NGO · Education · Inclusion · Respect
racism = low I.Q.
“The great road”, from education to inclusion.
We work so that today’s young Roma get a better future than the one their parents were given, for inclusion strategies that actually work, and for a society where nobody is judged by their ethnicity.
What Baro Drom means
In the Romani language, baro drom means “the great road”. For us, those words have three meanings, and each of them describes part of what we do.
For centuries the Roma lived a nomadic life. Setting out, most probably, from South Asia, they travelled as far as Europe and the Americas, carried by the hope of a better life. That journey is part of who we are.
Today the Roma face another long road: the highway of education. Only through school can they make the most of their potential and qualities, and only then can children freely choose who they want to become.
A road that has to be started from both ends. The majority must become more tolerant and support inclusion with real actions, not just documents. The Roma community must make real efforts towards education and integration.
Our mission
Baro Drom is an NGO project built around three directions that support each other. Without education there is no inclusion, and without mutual respect no programme can succeed.
We believe that educating today’s children and young people changes the future of the generations to come. We bring them closer to school, to university and to people who can be role models, and we show them they have every right to dream big.
Inclusion cannot be designed from an office. We support solutions shaped together with communities, tailored to each place, with concrete steps and visible results rather than promises repeated from one strategy to the next.
Racism feeds on ignorance and prejudice. Through dialogue, through real encounters between people and by showcasing Roma culture, we work for a society where the person matters, not the label.
Projects
Ideas only become real when they reach people. Here is our most recent project.
Pupils from the commune of Cernica were guests of the Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest. They visited the rooms where future lawyers are trained, talked with professors and discovered, in a courtroom, how justice works.
For many of them it was their first time inside a university, and a first step towards the idea that law, and their own rights, concern them directly.
Read about the project“The road against racism is travelled from both ends: each side takes a step, until we meet in the middle.”
Baro Drom
Roma culture
To build inclusion, we first need to know each other. The history, crafts and music of the Roma tell the story of a people who endured a great deal and still created beautiful things.
Almost five centuries of slavery, the Holocaust, forced assimilation and a hard transition. The history that explains the present.
Read
Coppersmiths, spoon makers, farriers, jewellers and flower sellers: trades handed down from one generation to the next.
Discover
From Romica Puceanu and Toni Iordache to Fanfare Ciocărlia: the voices and instruments that carried Roma music around the world.
ListenSchools, town halls, organisations, volunteers or simply people who believe in education: write to us or give us a call, and together we will find a way.