The RomaReact online platform, in association with the European Roma Grassroots Organisation (ERGO), was launched in 2012. The project’s goal is to contribute to and reinforce that Roma, while often experiencing marginalisation, are an integral part of society. Since 2012, RomaReact has promoted youth participation by engaging both Roma and non-Roma young people online by creating a space for social interaction that is relevant and attractive to young people.

RomaReact tackles the issues that young Roma face through their life experience. Another unique aspect is that the project is not based in one country, but rather is European-wide. Antigypsyism in all its forms is followed and monitored by the platform.

From time to time a specific issue is raised on the platform, for example in 2014 it was the issue of walls that segregate and separate Roma from the rest of the community. In Slovakia alone, 14 walls exist to separate Roma from non-Roma. In Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, France and other European countries, local governments build walls to hide Roma. This practice is often motivated by a moral panics relating to the protection and safety of children. The outcome is a form of apartheid where Roma are segregated in schools, and confined to ghettos. The situation is not helped by disproportionate and extensive unemployment among Roma.

The RomaReact online platform functions as a broad-based network. It promotes a notion of “civic journalism” and, as such, regards its mostly young users as social reactors. RomaReact is a means for advocating Roma youth participation. The primary way this is achieved is through the Roma young people reporting, directly online, different aspects or issues from their localities. The primary function of the platform is to map, through the reports and testimonies of the young people, the perspectives, views and something of the collective experience of Roma in Europe. It generates data about the self-perception of Roma by collecting information from the local / grassroots sources. This data can potentially be helpful, for instance, in the assessment of the impact of Roma inclusion policies, and provide an indication about the levels of antigypsyism taking place at any one time.

Another aim of the platform is to create a growing public awareness about Roma in Europe, by providing and making public information from the Roma young people about their lives. The information and testimonies from the field are shared with decision makers, the wider media and the general public at the local and European levels. This is seen as a means to challenge stereotypes and contribute to a change in the negative image of Roma.

The RomaReact platform also contains a mixture of innovative and inviting activities, coupling social media with outreach activities and events at local, national and international levels. The platform has hosted a number of campaigns that have combined the use of social media with offline activities. Two such examples are Our Space, Our Place, Our Case in 2012, and Wall Free Europe in 2014.

Our Space, Our Place, Our Case – Roma Women Empowerment Campaign

This was launched in May 2012. The activities of the campaign have focused on capacity building and the training of Roma women (groups), generating and ensuring the visibility of actions and awareness raising both within and outside the Roma community on women’s rights.
 

Wall Free Europe

The Wall Free Europe campaign was launched in 2014 on the 25^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. The campaign highlighted that walls of segregation continue to exist, separating Roma from their non-Roma neighbours. It brought attention to and demanded the removal of both physical and psychological walls. 

This campaign started with a contest for young people. They were asked to respond to the physical and psychological walls that segregate Roma from non-Roma and how these undermine the notion of equal citizenship. The resulting presentations included photographs, paintings, drawings, comic strips and videos, as well as written stories.

The winning entries were placed on the RomaReact Facebook page promoting youth participation. Two winners were invited to Brussels to participate in the ERGO network activities on the occasion of the 25^th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Winners from Romania and Albania presented their work and shared their message at the Wall Free Europe hearing at the European Parliament. Their work was also part of the exhibition that pointed out and highlighted the walls across Europe.

These initiatives demonstrate how the online environment has the potential to facilitate creative forms of expression, such as videos or pictures, that are both informative and awareness-raising. Young people are often very familiar with this environment. The online interaction can help to reinforce the sense of belonging and can create transnational links among Roma and non-Roma young people.

In the project RomaReact, the participation of young people is happening at several levels. Young people can send in directly reports of issues, antigypsyism, events, and feel-good stories. Having the ability to report instances of antigypsyism is a form of empowerment in itself. However, it is stronger than just reporting. Young people, particularly those with access to the technology and who have an awareness of the problems and concerns of their local situation / context, can organise themselves online to find ways of tackling the raised issue or supporting the affected community. In the context of this project, young Roma who have access to the Internet can make use of an opportunity for participation, and so improve the image and situation of themselves, their families and neighbourhoods.

Another aspect of participation is that the online participation and activism, and face-to-face activities can motivate other young Roma to become active and to participate. The learning that these activities facilitates encourages young Roma to inform others, building skills and motivating each other to take responsibility, by becoming part of a shared voice.

In 2013, through RomaReact, ERGO conducted a training course for eight young Roma. The training consisted of the subjects of digital democracy, Internet skills, media outreach, organising, and advocacy work. The concept was to encourage the young people to become civic journalists / reactors. Informed by the stories they collectively generate, they would influence their peers to engage in their own individual contexts in positive offline and online actions.

The response to and participation of young Roma to RomaReact has seen a continuously increasing number of users and visitors, both on the website and the organisation’s Facebook page. As a result of the popularity of the concept, RomaReact wants to develop local editions of the website in Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, so that more people can share their experiences and perspectives.

The overall outcome of the Roma React platform and of the campaigns that it hosts is that Roma youth participation works (with its learning and advocacy dimension), and it needs greater promotion and development. All around Europe there are Roma young people who have access to the Internet and who can be engaged in online platforms such as RomaReact. However, it should also be borne in mind that there are many young Roma who do not have access to the Internet.