RoemRoom, Room for Romanian Artists in Dutch Galleries: Turning Artists' Passion into Work
click here for the picturesProject Members:
Robin van Dalen, Dutch
Maria Salaru, Romanian
Sinje Kuhne, German
Lana Askari, Dutch
SIFE criteria addressed:
Financial Literacy
Succes Skills
Entrepreneurship
Project Aim:
Romania: a post-communist country with few entrepreneurial incentives. An art market which barely exists for twenty years. Combining this two offers barely any opportunities for artists who want to create a living out of their art. SIFE UCU observed the lack of opportunity for this group and decided to put up a project to target this problem. Hence we present you: RoemRoom.
Project Aim:
Goal of the project: Teach & Show them how to Turn their Passion into Work!
RoemRoom targets this problem trough two ways: 1. Organize exhibitions in Holland, and 2. Give Workshops.
Aims of Organizing exhibitions in Holland:
Additionally, by teaching this young students the necessary skills we also hope to enhance the development of the Romanian Art Market in a sustainable way.
Recent Developments: First exhibition held in October on University College Utrecht. Throughout November a large exhibition is up and running at Ummels&Ummels in Nederhemert. In December there will be a large exhibition during the Scholarship Dinner at University College Utrecht. Accomplishments RoemRoom so far:
Future Plans:
The structure of this project allows for extension to other countries, markets and target audiences. Therefore, we would like to expand this project - if still this successful - to for example different art forms like paintings, sculptures and others. Also, other post-communistic countries could be targeted like Bulgaria and Poland, and even other art-developing continents like Africa and South-America. Lastly, with these works of art we could offer large companies to decorate their offices, by offering them both relatively cheap works of art and the image boost of supporting a good cause.
Fairtrade Gemeente Project
Summary of Project: As part of the Fairtrade Gemeente Project Team, SIFE UCU is actively involved in making Utrecht an official Fairtrade Municipality before the World Fairtrade Day in May 2010.
Project Members
Marc Jansen - Dutch
Nina Gans - Dutch
Philippe van 't Hoff - Dutch
Anouk van der Laan - Dutch
SIFE criteria addressed:
Sustainability and Business Ethics
Need addressed:
The need for improvement of the livelihood and trading positions of disadvantaged farmers and other producers that are forced to accept unfair contracts for their supplies.
Project aim:
The aim of the Fairtrade Gemeente Project is to raise awareness for Fair Trade in Utrecht and to put Utrecht on the map as a Fairtrade Municipality. The work group works in line with the philosophy of the Max Havelaar Fairtrade Label and the Fairtrade Foundation, namely "to work with businesses, community groups and individuals to improve the trading position of producer organisations all over the world, and to deliver sustainable livelihoods for farmers, workers and their communities by bringing together producers and consumers in a citizens' movement for change". (fairtrade.org.uk)
Recent Developments:
To obtain the Fairtrade Gemeente label for Utrecht, the work group has worked on meeting the following six requirements as set by the national jury of the Fairtrade Gemeente Projects:
1. setting up a motivated, heterogenic work group of volunteers including a municipality representative
2. making sure the municipality institutions also support and use Fairtrade products during their work
3. convincing local cafe, restaurant and shop owners to offer fair-trade products
4. convincing local organizations such as churches, schools and sports clubs to use fair trade products in their canteens.
5. attracting media attention for the project development in Utrecht and Fair Trade in general
6. setting up a new CSR initiative in the municipality.
Over the past year the Utrecht Fairtrade Gemeente Campagne Foundation was set-up and subsidies from the government were arranged. With the money in place, a number of promotional events were held in the city centre, a project website was built, and the existing Fair Trade locations in Utrecht were mapped.
Future Plans:
Currently, the work group focuses on further mapping of which companies and organizations already use or offer fair-trade products. Before the end of January requirements 2,3 and 4 will be met so only requirement 5 and 6 are left to do. Next to obtaining the Fairtrade Municipality label, SIFE UCU is also pushing the UCU Campus to become Fairtrade and planning a number of fair events for UC students.
Fanga Musow - Women's shelter project
Summary of Project:
This is a pilot project focusing on helping the women who are in shelter at the Fanga Musow center. They are women who have fled their homes and now are seeking refuge in the Netherlands.
Project Members:
Tugce Beltek - Turkish
Nneka Edozie - Nigerian
SIFE criteria addressed:
Success Skills
Need Addressed:
The need addressed is to help these women gain confidence in themselves again, as well as learn to use their personal skills as an advantage to self-sustain themselves.
Project Aim:
During their waiting process for the result of their documentation, our aim as SIFE is to help engage these women in using their knowledge and skills, which we hope will allow them to be more independent and self-sustaining. We are currently busy with preparing a fundraising dinner at the local 'Buurthuis', where we hope to attract different interests groups each time.
Recent developments:
A date has been set in December, when the first dinner will officially be held in the Buurthuis, in which the women will be organizing the evening themselves i.e. the dinner. This will be a great achievement since this project has been trying to build relations with the women at the shelter for about a year now, and finally we are able to set a date for a dinner, which the women will organize themselves.
Future Plans:
We hope that with the success of this pilot project at the Fanga Musow center, we will be able to influence and make contact with other refugee centers, and engage in such activities for their members as well.
