A series on Slovak Radio showcasing successful projects helping the Roma minority in that country. Many of those are on education.
Well done!
Several Roma associations and prominent Roma individuals from the Roma that Marinika Tepić publicly apologize to Roma for “fascist statements and attempts to criminalize and publicly target the entire Roma community”.
She had portrayed Roma who rescued an 11 year old boy who was being harassed by several Serbs as the attackers. Surveillance video shows clearly that the Roma were not the aggressors here.
An Australian woman did a reportage inside apartments of the infamous Lunik IX estate in Slovakia. And surprise. The apartments are clean and well kept. Roma tell he about discrimination, especially when looking for work.
Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni hosted Minister of Education Vinko Logaj on a working visit today, with whom they discussed, among other things, the issue of non-attendance at primary school, mostly of Roma, and safety at schools. Logaj stressed the need for joint action by several ministries, “since measures taken by one ministry alone will not be sufficient”.
The President of the Roma Community Council, Jožek Horvat Muc, has called on Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob to abolish the working group for addressing Roma issues and establish a new commission for Roma issues. He accuses the current working group of doing too little and of being directed mainly by the mayors of southeastern municipalities. These municipalities clamour that the roma “problem” is getting worse.
A critique at the current Slovenian government’s new plans for Roma inclusion. Basically, they say here that Roma are not interested in working as unemployment benefits are almost equal to the minimum wage, and say that the situation and criminality has deteriorated.
International Roma Day, which has been commemorated on April 8 for more than thirty years, will be celebrated in Banská Bystrica this coming Wednesday with the event Mirror. It will take place in Záhrad and will be a combination of the power of art, culture and social discussion.
Minister Erik Tomáš came up with a catchy name “work instead of benefits”. In reality, it is a populist farce aimed against Roma that will not resolve the issues faced by Roma in Slovakia. The obstacles on the labor market are much more complex than the minister would be willing to admit. Many employers refuse to hire Roma. If you have a Roma surname, even education will not help you.
The minister chose the easiest victims. He painted a picture of a threatening army of people who sit at home all day, take money from the state and refuse to work. To make it sound even more dramatic, he did not forget to mention that this mainly concerns long-term unemployed Roma from marginalized communities.
Apparently, only 40 millions euros (out of the billion) of the Roma fund granted to Slovakia by the EU will be used for building houses for poor Roma. This is a ridiculously low sum of money.
The council of Europe organised a workshop on inclusive education for Roma children in the Czech Republic. Nice, but right now, the issue is more the segregation that still revails in aschools in the country.
The Office of the Government Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities (ÚSVRK) is preparing an update of data related to the facilities and infrastructure of municipalities with a significant Roma representation. The data collection will be carried out in April 2025. Unlike previous updates, this will be conducted online. The Office has already pilot-tested the new sociographic mapping of Roma communities in Slovakia in seven municipalities, from February to March.
Vanesa Horáková is only 16 years old, but her talent is confirmed by her latest single “Nechcem Ťa”.
She said: “I wanted to transfer the Roma style to pop and show people that Roma music can also be made in a modern, attractive dress. I wanted to prove that a song can be created by connecting both languages, which also fit perfectly into the Latin music background. I have many fans in the Roma community and I believe that they will be pleased with the lyrics in our language.”
Another one of those articles, but this time in Poland. A Roma “Palace” in Wrocław, Poland.
Today, ALFA Center promoted the collection of essays A Word for Coexistence and Tolerance in the hall of the Zahumlje Public Institution in Nikšić, Montenegro.
The collection consists of 11 essays by children of the Roma population from Nikšić. The essays were created at a creative writing workshop led by children’s writers Goran and Milica Radojičić, as a product of the central motif: All PEACE in us. The idea is that through essays, children present the importance and uniqueness of their culture, along with the importance of accepting all the differences in a society.
The Montenegro Roma Council expressed deep gratitude to citizens for their, as they said, invaluable support in the fight to preserve our cultural heritage and religious freedoms, especially in relation to the issue of preserving the mosque in Konik.
Slovakia has received almost a billion euros from EU funds, which are intended to improve the living conditions of poor Roma. Whether the state is using this money effectively, and whether this aid is at all visible directly in the Roma settlements, will be the topic of today’s TA3 discussion show “Let’s look at it”.
At the Murska Sobota Regional and Study Library, Jožek Horvat – Muc presented the book Roma Musicians in Prekmurje. The author, who is engaged in researching Roma history and culture, sheds light on the history of Roma musicians in this part of Slovenia.
The Government Office for Nationalities has published a proposal for an amendment to the Roma Community Act on the e-Democracy portal. The deadline for comments is 22 April. The proposal envisages the introduction of a new institute of municipal coordinator to improve the situation of the Roma community as a new link between local communities and the state level. They would be introduced in municipalities with registered Roma settlements, currently in 25 municipalities.
Not sure this will really work …
The quick reaction of a group of Roma prevented a tragedy in Topoľčany. A fire broke out in a family house on Tuesday, March 25, in the afternoon. Two women who lived in it without electricity, water and gas were trapped in thick smoke (no, it was not a Roma house).
At that time, Roma were working in the yard, helping the owner of the house with cleaning the land. When they noticed smoke pouring through the cracks in the windows, one of them did not hesitate to act. He ran into the building to save the women from danger.
A chilling article on how Hungary actually removes children from Romnja. Officially, they are “abandoned, but in reality they are not.
Really bad.
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