Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

North Macedonia: Conference

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North Macedonia: Conference

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Timcho Mutsunski participated and addressed the government donor conference “Roma and their friends”, dedicated to projects aimed at improving the integration of Roma into society, with a focus on housing, culture and education.

The Minister highlighted the importance of the National Strategy for Roma Inclusion 2022-2030, which addresses key areas such as education, employment, housing, social and health care. He stressed that the government will continue its efforts to achieve social cohesion and equal development and will firmly keep the promise that “no one will be left behind”, in line with the UN 2030 Agenda.

A Young Talent

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Last spring, only his classmates from the conservatory in Rimavská Sobota and friends from Detva in Slovakia knew him. But then in May he published a song with a video clip on the Internet and everything changed.

He is Rom, queer, and sings about the difficulties he is facing in a small Slovak town.

Slovakia and Segregated Schools

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Slovakia and Segregated Schools

The elementary school on Krčméryho Street in Nitra is now attended exclusively by Roma children, but several Ukrainian students have also joined. Years ago, it was a mixed school, but parents of non-Roma children withdrew their children. A view of what this means first hand

Bulgaria: Arrest

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Bulgaria: Arrest

The police searched the properties of Kiril Kirov, nicknamed the Japanese. The police presence in the capital’s “Faculty” Roma district was increased since early in the morning.

At this point, official information on the case is scarce. The Ministry of the Interior only confirms that there were searches. The reason for them, however, remains unclear. It’s not about drug crimes.

Slovakia, Roma, and Work

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Slovakia, Roma, and Work

Often called an “Ambitious fool,” Ivan Mak came up with the idea that he would employ Roma, the disabled, the long-term unemployed, single mothers, people without education and difficult to place on the labour market. For 10 years, Ivan has been giving work in the laundry and ironing shop in Horehroní, regardless of the colour of the skin or the disability of the people. It is said that people used to look at him like a UFO.

Roma and the Velvet Revolution

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Roma and the Velvet Revolution

On November 25, 1989, Emil Ščuka and Jan Rusenko spoke to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Letná in Prague. They also reached most households through television cameras. At the same time, a Roma group unfurled the Roma flag on the Letne plain, and a huge crowd chanted “Long live the Roma”.

Prior to that, Czech Roma dissidents were practically inexistant. The only notable exception was Karel Holomek, a signatory of the Movement for Civil Liberties (HOS), established in 1988. Holomek, expelled from the military college after 1968 and expelled from the Communist Party of the Czech Republic, was detained and interrogated as early as 1981 for “subversion of the republic.”

Slovakia, Roma, and Poor Health

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Slovakia, Roma, and Poor Health

Anthropologist Andrej Belák from the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) has published a scientific study in one of the most prestigious social science journals in the world. It is focused on the causes of the poor health status of excluded Roma in Slovakia.

The published work is mainly based on a series of in-depth field research carried out between 2004 and 2015. “These mapped in detail the daily practice of the excluded Roma themselves and then various professionals of the health system who worked with the excluded Roma on a daily basis,” the SAV spokeswoman explained. According to her, the work brings to the fore and vividly summarizes deeper connections that have been little known in the international context until now.

Well, you do not really need a PhD to understand that exclusion and poverty are not good for one’s health…

Russia: Pogroms

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Russia: Pogroms

Finally, the news makes it to the West. We reported on it already.

Following the murder of a taxi driver by a Rom, a pogrom started in the town of Korkino, in the Cheliabinsk region. Subsequently after the riots, several Roma were summoned to serve in the army in the Ukraine, a certain death and definitively a punishment.

For the journalist: there are no Sinti in Russia …

Serbia: TV Series

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Serbia: TV Series

The first Roma-Serbian series in the region “Love in Silence”, which will soon start broadcasting on TV Pink, brings an exciting and deep story about the birth of love at the moment when two different worlds meet, but also about the challenges faced by Roma in Serbia and around the world and fight against prejudices and stereotypes that society is prone to. Among the fantastic cast that is part of this important project is the popular actor Saša Joksimović, who prepared for this role very thoroughly. Given that he plays Roma Danijel, Saša had to learn both Romani and Macedonian languages.

