Author Archives: Roma Foundation

News Eastern Europe Romania

Djelem Djelem

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Between November 10-12, the Days of Sinti and Roma Culture took place in Bucharest. The event was organized by the Goethe-Institut Bucharest and the French Institute in Romania. The organizers invited musicians from Germany and France to support a musical program of Sinti and gypsy jazz, curated by music producer and journalist Liviu von Braha.

According to Liviu von Braha , the initiative took place with the aim of strengthening the representation of Roma in the public space, disseminating Roma culture to the widest possible public.

As part of the musicians’ event, an intensive workshop was organized at the National University of Music, in the Auditorium hall, held by Florin Niculescu and Christian Escoude, where the participants will familiarize themselves with the instrumental style on unique rhythms of Sinti and gypsy jazz from Germany and France.

Germany News Western Europe

Gentrification in Germany

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The gentrification process hits Sinti and Roma twice as hard as other residents. Throughout Germany, they are evicted from their homes or forced to move into dilapidated houses or even construction containers.

Roksana’s family had twenty minutes to pack their things. Then they had to leave the apartment. Immediately. When the 17-year-old returned from school, her parents and six siblings were already on the street. They didn’t know where to go. The building supervision authority in Duisburg cleaned the entire apartment building. Reason: construction faults.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary and the Roma Autonomy

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The newly formed Integrity Authority, which is supposed to investigate cases of corruption, has requested documents of the National Roma Self-Government’s Bridge to the World of Work program. This was announced by the chairman of the board in ATV after the NAV terminated the investigation into the catch-up program linked to the former Fidesz MP Flórián Farkas after 7 years.

The Hungarian National Roma  Self Government has been engulfed in several controverses recently and been accused of mismanagement.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia Settlements after 30 years

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After 30 years of Slovakia’s independence, poverty in Roma settlements remains. According to statistics, the situation in settlements is improving – people in them have better access to drinking water and sewage than 20 years ago. However, the gap between the majority and the Roma is increasing.

Germany News Western Europe

80 Years

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With the so-called Auschwitz Decree issues 80 years ago, the Nazi regime ordered the deportation of Sinti and Roma from all over Europe to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp 80 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of Sinti and Roma fell victim to the genocide.

Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth and the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, commemorated the Sinti and Roma murdered by the National Socialists at the Sachsenhausen Memorial on Thursday.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Roma Activists in the Czech Republic

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A commentary of Roma activists by Miroslav Brož. He says that Roma activism has a high price. Old activists are leaving, the younger generation is missing. It is not rewarding to be an activist in the Czech Republic.

Montenegro News Eastern Europe

Montenegro: Roma Participation

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Roma activists in Montenegro are pushing for a reduction of the census hurdle from 0.7% to 0.35% in order to be represented in parliament. Roma activists say  that not one member of parliament proposed an amendment on the reduction of the census by affirmative action for the Roma which shows their interest in the community and the inclusion of Roma in Montenegro.

Greece News Western Europe

Greece and Roma

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A long article about the shooting of a young Rom in Thessaloniki last week, and about the recurring police violence and racism against Roma and generally minorities in Greece, this with almost impunity.

It also highlights that the Roma are there since the Byzantine Empire (true, but most of the original Greek Roma are now in Turkey due to the population exchange in the 1920, and the current Roma are mostly Vach Roma who escaped the slavery), and it highlights the dire situation in which they are.

They are badly regarded in Greece and considered by many to be criminals.

This is bad.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany, Education, and Roma

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The German Conference of Ministers of Education, together with the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Alliance for Solidarity with the Sinti and Roma of Europe, has passed a joint declaration on teaching the past and present of Sinti and Roma in schools.

With this declaration, the three participants want to work towards schools intensifying their involvement with the past and present of the Sinti and Roma in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. In a special way, as in teacher training, awareness of the topic of antigypsyism should be raised.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Čeněk Růžička

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Roma activist Čeněk Růžička is dead. He died at the age of 76, the news server romea.cz reported on Sunday.

