In January 2007 the ECG has launched a unique training project called “Put yourself into integration”. This innovative and tailor-made project is designed to provide training to officials from the governmental sector and NGOs working in the field of integration of foreigners in the Czech Republic.

The training focuses on less common issues in this area such as gender and cultural sensitivity, use of community development methods in daily work with migrants, refugees and ethnic minorities, issues of stereotypes and prejudices etc.

Main partner for this project is London based organisation called Praxis, which has been working for 24 years in London’s East End (Tower Hamlets), a place of numerous ethnic communities.

The first cycle started in January 2007 and successfully finished in May. Continuing co-operations and friendship among the participants of the first cycle prove that the aim of ECG was achieved to bring together the officials from the governmental sector and NGO's and to multiply their gained knowledge.

The second cycle of the project is now under way. Participants have attended the first workshop in June and the second in July 2007. After the third workshop in September, they will experience the work of communities in London. They will visit the Grater London Authority, Tower Hamlets Equality Department, Ethiopian and Vietnamese communities, Bangladeshi supplementary school and many others.

Results of the pilot homebased work research have been published also in English!!!
Homebased work has been a long-term focus of ECG. ECG has been one of the first organisations who brought this issue into the public. It has been taken over by other organisations since then and several networks has been developed in some of the European countries (UK, Netherlands, Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Turkey, ...). But it is still a brand new topic in many other places and people do not know anything about this global phenomenon, which plays an important role in the world economy. Czech Republic is one of those countries.

Since it is a very new topic in the Czech Republic and no one has ever published any information on it, our first step was to carry out a pilot research into  this problematic and find out, who are people working in this field, what is their gender, motivation and working conditions.
As a second step we carried out an investigation into living and working conditions, analyse it and also incorporated these findings into the general framework for promotion of equal opportunities in the labour market in CZ. The results of the survey has been published and widely disseminated to all relevant stakeholders (NGO’s, Trade Unions, state institutions) and also to media.
The publication has been recently translated into English and you have thus a unique opportunity to learn more about this phenomenon.
Click here to download the publication on homebased work in the Czech Republic.

Golden Stars are back again on the scene!
ECG invited to the Golden star awards jury which will select new round of project in the field of active European citizenship. The jury will meet in early September in Brussels and chaired by Mr. Hannu Takkula, vice Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Education of the EP. It will be followed in November by two-days European Active Citizenship Forum, with the Golden star award ceremony as a kick-of event. ECG is invited to the forum as a guest presenter.

Discrimination of migrants in Europe
It’s been two years since the Black & Migrant Women’s Conference took place in Kostelec, Czech Republic. ECG has launched several projects which are following up this unique event. We have recently started two research projects focusing on discrimination of migrant women in Europe.

One is aiming at exchanging information and opinions on gender roles, position of women in their families, wider community and society among migrant women and women from major society. We want to launch discussion on sensitive topics like domestic violence, sexuality, religious traditions and emancipation. Furthermore we strive to break prejudices concerning gender roles both among bot migrant women and women from major society.

We will also carry out a sociological research mapping situation of migrant women in relation to their cultural, social and gender differences, different ways of integration into the major society and obstacles they are facing during this process. We aim to put together all the outcomes of this research and create a toolkit for social workers, which would emphasise gender and cultural sensitivity.

Second project is also focussed on research, this time exploring discrimination of asylum seekers in relation to housing, health care, social care, education, integration into local communities. Research is being made among women and men, taking into account gender perspective and trying to find out, whether migrant women face different forms of discrimination than migrant men. Results of this research will be distributed to relevant EU institutions as a feedback to their antidiscriminatory policies and directives.