The greek city of Megara is the newest Alliance participant
The European Alliance of Cities and Regions for Roma Inclusion is happy to announce its 124th participant, as the Greek city of Megara decided to join the initiative to learn mutually about Roma inclusion. In his letter to Congress President Jean-Claude Frécon, mayor Stamoulis Grigorios wrote that the city of Megara undertakes numerous efforts to integrate Roma, for example a housing program and a ‘Health-Social Center’.
Introduced in 2014, a new ‘Support Center for Roma and Vulnerable Groups’ opened its doors. This Support Center successfully uses European funds and hosts a number of experts to help include Roma and other disadvantaged groups. The overall goals of the Support Center are to reduce exlusion, to facilitate Roma by helping them in juristic matters and to help small entrepreneurs to organize their businesses and train unemployed in economic activities. To achieve these goals the Support Center employs a Sociologist, a Psychologist, a lawyer, an economist, a Doctor, a Trainer and a Roma facilitator.
The Alliance welcomes the city of Megara and hopes that it can benefit from this network.
The city of Megara is located 40km west of Athens, with a total population of 40.000 people. The number of Roma in Megara, according to unofficial data, is about 1.800.