men in the modern world. However, they claim to be powerless in the face of established practices in their places of origin.
Human trafficking remains such a vicious practice. Mrs. Gerasimova spoke in detail about the methods for prevention and getting out of such a situation. She also gave eloquent examples of sexual and labor exploitation so that students would know what to watch out for. Unfortunately, from their comments it is clear that pimps and people who send workers illegally abroad are not only not punished for their actions, but continue to actively work in the various settlements and neighborhoods, and more and more people become victims of trafficking from any nature.
The series of meetings were extremely useful for the students, with the majority of them expressing hope for future discussions and work on relevant topics.
The events take place as part of the GEAR project – Gender Equality and Antidiscrimination for Roma, , which aims to increase competences in the field of gender equality among young people from the Roma community.
For this purpose, a webradio will be created, where young people will have a platform through which they can talk about the topics that concern them. Together with their peers from Belgium, Italy and Romania, they will form an editorial team, which will use the relevant technology to create different podcasts and broadcasts, as well as maintain profiles on social networks.