Educational Program for Dom children

Education is the key for proper human development and for fighting violence, poverty, discrimination and inequality. Dom children have an exceptionally high dropout rate due to the pressures of discrimination and poverty. In the educational establishment, the children are discriminated against because they are Gypsy. At home parents often prefer them to supplement the family income by have the children working or begging in the streets instead of attending school. The children’s illiteracy rate within the community is 38%.

After-school Tutoring Program

The Domari Center is a space for the children that offers tutoring classes to prevent Dom children from dropping out of school and improving their results. Tutoring classes comprise English, Math, Hebrew and Arabic. The private classes provided not only help the children in school, but also to encourage their motivation to continue studying.

Children's School Supplies

The Domari Society provides school bags full of supplies for Domari school children—giving first graders basic school necessities along with the valuable sense of confidence of owning something new and valuable. The bags and school supplies help children begin school without the stigma of old or non-existent supplies.

Economic Empowerment program for Dom women

As much as 43% of Dom women have not received formal education and are prevented from development from within and outside the community. We provide these women with working skills that make them more competitive in finding work and earning an income, helping them to support their families financially and also head towards gender equality. Our goal is to give women the ability to successfully seek employment or to open their own business in the field of what they learned in the vocational courses. Many women who completed the courses are taking advantage of these new skills and conducted their businesses from the Center.

Catering Course

Domari Society offers women the possibility to acquire cooking and catering skills with the help of a professional chef. The women acquire practical cooking skills, learn new recipes, get trained in business management and learn about health and nutrition.

Hairdressing Course

Domari Society offers women the course to acquire hairdressing skills with the help of a professional teacher. The course consisted of hands-on training sessions and additional sessions of empowerment training.

Small Business Course

Envisioning sustainable economic empowerment, the Domari Center offers a small business course in which women can learn skills necessary for starting and running an independent business. The course was geared towards individuals already working in the service industry and includes accounting, operations management, marketing, and technical expertise.  Our small business course aligned with our other courses by teaching the Dom how to use their newly-acquired skills to achieve economic independence.

Handicraft Initiative

In addition to providing space for community events and education, the Domari Center also houses an extensive gift shop, selling many unique and beautiful handicrafts made by women from the community. Among the most popular items are hand-crafted jewelry,  embroidered bags, and pillows. Many visitors comment on the striking colors and designs, both traditional and modern.

Cultural Preservation

We offer a space for the community to meet, exchange and live out their traditions. This is essential for preserving the Domari culture, which is at risk of marginalization.

Handicrafts

The handicraft initiative increases international awareness of the Jerusalem Gypsy community through the sale of the items. The colors, designs, and ornaments used to craft items such as pillows, jewelry, and bags are a strong representation of Gypsy cultural heritage, while being a form of economic empowerment for the woman who produce them. 

Domari Language

Because of increased cultural assimilation in this generation, much of the traditional spoken language is lost. We invite elderly members of the community and record Domari language. It provides an opportunity for the children to forge a connection with their cultural, linguistic heritage in hopes that it will not disappear.

Fostering Cultural Pride

In a society where Gypsies are degraded, it is vital to keep Domari culture alive through its people. The community center houses a variety of activities that intentionally keep Domari traditions alive. Community dinners with traditional Gypsy food are held at the center and often live music and dance follow. Additionally, the Domari Society has compiled a cookbook of Gypsy recipes and a book about Domari history entitled The Dom of Jerusalem (both of these publications are available for purchase at the Center).

Tourism program

We hosts visitors from all over the world through whole year. You can have our traditional Domari lunch and storytelling about the Domari history, culture, and life by the director Amoun with drinking coffee or tea. You can also enjoy shopping of Domari handicraft. Our goal is let people know about Dom people and Domari culture.

We also have sometimes Gypsy guests from Europe. We share the culture and the problem to solve and make good friendship with them.

The statistics in 2014 say that the unemployment rate among Jerusalem Dom community is high. Almost 80% of the men (parents) do not have steady work and almost all of the women interviewed said that they have no employment. Most of the families (72%) live off of unemployment benefits and other support coming from national insurance.

We provide poor Dom families necessary food packages, second hand clothes, and blankets as well as school supplies every year.

If you want to know more about our activities, read our reports from here!