The Initiative members MECEM and Bódvalenke Fresco Village got an Erste Foundation Award for Social Integration

[Lukáš Houdek]

Prague 22 June (RPA) - The Roma Media Center was yesterday finished in second place in the Erste Foundation Awards for Social Integration from among 1,850 evaluated projects from 12 European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Hungary, Moldavia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia). In addition MECEM also received a so-called Honorary Award, which the jury awarded to the overall 30 best organizations.  The ceremonial awarding of the prizes took place yesterday in Prague at the Barrandov film studios.

 

A total of 9 finalists from Slovakia, selected from among 133 projects by a national jury, were candidates for the award. Aside from the Roma Media Center (MECEM), the Theatre with no Home from Bratislava also did well at yesterday’s evaluation with its project “Social theatre-an instrument for combating social exclusion and poverty”, which was also included in the Honorary Awards.

 

All of the organizations on the short list of 133 finalists receive a benefit in the form of support with the building of media relations. The ERSTE Foundation will finance this support over the course of two years and it will be provided by professional PR consultants. All of the finalists will have the opportunity to take part in professional seminars focused on the developing of a social enterprise as an alternative form of financing, building relations with the media and obtaining qualifications in the field of social media and will be placed in the international database of the ERSTE Foundation - Social Integration Network.

 

The Roma Media Center (MECEM) has been working in Slovakia since 1999. It functions as a co-production partner of RTVS, for which it prepares the Roma national magazine for Slovak Television and a Roma national broadcast for Slovak Radio. It also publishes daily news reports on its Web pages. In the year 2008, prior to the launch of the euro currency in Slovakia, it carried out an informational campaign focused on the Roma community, and in 2009–2010 it presented a campaign aimed at combating human trafficking. MECEM also prepares educational programs for schools (e.g. on the Roma holocaust). Its primary language of communication is the Romani language.

 

The ERSTE Foundation originated in 2003 on the foundations of the First Austrian Savings Bank Erste Oesterreichische Spar-Casse. The ERSTE Foundation at present owns 25.3% of common stock in the Erste Group. The foundation invests a part of its dividend for social development in Austria and southern and southeast Europe. It supports social participation and initiatives in the field of civil rights. It tries to bring people closer together and to expand knowledge about the recent history of this region, which in 1989 passed through fundamental changes. As an active foundation it develops its own projects in the framework of three structural programs: social development, culture and Europe.

 

www.RPA.sk