Category Archives: Czech Republic

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

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.”

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Oda na kames …

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Oda na kames [what you don’t like] is a two-year project of the Ara Art organization, which aims to map hate speech and violence against the Roma minority on the Internet and in real life.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Pilsen, Roma, and Ukrainians

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Jiří Winkelhöfer, Pilsen city councilor for security and crime prevention, said that Roma crime prevention assistants have been working in the Pilsen Municipal Police since 2013. “Since last year, four more assistants with knowledge of the Ukrainian language, because tens of thousands of refugees have found refuge in Pilsen,” he added.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Roma Gang

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Two articles in the Czech press about a gang of young Roma in the town of Šternberk who beat up a young girl and broke her nose.

This is bad for all Roma.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia and Illegal Sterilisations

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A decision of the Supreme Administrative Court says that the Ministry of Health must now actively verify whether an applicant for compensation was subjected to illegal sterilization in the past.

The impetus for changing the system was the request of a woman whose request for compensation was rejected by the Ministry of Health in the spring of 2022. The decision was mainly justified by the fact that the applicant’s medical records had already been shredded and she herself had not proven the illegality of her sterilization.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia, Roma, and Ukrainians

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The Pilsen club Pixla mainly cares for underprivileged children from nearby hostels, having many Roma among its clients. Ukrainian refugees were added to this recently. For its work, the club won the second prize in a national competition for social services in May.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Social Housing

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The premiere of a short documentary film “Domov západ života” [Home, the basis of life], dedicated to the innovative practice of guaranteed housing, was held in Prague on June 28, 2024.

The guaranteed housing system, as presented in the document, plays a key role in providing affordable housing. A key role in this process is played by the guarantor, which can be a municipality or a non-profit organization. In the slide you can see how the system works, its benefits for all stakeholders and the real impacts.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Theatre and Sterilisation

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The theater group Ara Art decided to help women who were victims of involuntary illegal sterilizations in the past. Their new project combines a theatrical production, an information campaign and personal support for compensation claims.

The law on the provision of a one-time financial sum to persons sterilized in violation of the law entered into force at the beginning of 2022. Since then, over 500 women, mainly of Roma origin, have received compensation. “Hundreds more have submitted applications that have not yet been approved, and many other women do not know how to deal with the administrative process or do not trust it,” said the Ara Art organization in a press release sent to the Romea.cz news site.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Ara Fest

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The Roma culture festival Ara Fest has become a tradition in recent years. Since its inception in 2017, however, it has grown considerably – not only in terms of the program, but also in terms of the number of cities where it takes place.

This year, for the first time, Ara Fest will take place in four Czech cities. The festival “string” will begin in Pilsen, where the program is divided into three days from July 4 to 6. It will continue from 17 to 19 July in Brno, from 22 to 24 August it will delight the residents of Ostrava, and in Jablonec nad Nisou from 6 to 7 September.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Education Grants

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Lucie Fuková, government commissioner for Roma minority affairs, speaks about the new call for project entitled PRO-ROMA, launched by the Operational Program Jan Amos Komenský (OP JAK), which has earmarked 300 mio Czech Crowns towards education projects.

Applicants from Roma and pro-Roma organizations will be able to draw funds to support informal education, cooperation with parents or the public.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Karvina Festival

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The Roma festival was recently held in Karviná. Temperamental rhythmic music sounded in the summer cinema area all Saturday afternoon and evening. Various ensembles from the Czech Republic and Slovakia alternated on stage, creating a great atmosphere for all visitors.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Tomáš Kačo

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An interview with the Romano pianist and composer Tomáš Kačo. He is now well established in many countries of the world after his studies at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston. After fulfilling his dream – concerts in the Rudolfinum and Carnegie Hall – he has other goals ahead of him and he wants to be a role model for Roma.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Scholarships

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Roma students of secondary and higher professional schools as well as university students can apply for a scholarship from the ROMEA organization for the school and academic year 2024/2025 from Monday 17 June to Monday 22 July. The scholarship program of the ROMEA organization was launched in 2016, and since then a total of 605 scholarships worth 10.025 million crowns have been distributed to 301 students. ROMEA will support 20 more students this year than last year. A total of one hundred Roma students will be able to receive a scholarship.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Roma and Czech Schools

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A dreadful reportage in a segregated school in the Czech Republic. Karel Rajchl, the director of the Vojanova Elementary School in Děčín says that getting children and their families to cooperate is often almost impossible.

“Shh, they’re writing a test,” she warns, upon entering the seventh-grade physics class. The teacher replies “It doesn’t matter, they can’t do anything anyway”. In the last pews, two boys don’t even bother to have an open notebook in which to calculate the task entered on the blackboard, they just giggle. “These boys are one step away from raping our young female teachers,” states principal Rajchl dryly as he leaves the class again.

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