"Hate Speech Transforms Roma into Tenants in Their Own Home," is the motion of a debate that will be held at the Red House.  Participants in the debate are young Roma between the ages of 17 and 30 who were trained in debating this summer by the Bulgarian National Debate Association (member of the OSI-supported International Debate Education Association, IDEA).

The purpose of the training was to help Bulgarian Roma youth become effective advocates for the Roma cause and to enable them to launch a series of public debates as well as establish debating societies in Roma communities. Another important aspect of the debate program in Bulgaria is  to bring minority and majority youth together and, through debate, provide an opportunity to discuss important and often controversial issues.

Three of the organizers of the upcoming debate in the Red House took part in the IDEA Youth Forum in Sarajevo, where one of them took fourth place in the Mixed Teams track. The upcoming event is being organized by the Open Society Institute Roma Initiatives,  in cooperation with the Red House, the Roma newspaper Drom Dromendar, the Bulgarian National Debate Association, and IDEA.