Erasmus +

2.  Romania ranks the 25th position out of 28, within the
European Union, regarding equality between women
and men.
 Our country shares the antepenultimate position with
Slovakia, being preceded by Hungary and Greece.
Sweden, Finland and Denmark are examples of
countries to follow when it comes to promoting women.

3.  The statistics are to be found in a report published in
2017 by the European Commission, the document
being the starting point of a debate held in Bucharest.
 This is a roundtable on "Equality between Women and
Men: Challenges in 2018", organized by the Faculty of
Political Sciences of the University of Bucharest, in
partnership with the French Embassy and GADIF
(Groupe of Francophone Ambassies, Delegations et
Institutions in Roumania).

4.  The European Union score is only four points higher
than 10 years ago, namely 66.2 out of 100, according to
the EIGE 2017 Gender Equality Index.
 The country with the best results is Sweden, with a
score of 82.6, and Greece is the last, with only 50
points. Romania is not much better than Greece, with
only 52.4 points.

5.  Gender equality in Romania is a topic that continues to
give rise to controversy, although more women have
succeeded, over time, in taking important positions in
society. The French Ambassador for Romania, Ms
Michele Ramis, said that the idea of organizing a
seminar dedicated to gender equality started on the
initiative of President Emmanuel Macron to support
equality between women and men. The French
Embassy organized a seminar that addressed the issue
of gender equality from a political and economic
perspective.

6.  Grațiela Drăghici, State Secretary of the National
Agency for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men,
welcomed the initiative of the French Embassy, noting
that Romania needs women in leadership positions.
She added that appointing a woman as prime minister
could mean for our country a start in dismantling the
stereotypes attributed to women over time.
Furthermore, she added that women deserve and must
be promoted regardless of their field of activity, whether
economic, social or political

7.  Representatives of the so called “weaker sex” are most
often associated with the image of a domestic woman
 Among the stereotypes attributed to women over time,
is the image of the housewife. A survey made by the
French High School “Anna de Noailles” in Bucharest
shows that young people consider, from an early age,
that most women who have children are prone to fail in
their profession or may even refuse to build a career.

8.  The same idea was supported by Adriana Record,
Executive Director of the French Chamber of
Commerce and Industry in Romania (CCIFER).
Moreover, Ionela Băluţă, a professor at the Faculty
of Political Science of the University of Bucharest,
said that a study conducted in Timişoara shows that
women are considered inferior to men. Moreover,
they would be incapable of occupying certain
functions in domains such as economics or politics,
without a permanent support from men.

10.  Counselling/ Psychological support:
We offer psychological counseling services to women
who face domestic violence and to their children. We also
provide online counseling. We make telephone, e-mail or
face to face information services available, providing staff
specialized on sexual violence as well. Legal counseling
and assistance, as well as the support group ” I Too Can
Do It” complete the service package aimed at helping
women find the necessary resources to defeat violence.
We also contribute to the setting up of support groups in
other localities.

11.  Information and Awareness Raising:
We believe in education and in preventing violence,
so we implement educational projects in schools.
Moreover, we provide training sessions for experts
who have duties in combating violence – school
counsellors, police officers, social workers. Every year,
we unfold public awareness-raising campaigns on
gender violence in Sibiu and throughout Romania.

12.  Advocacy and lobby:
We change laws and destinies. Alongside national
and international networks, we advocate for legislation
changes with a view to obtaining better legal
instruments and safer solutions for violence-free lives.

13.  Our Mission:
We help people live abuse- and violence-free lives. We
provide women with the necessary support in finding their
inner strength to defeat violence. We promote gender
equality, which we understand as balanced power relations
between women and men, within family and society.
 Vision:
I choose how to define my role as a woman/man in my
family and in society.
I choose to leave the same freedom to others.
I choose not to tolerate or resort to violence.
I choose not to be a victim.

14.  We believe in:
 Integrity. All aspects of our work follow the highest ethical standards. We emphasize
transparency in what we can and cannot offer to our beneficiaries.
 Confidentiality. To us, it is very important for the people who trust us with their life
stories know that they are in safe hands and that we will never make them public
without their consent.
 Continuous development. We continuously take part in training and development
sessions, carry out innovative practices and projects, so as to develop the best
strategies to fullfi our organization’s mission and vision.
 Collaboration. We believe that together we are stronger, so we focus on team work
both inside, and outside our organization. We are part of national and international
support networks working to reduce violence.
 Care and Inclusion. Our actions are based on the principle of compassion and on
the spirit of inclusion, as we approach each case or individual with respect and
without judging.
 All those who want to make the transition from victims to survivors. Our role is not to
investigate, nor to judge. We believe the victim’s story, as she tells it. We respect her
personal boundaries and guide her towards the best services.

15.  In our school, boys and girls are treated equally
and without preference. We are all friends, we
help each other if in need, we share personal
experience, we offer support, and when one
has serious problems, we organize charitable
events and help them overcome.

16.  In our school a form of manifestation of the
gender equality is that a certain balance
concerning the almost equal number of boys
and girls in one classroom is being followed,
since their enlisting in the preparatory school
(6-7 years old).

17.  Both girls and boys have the same
programmes, the same timetable, the same
activities, the only difference is during the
Physical Education classes, where boys play
football and girls play handball.

18.  As in any collectivity, we sometimes argue, we
often have different points of view that we
debate, but eventually we reconcile and
together, boys and girls, become a family.