In the period from 26 to 28 January in Downtown hotel, Sofia, HESED hosted a meeting of the partners under “Finally- Financial Literacy for the Roma”, co-funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union. Representatives from five partners organizations from Slovenia, Slovakia, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria participated in the meeting. The training methodology for financial literacy of Roma developed by leading specialists in the field of finances from the Faculty of Economics of Nis (Serbia) was discussed and finalized. The methodology is based on a needs assessment research performed in each one of the countries included in the project (including Italy) The main finding of the needs assessment shows that even if most of Roma have to deal with irregular income they have developed successful coping strategies, but in some particular cases, related with their traditional lifestyle and values (such as family festive occasions particularly weddings) they tend to have irrational expenses. The training aims to develop skills in management of family budget, controlled spending, saving, opportunities for development of small business and entrepreneurship.
In the frame of the meeting the partners discussed and scheduled the upcoming piloting of the training activities in real training situation. The pilot actions are about to start at April 2015.