Bulgaria and Incitation to Hatred

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Bulgaria and Incitation to Hatred

An article which states that “Roma neighbourhoods in Petrich, and the neighbourhoods in Bulgaria in general, are a huge prerequisite for a threat to national security, since the state institutions have abdicated long ago from the problems of the neighbourhoods, relying mainly on mediators, and this creates a situation in which we do not know what and how exactly happens there.”

It adds that “Illegal buildings and electricity, accompanied by Roma raids and beatings with axes, knives, stones and wooden sticks, as well as lack of any kind of responsibility and integration, are only a small part of the words that can describe the illegal life of the Roma neighborhoods in Petrich.”

Bad.

Bulgaria: Girls with Dreams

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Bulgaria: Girls with Dreams

The Centre for Inter-Ethnic Dialogue and Tolerance “Amalipe” organizes the fourth National Roma Women’s Meeting “Girls with dreams – let’s be more than three!”, which was held on November 14-15, 2024 in Dryanovo.

The meeting was attended by women and girls from all over the country who are actively working to change the situation of Romnja. These are mostly female students, educational mediators, active girls and Romnja working to improve living and learning conditions in the Roma community.

  • “Момичета с мечти – нека сме повече от три!” – ромските жени и пътят към успеха. In: BNR. 14.11.2024. https://bnr.bg/varna/post/102074690

Roma Baker

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Roma Baker

Alex Galamb has been nominated for the I Came Volunteer Award, established with the support of the Center for Family-Friendly Hungary.

The young baker was asked how he was spending the day before the holidays and what activities he planned to implement within the framework of his foundation.

Alex told that in the coming weeks he would accompany his students on a professional visit to Slovakia as part of the Erasmus programme, but when he was at home, he usually baked with the children from Sütni jó alapítvány on Sundays, and they also organised trips. They went out for hamburgers, to the cinema, and since Alex has twenty-five young bakers, they baked delicacies in the foundation bakery in three groups.

Czechia: Documentary

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Czechia: Documentary

The documentary Dajori [small mother in Romanes], which won the audience award at the Jihlava Film Festival, is now in theatres. The film is ostensibly a story about a Roma foster family, but it also reveals the housing crisis, the trade in poverty and racism rooted in society.

The foster mother, Dajori Marie Hučkova, in the movie says “Ravens are like Roma. There are many of them and they are roaring. People don’t mind, so shoot them. An animal can take care of its children, and my sister, the mother, cannot take care of her children.”

North Macedonia: Kindergarten

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North Macedonia: Kindergarten

350 Roma children will be able to attend kindergarten free of charge in Centar and Gazi Baba in the periphery of Skopje. This is part of a project for the inclusion of Roma children in municipal institutions.

Knowing how many Roma there are around Skopje, this is a drop of water on a hot stone. Almost an alibi exercise. And the user of “Roma Nationality” is very much reminiscent of the old socialist notion.

They are North Macedonians …

Slovenia, Roma, and Employment

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Slovenia, Roma, and Employment

The employability of Roma in Slovenia remains a challenge, as they face high levels of unemployment and limited employment opportunities. According to data from 2002, about 15% of Roma were employed, while 85% were unemployed. They are for bright exceptions that prove that this is also possible. This is the case of Đani Stojanovič, who works at Komunala Novo mesto.
Why no journalist ask how one gets at such numbers if governments do admit they do not know how many Roma live in a country?

Elena Marushiakova

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Elena Marushiakova

Prof. Elena Marushiaková-Popová received the Slovak Science and Technology Award 2024 in the category Personality of Science and Technology for international successful scientific research in the field of Roma studies, the history of Roma as an ethnic minority in Europe.

Shee is currently continuing his work at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The cooperation of Professor Elena Marushiaková-Popová with experts and institutions in Slovakia dealing mainly with Roma studies has been ongoing since the eighties. Its scientific contribution is considerable, it helps to get to know the Roma living in Slovakia and to understand them in a wider pan-European context.

Slovakia and Integration

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Slovakia and Integration

Ivan Mako is 48 years old and comes from Banská Bystrica. He studied Roma culture at the University of Konstantin Filozof in Nitra. He is married, has two sons and both are studying at universities. He works as a manager in a multifunctional community centre in Valaska near Brezno and manages the successful social enterprise Wasco, a cooperative in the same village. The company is a transfer station for standard employment and currently employs more than 50 hard-to-employ people. In ten years, around 450 people passed through it.

Well Done.

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