Bucharest 13.04. – 15.04.
After the longest train ride of all times we finally arrived in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. We got picked up by our hosts to reach a proper sleeping spot as soon as possible.
In the morning we had to get up early to deliver two workshops in a high school. We had some discussions around gender based discrimination and taught the teenagers how to set up their own campaign to tackle issues around the problem of gender based violence. They came up with many different topics, from tackling gender stereotypes in sports, gender discrimination by campaigning for the recognition of non-binary people or breaking the taboo over menstruation and empowering girls by promoting body positivity. We were impressed by the ideas of the students and felt just as empowered as they did.
We got to meet the principal to take some photos and were even given presents and invited to come back again.
AEGEE-Bucuresti organised a meeting with the feminist NGO ‘Centrufilia’ that is working throughout whole Romania to support women, fights domestic violence and promote gender equality. Andrada, from ´Centrufilia´, provided us with a lot of information around the situation in Romania, for example that it is getting harder and harder for women to perform an abortion and therefore more women are dying from self-performed home abortions every year. Another frustrating fact she shared, was that there are a lot of laws to reach gender equality and to protect women and girls from domestic violence, revenge pornography or child pornography. These policies are not implemented due to the fact that the political landscape consists of 97% men, which do not represent the needs of half of the population of the country.
For us it was really insightful, we learned a lot about institutional sexism or racist authorities like social workers or the police, especially when it comes to the Roma community.
After a good rest we went to an amusement park, where we had some fun before we had some traditional Romanian food for dinner at our host’s place.
The second day in Bucharest was all about exploring the city, its beauty, the green areas and it´s traditional food. We simply got to enjoy the day with the AEGEEans in the sun of the capital.
After dinner we headed to the central station to spend another night on the bus.