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Converge Project

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The Roma Support Group is a community organisation working with East European Roma refugees and migrants since 1998. The origins of the organisation and its ethos are strongly based within the grass root movement of the Roma community in London. The RSG was established by the Roma people and it is led by them today. Since its humble origins of working from private kitchens and sitting-rooms, the RSG has moved on to become a Registered Charity and a Company Limited by Guarantee. We are now working with over 900 Roma families in London, (mainly in East London), offering them a variety of services, mobilising a community through volunteering schemes and promoting an understanding of Roma culture in the UK. Currently, we are running the following projects: Advice Project Health Project Mentoring Project Education Support Project Art Project Sport Inclusion Project Cultural Participation Project Since November ’05 till February’06, The Roma Support Group has run a Media Project for Roma children and young people from East London. As a result of this project a short documentary has been produced in collaboration with Hi8us, the community media company. The project has enabled children to take part in all stages of film production from planning, script writing, researching, acting, narrating, music production and film editing. It is a journey through their heritage and across London examining Britain’s attitudes towards Roma while celebrating the new life that the Roma refugee children and youth are making for themselves in the UK. The launch of the film, Be Roma or Die Tryin’, took place in the Genesis Cinema in East London and has also been screened during the First International Roma Film Festival in London. Both shows attracted approx. 300 people and were followed by a Panel Discussion involving the public and the makers of the film. They created an opportunity for young Roma to talk about their lives and issues that they face as Roma refugees in multicultural and multiracial London. Since then, the film has been shown on various education and media conferences in the UK and abroad. As a follow up to our first media project "Be Roma or Die Tryin", RSG organised a film workshop in East London. During this workshop, a group of ten young Roma created three one-minute films, which were shown at the OneminutesJr website thereby entering international competition of young people's short film. In May 2007, Roma Support Group joined the Converge Project. The project’s purpose is to enable young Roma to publish short videos on an on-line publishing network and it will be a unique opportunity for young Roma to express their ideas, talk about their culture and challenges they are facing in the UK. In this way, they are empowered to speak about their identity themselves whilst learning about IT and media. They are also able to exchange their work with other young people from diverse backgrounds. The main challenges of the project are lack of resources both in terms of technical equipment and manpower. However, this is compensated with young people’s enthusiasm and interest in media.