Růžička was a co-founder and chair of the Roma Holocaust Compensation Committee. He campaigned for the construction of a memorial to the Roma Holocaust on the site of the former concentration camp in Lety u Písku and the demolition of a pig farm on the site of the concentration camp. In 2017, Růžička received the Alice Garrigue Masaryk Prize, awarded annually by the American Embassy in Prague in the field of human rights.

May he rest in peace!

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Not much about Roma his week in France. An interview with two Romanian Roma who live in a camp near Paris and their hops of finding work and having a proper lodging. Another article about the “white van”, or how a story about Roma stealing children took hold of France a few years back. Roma fighting back the expulsion from their camp in Bobigny, and another demand of closure in Saint Denis. Finally, Roma an criminality, here near Toulouse and about prostitution.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovak EDUMA Prizes

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The Slovak NGO EDUMA awarded prizes to schools, companies and projects. Among them, Lear Corporation Seating Slovakia, p. r. o., was lauded for the strategic support of activities focused on the importance of diversity in the workplace and also for creating opportunities and environments that help the integration of Roma into the company’s work process.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Sterilisations

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In spite of the vote in parliament granting a one-time compensation of CZK 300’000 9EUR 12’000) to women who were forcefully sterilised between 1966 and 2022, the process to apply for the compensation and to get it is fraught with issues. In some cases, applicants were denied the payment.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Missing Pieces

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A defender of the principle of equality recommended to the government in September to prepare and adopt the four missing strategic plans at the national level as soon as possible. Two strategic documents are already being prepared, for gender equality and for anti-Semitism, the Government Communications Office (Ukom) announced after the government meeting. Guess what is among the missing strategic plan? The Roma.

Greece News Western Europe

Greece: How not to Report

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A news article with an inciendary headline “Roma burned businesses, raided cafes and beat citizens

Western Attica is a battlefield” following the manifestations after the shooting of a young Rom in Thessaloniki. Yes, there were riots, shops got ransacked, but this was definitively not all Roma.

Bad journalism, unfortunately with a goal, namely to portray Roma as violent, dangerous and criminal.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Roma Spirit

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The winners of the Roma Spirit 2022 contest were unveiled yesterday in Prešov, Slovakia. Roma Spirit celebrates exceptional people, inspiring activities, great artists, who help on the integration and acceptance of Roma.

The award in the Non-Governmental Organization category went to Cesta von civic association for timely early care in an environment of generational poverty, and in the Company and Employer category the award went to Tesco Stores SR, a.s. The municipality of Varhaňovce was the winner in the category Village and city. Roman Čonka received an award in the Media category for his more than twenty years of activities. Community leader Marián Bubenčík received the award in the Personality category, and in the Culture category the author and protagonist of the author’s monodrama František Balog.

In the Action of the Year category, the award for defending the rights of children from Hermanovec during the legal process of illegal segregation in education went to the Counseling Centre for Civil and Human Rights.

“All three nominations deserve great admiration and recognition for their work, determination and the help they provide,” declared the member of the Action of the Year Jury and RomaSpirit laureate Martina Horňáková.

Greece News Western Europe

Greece and Roma

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Roma leaders in Greece have appealed to calm following riots in major cities in Greece following the shooting of a young Roma in Thessaloniki. At least 10 police officers were injured during the riots in Athens with protester also commemorating another fatal shooting by the police in 2008.

Lithuania News Eastern Europe

Roma in Lithuania

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Ištvan Kwik, a well-known Rom in Lithuania, the leader of the band “Sare Roma” and the owner of a Restaurant “Gypsy Lounge and Grill” in the capital has launched an exhibition in his restaurant highlighting the Roma origins of several well-known persons such as Charlie Chaplin. The aim of this exhibition is for as many people as possible to learn about the roots of the Roma nationality and its spread in the world. And the most important thing is to break stereotypes.

Kwik stated tat “Employers are still afraid to hire Roma because they are guided by various stereotypes that arise from fear or ignorance. It is also the case when Roma are looking for a house to rent, Roma children are still bullied in schools and are often ostracized by their peere”.

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