The Peace, Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR), in partnership with the City Hall and local council of Cluj-Napoca, Radisson Blu Hotel and Cluj International Women's Club, officially marks the beginning of the Making Cluj Thrive Together initiative through an event organised on May 15, 2023, at the Radisson Blu Hotel Cluj. This major event is a pioneering initiative in Romania and will showcase how national and international businesses can thrive with the help of international women.

Through this event, PATRIR wants to connect the businesses operating in Cluj with women from the international environment to offer them a space for meeting and interaction.

“We aim to offer trainings and organise mentoring sessions to help women coming from countries other than Romania to discover and develop their skills and abilities. Finally, our goal is to connect women who are looking for internships and jobs, with valued businesses looking for professional and motivated employees”, says Alis Costescu, Project Manager.

For International Women interested to meet with each other and participate in the event they can get a free ticket on this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/629009182397

The main actions of the Making Cluj Thrive Together program will be five training modules on improving the skills of international women and five mentoring sessions to empower international women. Also, 30 traineeships and/or jobs for international women will be offered under the same programme.

The closing conference will take place in November 2023, as part of the “16-day Campaign”, an event held with the aim of totalising the results achieved, presenting the stories of international women who have managed to integrate professionally, drawing conclusions, and finding inspiration for new successful joint initiatives.

According to the data provided by the Immigration Service of Cluj County, in 2022, over 19,000 foreign citizens were in Cluj, of which around 10,700 came from third countries. In this context, the proposed event aims to bring together local actors and international women living in Cluj, to identify the best solutions for overcoming the barriers that appear in the integration process.

Making Cluj Thrive Together is part of the ENFEM project – Female TCNs Integration in local Communities through Employability and Entrepreneurship Local Oriented Strategies (101038287 — ENFEM — AMIF-2020-AG), which aims to create a context for the development of networks of local actors in 10 European partner countries. These networks are composed of local authorities, relevant labour market actors, NGOs focused on the integration process or women-led organisations, which share the common vision derived from the EU Action Plan for Integration and Inclusion 2021-2027.

The project provides training opportunities for migrant women on the following topics: learning the language of the host country, labour law, entrepreneurial skills and will encourage the integration of women into the local labour market. The project is funded with the support of the Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund (AMIF) of the European Union.

About PATRIR

PATRIR is a centre of expertise in peace-building, mediation, support to the peace process and post-war stabilisation. The Institute has received numerous awards for its contributions to international peace and security and is the first international organisation in Romania's history to be called upon by governments, the UN, and international agencies to improve peace support operations. PATRIR provides training programs in peace-building and prevention at the government level, at the level of the armed forces, for UN missions and agencies, practitioners, and decision-makers in more than 60 countries.