Empowering Roma Women
IWPR partner supports Roma women in Moldova in community activism and peacebuilding.
Also see
Moldova: Roma Women Driving Change
Capacity-building programme aims to increase participation in wider peace and security decision-making processes.
Armenia: Ensuring Women’s Voices Are Heard
Civil society groups participate in building future strategy for peace and security.
Armenia: Ensuring Women’s Voices Are Heard
Civil society groups participate in building future strategy for peace and security.
Welcome to IWPR’s Frontline Update, your go-to source to hear from journalists and local voices at the front lines of conflict.
THE BIG PICTURE
As elsewhere in Europe, the Roma community in Moldova face layers of discrimination, based on ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Roma women are even more marginalised, both within their own community and by wider society. Their voices are not heard.
Yet defying these constraints, a growing cohort is taking action as civic activists, mobilising and speaking out both to ensure their community’s access to services such as healthcare, social benefits and education and to enable Roma women to play a part in wider peacebuilding activities.
VOICES FROM THE FRONTLINE
“The impact of the 1992 war in Transnistria on women and girls is still felt today, but it is only during the last decade that the role of women in the peace building process has been felt,” said Ana Maznic, a 45-year-old community mediator from the village of Cinișeuți in Rezina district, only a few kilometres from the separatist region.
“Until then, there were no initiatives to involve women in this process. We still have a lot to do.” Within Transnistria, wider issues of human rights – let alone peacebuilding – have largely not been discussed, and disinformation remains an obstacle to constructive political solutions as well as social integration and change.
“Society remains under the influence of Russian propaganda,” explained Sofia Răducan, a 40-year-old Roma mediator from Tiraspol, the capital city of Transnistria.
“Transnistria is an enclave between two states, Ukraine and Moldova, which want a future in the European family, I believe that the role of women in building peace and a solution to the Transnistrian conflict is very important. I will do everything, as a Roma woman, as a community mediator, to push this process forward.”
WHY IT MATTERS
Maznic and Răducan are among ten activists from across Moldova participating in IWPR’s programme to build resilience across the region, including Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Funded by the UK government, the aim is to strengthen the voices and the engagement of women community leaders to contribute to peace and security at a local level.
In Moldova, these women already act as community facilitators, supporting youth, older people and survivors of domestic violence. Now a series of Romani-language trainings – led by IWPR local partner the National Association of Community Mediators – are equipping them with essential expertise in public policy advocacy, as well as IT skills and techniques for combating disinformation, particularly important given Moldova’s upcoming presidential elections, October 20.
THE BOTTOM LINE
“These workshops are not just about learning – they are about empowering Roma women community mediators who are already making a difference within their communities,” said Tatiana Chebac, IWPR Moldova country coordinator.
“Their commitment is inspiring, and their active participation in these sessions highlights their critical role in driving positive change for the Roma community and for the region.”
