The Roma Center for Women and Children – Daje is a women’s non-governmental organizations located in Belgrade, officially established on March 8th, 2001. Daje was established by women from the Roma community in Zemun Polje. The reason for creating this association was a joint struggle to stop rapes which frequently happened on the road from their community to the more urban part of the city – where the school, hospital and bus stations are. This road is 4 km long and part of it leads through the woods. Now public transport goes directly from the Roma community to the more urban part of the city. The woods have also been cleared. This was essentially our first accomplishment.

We have also participated in the team in charge of developing the Action Plan for Roma Women’s Specific Status and Action Plan for Displaced People – this was done as part of the Roma Decade initiative. We assisted people in getting personal documents and enrolling children from Roma communities (who did not have basic documents) into elementary schools in Belgrade. Additionally, we held lectures “History, Rights and Tradition of Roma People” at six Belgrade Faculties. For this occasion we made a book bearing the same title. Our SOS Line 011/398-78-98 is intended for women who have suffered violence. It is available Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 2pm to 6pm.