The project Finally is already in the phase of preparing the training methodology for financial literacy of Roma. Based on the results of the fieldwork research conducted in the biggest Roma neighborhood in Sofia, the HESED team proposed 5 main topics that should be included in the methodology: basic financial planning, strategies for increasing the family income based on the individual abilities and skills of each one of the family members, strategies of spending money and planning on unexpected expenses, financial institutions and how to build relationships with them. We are very excited with the first draft of the course content prepared by the colleagues from the Research Centre University of Piraeus, and we are looking forwards the presentation of the methodology next month.

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In the period October 2013 – March 2014 was the main outcome of WP2 National report – Needs assessment. Main findings show that the financial management of the Roma community is significantly affected by the low level of income related to high unemployment. They use with high frequency services of non-banking companies, which leads to an indebtedness of households. They do not use savings and current accounts. One of the most fundamental priorities is financial planning, which may lead to the efficient use of limited resources of households. An important step for the successful continuation of the project in our country was the conference “Healthy Communities” which directly involved approx. 120 Roma mediators and interested subjects to support Roma communities. Within the conference “Healthy Communities” a cooperation for further phases of the project was established. Area of financial literacy was at the conference “Healthy Communities” outlined as a priority for further development of the Roma community. From this perspective, the project FINALLY can have a positive effect on the level of health of these communities. There were discussed various steps of Toolbox for learning Roma in the area of financial literacy. FINALLY project was presented to the Government Plenipotentiary for Roma communities, which significantly supports the project on the website of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic.

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Project team members of Faculty of economics Niš actively participated in the conference on Financial literacy that took place in Metropol Palace Hotel, Belgrade on October 28^th. One-day conference agenda tackled many issues that relate to financial literacy and education, starting from its importance, concepts and assessment, main challenges, and ending with innovative tools and training methods (e.g. educational video games).

The conference was organized by GfK (Growth from Knowledge), a prestigious global research agency. It gathered a number of lecturers of outstanding reputation, academics, representatives of financial services providers, research agencies, educational organization etc. A vibrant closing round table discussion was influenced by the insightful presentations given by Prof. Dr. Erich Kirchler (University of Vienna), Anna Mostetschnig (Three Coins), Bernadett Povazsai-Roemhild (Erste Group), Sonja Buchinger (GfK Austria) and many others.

With a prime goal to raise awareness of an burning issue of financial literacy, particularly for vulnerable social groups, like Romani people, this conference offered an opportunity to gather, share experiences, and discuss the tools and measures able to improve outcomes for societies at large.

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In the project FINALLY – Financial Literacy for the Rome we published the results of the transnational research in partner countries: Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Slovakia and Serbia. You can read the transnational report or the reports of each country on http://finally.splet.arnes.si/wp2-needs-research/

By applying uniform methodology we researched in all partner countries what is the knowledge of the Roma in this field. We carried out guided interviews with individual Roma, two focus groups of professionals dealing with Roma issues and important representatives of the Roma community. In addition, by studying different literature we researched how Roma successfully manage their family finances. Based on this research we will develop an educational programme on how to efficiently manage the family finances. It will be accompanied by learning and teaching resources, adapted to the needs of the Roma minority. The programme and learning tools will be tested through pilot actions, improved and published in all languages of the partners at the end of the project.

by Angela Karali, Ph.D., Techniki Ekpefetiki KEK SA and
Professor Joseph Hassid, University of Piraeus Research Center (UPRC)

If you believe that teaching basic finance can be an effective way to combat social exclusion then you may find this article interesting. It contains information about how seven partners from six European countries decided to propose and implement the project “FINALLY – FINAnciaL LiteracY for Roma”- under the LLP – Grundtvig Programme.

The project aims at creating a non-traditional course in Finance for Roma living in the six countries of the project’s implementation:Slovenia,Italy,Greece,Slovakia,BulgariaandSerbia. All seven project partners and especially the course development leader University of Piraeus Research Center (UPRC – Greece) are focused on improving the target group’s understanding of basic concepts related to daily family money management, small business finances and dealings with “the financial system” – the banks.

The course that may be taught in Roma camps, second chance schools and other non-traditional venues will not be based on words but on visual information and narrative. Story books, role playing and other educational tools will be used to facilitate the target group’s understanding of the course content. It is the partners’ hope that the project will bring us closer to the ultimate goal, that is, social inclusion for Roma through information and understanding of this fundamental for all modern societies’ area of knowledge and practice.

In Slovenia, most of the people believe that social welfare contributes to idleness of the unemployed, as many that receive it, even the Roma, have higher social welfare than the statutory Slovenian minimum wage. Therefore there is no sufficient motivation to get employment. Having more children is also a way to increase their social welfare. Considering that, a question arises how to increase the positive attitude of Roma towards money and employment. A research of Roma in South Eastern Slovenia showed that the majority of income is spent on food, pay bills, buying cigarettes and fuel. For most of them is difficult to survive through the month. Definitely they need knowledge, how to survive with low income and how to spend rationally and have a higher level of life quality.

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Slovakia has completed its part of the work package needs assessment and came with interesting findings, which were presented on the second working group meeting in Milan. The country priorities for financial management should be focused on leading to store household savings, increasing in the labor market and efforts to work, educating of Roma population to assess the risk of individual loans and credit and being able to assess the financial risks and the ability to repay debts. Also of importance, results show, that financial management should be focused on youth Roma people and their household consumption.

Slovakia, as a head of work package quality assurance, monitors the overall development of the project. Periodically check other members, monitors the meetings and inform about the results.

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Results from the research on Bologna Roma and Sinti’s financial management.

Roma people in Italy live in a situation of extreme poverty, thus the risk of depending on welfare is higher than for people who have more stable work conditions. The possibility to have a job is crucial for most of the families, particularly in this time of economic crisis. Some of the Roma migrants we have met during the research lost their jobs in recent years, while the Italian Sinti often work in family-ran businesses in the informal market. Their working conditions are very precarious and this situation affects the strategies employed in the financial management. Since most of the interviewees earn money day by day, it is very difficult for them to plan their expenditure, to save money and to make investments. Thus, the training course we will design will have to answer this difficult question: can one save money without having a job?

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Within the project FINALLY, a team of researchers from HESED, conducted a field research aimed at discovering personal finance management habits and consumption patterns of Roma adults in Faculty neighborhood in Sofia. Main aspects emerged from the research accentuate to the difficulties of the Roma people to find job, because of their low education, the inability to plan their expanses because of the unpredictability of their income, the need to find money cover the every-day needs of the family as well as on the strategies used to survive during the month or to find money in case of emergency.

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Our project is moving along nicely and its first phase for the assessment of financial literacy needs of Greek Roma is almost complete. What have we found out so far? A lot of very useful information about “who’s the boss” in a typical Greek Roma household (you guessed right, it is the mother. She is also the one managing the “family budget”), how Greek Roma earn money and how they like to spend it, whether they are interested to learn how to manage the finances of a small business or to live on a salary (they are!). The good thing is that we are generating some buzz about the FINALLY project. The Roma community inGreeceand educators with years of experience in Roma education (formal and informal) are getting excited about the course we are about to develop. Who could ask for anything more?

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