Category Archives: Slovakia

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

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.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

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…

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe Slovakia

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.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

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.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Everyday Racism

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Slovakia and Everyday Racism

Roma boys were supposed to enjoy a friendly football match, but instead received a welcome that hurt at the local school. “Yikes, gypsy team! Kill them!” one student shouted at them. “That was a welcome from a little girl from the local school, where we came with the students for a friendly football match. The boys were very much looking forward to the match. But the welcome hurt,” said teacher and education activist Juraj Hipš on Facebook, who published the sad experience of his students. There has now been a huge wave of support on social media.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Police Abuse

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Slovakia: Police Abuse

The most well-known case of police brutality in Slovakia in the media is from Košice. It happened back in 2009. Ten Košice policemen forced Roma boys from the Luník IX housing estate to slap and kiss each other under the threat of a fight, ordered them to strip naked and stand with their hands above their heads, barked at them with unmuzzled dogs, and put a gun to one of their heads.

The police officers, who were recording everything on their mobile phones, were accused of harassing Roma between the ages of 11 and 17, who were suspected of robbing a pensioner. The case dragged on in court for years, they were convicted several times by the courts, eventually they were declared innocent and some of the dismissed policemen returned to the force. The final word is with the regional court, a hearing in this matter has not yet been scheduled.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and School Segregation

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Slovakia and School Segregation

Slovakia has been condemned by the EU for its de-facto school segregation of Roma children. The latest measures on de-segregation of schools voted by the Slovak parliament are being criticised by the association EduRoma. The parliament decided to ban two-shifts operations in schools and to teach Romanes in classes. EduRoma says that “In the name of language education, you will be able to officially separate those children from other children. You can segregate them in the name of language education, no one will tell you anything about it.”

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Civil Right Lawyer

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Civil Right Lawyer

In the cases of illegally sterilized Roma women, beaten Roma during police raids and segregated Roma pupils, the courts finally recognized that their rights had been violated. However, this journey was not easy, it took a long time and in some cases it is not yet over.

These cases are also linked by the fact that the lawyer Vanda Durbáková from the Counselling Centre for Civil and Human Rights in Košice stood up for their rights. She has been representing the rights of Romae for over 20 years and also deals with public lawsuits, where they sue state institutions and point to systemic forms of discrimination and violation of the rights of Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

International Romani Language Day

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International Romani Language Day

An article in the Slovak press on the creation and adoption of November 5th as the international Romanes Day.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and a Roma Neighbourhood

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Slovakia and a Roma Neighbourhood

The postman does not come to them, taxi companies refuse to take them home. Residents of the Farárske district of Trnava are requesting the intervention of the prosecutor’s office. The news say that Roma in that neighbourhood are destroying cars, fighting, etc. And that the police doesn’t even go in that neighbourhood.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

A Roma Mission in a Settlement

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A Roma Mission in a Settlement

The story of a Czech man, who founded the Christian Roma Mission in a Roma settlement in Slovakia. Success and difficulties.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Graves, and Roma

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Slovakia, Graves, and Roma

Another article about cemeteries in Slovakia. According to the article, the cemetery ry in Žehra (Spišská Nová Ves district) is dotted with bizarre black tombstones. In Prešov, a larger-than-life-sized marble engraved mobster haunts the ciry, and another extravagance has been added to the grave of Řuma (†53) from a lavish funeral!

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Tombstones

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Slovakia: Tombstones

The story of a small village, Žehra with a gothic church, confronted now with tombstones with a colorful, life-size likeness in black marble are a novelty at the cemetery in, which local Roma build for their deceased.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: The Roma School

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Slovakia: The Roma School

Two articles in the Slovak press about this new initiative of a school where teaching will be done in Romanes. This is presented a good idea in Slovakia and esopecially so by the government. The result will be a segregated school whose standards will be rock-bottom.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Romani School

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Slovakia: Romani School

According to the articles, many children from the Podtatra  Roma community speak exclusively Romanes at home. When they start school, they may therefore have a problem with understanding the Slovak language. This is already a false premise, Roma are dual language speakers from early on.

The pilot project in the village of Rakúsy aims to improve this situation thanks to the first national school, where teaching will also be in the Romani language. In the village, 74 percent of the over 2,000 inhabitants claim to be Roma. The most used language is Romanes.

Well, this will result in a segegrated school, whose standards will drop, and will contribute to further marginalisation.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Museum of Roma Culture

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Slovakia: Museum of Roma Culture

The Museum of Roma Culture in Slovakia has been actively involved in research, documentation and presentation of the rich cultural heritage of the Roma since 2004. “The exhibition will introduce visitors to the history of the museum and its predecessor – the Documentation Centre of Roma Culture, its development and professional activities, as well as the importance of preserving the cultural identity of the Roma through museum activities,” said Kiripolská.

The Exhibition is titled “Hin amen museum!” –[We have a museum].

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovenia: New Centre

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Slovenia: New Centre

In the Roma settlement of Dobruška Vas in the municipality of Škocjan, the new premises of the multi-purpose Roma centre, which also includes a kindergarten, were officially opened today. The centre was burned down in March this year, and the municipality decided to replace it with a new one. “Especially in the desire to help children,” said Mayor Jože Kapler.

According to the mayor, the new center is built out of three new containers that the municipality rented and remodeled. The municipality also provided water and electricity for the center, and built playgrounds next to it. The entire investment cost around 70,000 euros.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Interview

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Slovakia: Interview

An interviw with MP Viliam Tankó, who also represents Slovakia in boxing and, who in is own words says that had to live with my mother near a garbage dump. He also explains why he recently left the movement of Matovič who scored high within the Roma population in Slovakia. Since then, he worked as a non-affiliated member of parliament until, together with Michal Šimeček, he announced two weeks ago that he was joining the club of the strongest opposition party, Progresívne Slovensko.

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