An article about rich Roma Christmas decoration and celebrations among rich Slovak Roma.
The city of Žilina completed of its ongoing projects before the year end, entitled Everyone Different, All Equal. Its goal was to expand the Community Centre on Bratislavská Street, which was created to help the marginalized Roma community. The city hall is trying to integrate Roma into society through various inclusive activities.
Well…
In Fil’akovo, a third of the city’s population are Roma. However, there are no excluded communities and makeshift dwellings like in eastern Slovakia. There is a different historical development behind this.
The local Roma mostly speak Hungarian, the majority language in the city. They attend secondary schools, and some then go on to study at universities. Jobs in this region are still scarce, far away, and poorly paid. For Roma, this means that it is even more difficult to find one, which is why many choose to go abroad.
Romnja from the Bardejov district in Slovakia have been trying to improve their financial situation by getting a job for years, but many are not successful. The obstacles are persistent racism, practical problems of life in the settlement, but often also resentment from their own families. Women from marginalized Roma communities thus remain the least working group.
The deaf Pavel Šarina (32) employs more than a hundred people, seventy percent of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Among them are dozens of Roma who do not let the young boss down. In Veľký Krtíš and the surrounding area, he has a total of five establishments, from which they serve thousands of portions of food daily. He was recently awarded the Roma Spirit award, which he sees mainly as an appreciation of the work of his employees.
The case of a town who ceded some land on the promise that some social housing would be built for Roma from the town. Well, the developer got the land, but social housing is nowhere to be seen. Sad.
A few new articles about the 200 mio Euroos that Slovakia di spend in 2024 on Roma integration …
Not all positive.
A re-edition of an article of a while back of a Vlach Romni from Slovakia who is teaching in a school. Unfortunately, all stereotypes are present: arranged early marriages, patriarchal society, etc…
The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma Communities (ÚSVRK) has contracted approximately 480 projects worth almost 200 million euros over the past year, within which it provided over 95 million euros for the support of Roma and the development of infrastructure. This was stated by the Plenipotentiary of the Government for Roma Communities Alexander Daško at a press conference in Šumiac, Horehronie, on Thursday as part of the annual activity report of the office.
Frankly, the results are not yet visible…
The co-founder of the Roma Civic Association Lovári, Jaroslav Bihary (60) from Nitra, told us more about how these holidays take place in Roma families.
From November 25 to December 3, 2024, a large-scale artistic visual work was realized in Humenné, Slovakia, on one of the apartment buildings in the Podskalka area.
“The mural is the result of more than six months of the Muse, Walls, Murals project and the authors of the design are renowned artists Viktor Feher and Samuel Velebný. The goal was to search for the history, roots, traditions and stories of the settlement through community-educational meetings with children from the Podskalka locality. This is how the idea for creating a mural that describes Podskalka arose,” explained the project representatives.
Traditional Slovak racism thinks that Roma are mostly backward, uneducated, refuse to adapt to our culture, at best they just rub their hands together, take what they can from the system but give nothing back, at worst they cheat and steal – like Slovaks in the European Union.
There are, of course, certain differences here. For centuries, we have purposefully pushed Roma to the margins of society, we have not allowed them to settle, own real estate, or perform most professions.
The Slovak National Centre for Human Rights (SNHRC) warns of discrimination against Roma in restaurant. It revealed this based on monitoring in ten cities in eastern Slovakia. In as many as six of them, discrimination was detected. A Roma couple tested the restaurants, and, if the result was discriminatory, another couple came to verify. The centre thus teste the services in 137 restaurants in total.
Roma have been in Slovakia since the 14th century. The first written document about the Roma population in Slovakia is a document from 1322, in which the presence of Roma in Spiš is mentioned by the Spišské novoveske mayor Ján Kunch. Later, larger groups of Roma arrived in Slovakia. In 1423, Sigismund of Luxembourg issued a document at Spiš Castle that guaranteed the Roma certain guarantees of protection and self-governing judicial powers.
The difference in number of Roma in the 2021 census and the number of Roma residents in the latest Atlas of Roma Communities from 2019 is almost threefold. While the 2019 atlas indicates that at least 417,535 Roma people live in Slovakia, in the 2021 census, only 156,164 Roma people declared themselves Roma.
Roman Lacko lived with his wife and two children in a shed in a Roma settlement in Važec, Slovakia. He lost his house in a fire in November. The municipality sayas that it tried to help them.
The Liptov village of Važec offers its residents emergency housing 100 kilometres away in another district and region. It bought apartments and a family house there, allegedly because they were cheaper than under the Tatras. According to the association of local governments, however, the problems of socially excluded communities cannot be shifted onto the shoulders of other local governments.
Tibor Horváth, a Roma advisor to the chairman of the Košice Self-Governing Region for Roma communities, died this last weekend. The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities reported on his passing: “These days, friends, selfless colleagues, great people and dedicated activists in the field of work with the Roma community have unexpectedly left us forever. Tibor Horváth from Košice, a fighter for a better life for the Roma, the only Roma advisor on the issue of the MRK from eight Slovak regions, passionate about the work to which he sacrificed everything.”
May he rest in peace.
Klaudio Virág (27), a resident of the city of Levič, tried to get a job at the Slovak Power Plants in Mochovce as a locksmith. He claims that in a phone call, the job broker told him that they didn’t want Roma people in Mochovce, allegedly because of bad experiences.
Five families in Zvolen, Slovakia, saw their homes burn down in mid-November, and it caused almost no commotion. They were Roma from the area below Pustý hrad. The families refused to go to a community centre temporarily; they were afraid they would lose their children. They moved in with their relatives and acquaintances and don’t know how they will survive the winter.
Ethnologist Oľga Bodorová has been nominated for the Roma Spirit 2024 award for her lifetime contribution to ethnography and museology, especially for her documentation of the material and spiritual culture of Roma in Gemer-Malohont. Her publishing and presentation activities and efforts to preserve cultural heritage are of invaluable value for future generations.
The non-legislative document Action Plans for the Strategy for Equality, Inclusion and Participation of Roma by 2030 for the years 2025-2027 was submitted to the interdepartmental commentary procedure. The strategy highlights a set of starting points and goals that aim to stop the segregation of Roma communities, a significant positive turn in the social inclusion of Roma, non-discrimination, changing attitudes and improving coexistence.
But it also pushes for de-facto segregated schools by promoting teaching in Romanes.
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