Let’s talk about love … which comes when the time for it comes
In recent decades, February 14th is a day which contradicts St. Valentine and Trifon Zarezan* – the day of love vs. the day of wine. And when you are 14, the fourteenth day of February is the long-awaited day when you can legitimize your feelings and when youthful emotions cannot be subdued to traditions; the day when you are somehow allowed to talk about love when you are 14 years old. For many girls in Bulgaria, however, the love of 14 is not the innocent teenage feeling that makes you wake up in the morning with the trembling anticipation of freedom, flying and happiness. For many girls, “love”, reflected in the crooked mirror of tradition, is the end of freedom, the rapid premature transformation of the girl into a woman, overwhelmed by the responsibilities of a housewife, wife and untimely mother.
This year, the large network of educational mediators took part in the celebration of St. Valentine. Probably many of you would expect campaigns similar to those of many youth organizations, or social networks filled with love, pink-red hearts and balloons. And we wondered, “What are we doing and how are we stopping the timeless love called early marriage?”
On February 14, however, our FB feeders were pleasantly surprised. It turned out that many of our local mediators used this occasion to talk once again with their students, parents or just women in the community “about love … when the time comes”. They watched movies, organized discussions and talked when this time would be, what dreams were and whether love could stop dreams, how to find out that you have met the right person, what to do when traditions dictated one thing and you still hadn’t found yourself and your future … And more and more often young people (and their parents) come to the conclusion that the solution is in three small steps: education, education and education again … And the right time is coming for everyone who is ready to wait … because, as the children from Ihtiman shared, love has many dimensions!
*Trifon Zarezan is a traditional Bulgarian feast to celebrate the wine and the wine yards. Bulgarians have been very jealous about the introduction of 14th February as St. Valantine day because they believe that this would reduce the importance of the Wine feast.
RTransform is an international initiative aimed at the active inclusion of Roma women and girls in social life and the guarantee of their rights. The project focuses on promoting equal access to quality and inclusive education, training and lifelong learning for Roma women. The main idea is to create a bridge between Roma women and young girls, to build an environment of trust and continuity, which will be an opportunity for dialogue and debate between different countries.
For 18 years, our partners from Drom Kotar have been organizing the so-called “Roma Women Student Gathering” (RWSG), an initiative organized with the active participation of Roma women from all over Europe to exchange experiences and ideas for successful educational integration and demonstrate role models in the community to inspire other Roma women and girls.
The aim of the initiative is to encourage active Roma women from different localities to unite other women around them, with which to create a space in which to discuss the topics described above, to create support, motivation and opportunities for development.
