Category Archives: Czech Republic

Czech Agency for Social Inclusion

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Roma representatives are complaining that the Agency for Social Inclusion cannot effectively solve the problems of excluded localities. “Roma have a role on a theoretical level, but their real representation is weak,”  according to Marian Dancso, deputy chairman of the Government Council for Roma Minorities. “Solving social exclusion is a self-governing competence of the municipality, we cannot do it for it,” s director Martin Šimáček defends the agency for social inclusion.

We Grow

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The twenty-third meeting of Roma high school and university students called BARUVAS, which means “We grow” in Romani, starts today, August 23. This week-long summer school will be characterized by education, inspiring workshops focused on personal growth, self-knowledge and a deeper understanding of Roma history. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities that will offer them new knowledge and skills that they can use in their personal and professional lives.

Roma Bašaven

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On Friday, August 23, Prague 4 will host the fifth edition of the Romany Bashavel event. The event will take place again in the popular Cultural Center on Novodvorská from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The main star will be Slovak rapper and musician P.A.T., who promotes the so-called Roma Rap – a combination of rap and Roma traditional music, which was also accepted by the original fans of his “harder” work. ROMEA TV broadcasts the event live.

Czechia: Agency for Social Affairs

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Citizen members of the Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs and representatives of the organization RomanoNet today issued a statement calling on the government of the Czech Republic to immediately suspend all decisions regarding the future of the Agency for Social Inclusion (ASZ) and to start a broad public discussion about its future. They stated that the participation of Roma in the ASZ is only a formal one.

Interview of Zeljko Jovanovič

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Zeljko Jovanovič, the president of the Roma Foundation for Europe and a long term activist calls for the community to look to the future and learn from the past. “I would like young Roma to see themselves as a source of collective strength. Let them work as a collective to build a higher level of resistance,” he said in an interview for iROZHLAS.cz at a conference on the anniversary of the Roma Holocaust in Poland.

Festival in Lovosice

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Roma cuisine, attractions for children, and music are in the program of the 7th Roma festival in Lesopark Osmička in Lovosice, which takes place on August 17 from 12:00 and will last until late at night. Look forward to Roma dance groups from all over the country, as well as Roma singers and bands.

Reflections on Lety

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Some reflections on the memorial of the former concentration camp of Lety, in Czechia with a question: Will the trees that have been planted there become tall before racism against Roma disappears?

Roma Memory Map

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Presentation of the Roma Memory Map for America, which is a project created from the contributions and engagement of Roma, Roma and pro-Roma civic organizations, human rights defenders, academics, public officials and other members of the public, August 8, 2024, Prague.

Nominations

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The Office of the Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs (RVZRM) has announced a call for nominations of female and male candidates for membership in this important government advisory body. The call responds to the approaching end of the term of office of some current members and the need to supplement the Council with new citizen representatives. Applications and nominations can be submitted until September 30, 2024.

Roma Memory Map

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Making the presence and history of the Roma community in South and North America visible is the goal of the Memory Map Roma for America. It captures the places that are important to the Roma communities living in the given countries. Martin Fotta from the Ethnological Institute of the Academy of Sciences, who participated in the creation of the map, said this at today’s presentation.

Prague Pride

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Prague Pride festival, which officially began on Monday evening on Strelecky Island in Prague. The LGBT+ festival is taking place for the fourteenth time. It culminates this coming Saturday with a rainbow pride parade. The organizers expect that 70,000 people could participate in it. The festival also includes a Roma program organized by ARA ART.

Google Translate

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In June, Google announced that it had expanded the language palette of Google Translate by 110 languages. One of them is Romanes. According to linguist Viktor Elšík, it is good that the Romani language is represented in a virtual public space. However, Elšík adds that it is necessary to take into account the fact that the translations are not according to the north-central Romani language, which is used in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Well, in fact, the Romanes used in Google translate does not correspond to any single dialect of Romanes. It is a mix of all dialects.

August 2nd Commemorations: Czechia

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A few articles in the Czech press for the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the Roma camp in Auschwitz Birkenau.

Olga Fečová: The day was short for me

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The icon of Romani culture, almost 80-year-old Olga Fečová, a woman with indomitable energy, presents her life in a book that tells the story of the Roma in Czechoslovakia on the basis of an individual destiny. The selection from the book is complemented by excerpts from an interview with the author, filmed for the non-profit organization Romea as part of the Roma memory project.

Ukrainians and Roma

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The town of Pilsen, Czechia, deployed joint patrols of Ukrainians and local Roma for crime prevention.

Sixteen thousand Ukrainians live in this city of 170,000, and there are no exact figures on the number of Roma. According to Tereza Schliková from the press department of the Pilsen city police,”Each community defends its own, they don’t need to meet each other. But when it comes down to it, we use combined patrols of Roma and Ukrainian prevention officers who can eventually calm the situation.”

The Church and Roma

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The working group for Roma of the Ecumenical Council of Churches has published a letter in which it calls on the church community to be more open to Roma believers. “In practice, it is not the case that a Roma comes to a Christian community, where they throw him out ‘by the collar’, saying that he has no business there. But they will let him know that he is not desirable, often behind closed doors,” explains one of the initiators of the challenge, evangelical pastor Mikuláš Vymětal.

Interview

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An interview with Jana Horváthová, director of the Museum of Roma Culture in Brno. She says that “Negative things [about Roma] are heard a lot, although lately it has been decreasing. But recently, during the opening of the monument in Lety, there was again an abundance of hateful comments on social networks dishonouring the Roma and their culture. That’s a real shame.”

August 2nd

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The Museum of Roma Culture in Brno will present the play The Gypsy Boxer – as a reminder of the 80th anniversary of the murder of all Roma prisoners of the so-called family camp in the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

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