Bulgaria: Legal empowerment and gender justice
In Smolyan, Bulgaria, the Rodopchanka Women’s Club empowers minority women through their project ‘Legal Empowerment and Advocacy for Minority Women‘ funded by MRG’s Minorities, Accountability, Rights, Independence and Organizational Development (MARIO) programme.
In Smolyan, a colourful palette of different religions and intertwining cultures makes the region unique. Pomaks, Roma and Ukrainians live alongside Bulgarians. At Rodopchanka Women’s Club, they see this diversity as an opportunity. For 20 years, they have been working in the civil sector. The organization aims to break gender norms and empower women from Pomak, Roma, Ukrainian and disabled communities, providing tools to assert their rights effectively and foster systemic change.
Women are a priority for the organization in the Smolyan region, who are often poorly educated about their legal and civil rights, preventing them from actively participating in community development, thereby limiting the growth of the individual and the community. Traditional gender norms still prevalent in rural communities often dictate how women must rely on men for financial and social standing, trapping them in a cycle of dependency. A lack of educational programmes exacerbates this dependency. Meeting their needs is not just a matter of gender equality but a fundamental step in promoting the rights and inclusion of minority groups in Bulgaria.
The project aims to empower women from the Smolyan region who belong to minority communities – Pomaks, Roma, Ukrainians – as well as women with disabilities, and more. The initiative aims to equip them with the knowledge and skills to assert their rights more effectively. Minority representatives in the region are affected by a unique intersection of vulnerabilities due to their gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. The project’s approach comprehensively addresses these layers of inequality, laying the groundwork for systemic change in the region: including community empowerment dialogues, educational workshops in schools and legal empowerment workshops for their legal rights to employment, family and social services. This knowledge will serve as a crucial foundation for these women to break the cycle of dependency and exploitation and encourage them to participate actively in community development.
Credit: Rodpchanа Women’s Club.
This content is a guest post from one of our partner organizations about their work as part of our ‘Minorities, Accountability, Rights, Independence and Organisational Development’ programme. This article reflects the opinion of its author only and does not engage MRG’s responsibility. Learn more >
MARIO is funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (2021-27) of the European Union (ref: 101091387).