Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia Settlements after 30 years

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After 30 years of Slovakia’s independence, poverty in Roma settlements remains. According to statistics, the situation in settlements is improving – people in them have better access to drinking water and sewage than 20 years ago. However, the gap between the majority and the Roma is increasing.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Roma Activists in the Czech Republic

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A commentary of Roma activists by Miroslav Brož. He says that Roma activism has a high price. Old activists are leaving, the younger generation is missing. It is not rewarding to be an activist in the Czech Republic.

Montenegro News Osteuropa

Montenegro: Roma Participation

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Roma activists in Montenegro are pushing for a reduction of the census hurdle from 0.7% to 0.35% in order to be represented in parliament. Roma activists say  that not one member of parliament proposed an amendment on the reduction of the census by affirmative action for the Roma which shows their interest in the community and the inclusion of Roma in Montenegro.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Čeněk Růžička

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Roma activist Čeněk Růžička is dead. He died at the age of 76, the news server romea.cz reported on Sunday.

Růžička was a co-founder and chair of the Roma Holocaust Compensation Committee. He campaigned for the construction of a memorial to the Roma Holocaust on the site of the former concentration camp in Lety u Písku and the demolition of a pig farm on the site of the concentration camp. In 2017, Růžička received the Alice Garrigue Masaryk Prize, awarded annually by the American Embassy in Prague in the field of human rights.

May he rest in peace!

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovak EDUMA Prizes

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The Slovak NGO EDUMA awarded prizes to schools, companies and projects. Among them, Lear Corporation Seating Slovakia, p. r. o., was lauded for the strategic support of activities focused on the importance of diversity in the workplace and also for creating opportunities and environments that help the integration of Roma into the company’s work process.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech Republic and Sterilisations

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In spite of the vote in parliament granting a one-time compensation of CZK 300’000 9EUR 12’000) to women who were forcefully sterilised between 1966 and 2022, the process to apply for the compensation and to get it is fraught with issues. In some cases, applicants were denied the payment.

Bad.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia: Missing Pieces

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A defender of the principle of equality recommended to the government in September to prepare and adopt the four missing strategic plans at the national level as soon as possible. Two strategic documents are already being prepared, for gender equality and for anti-Semitism, the Government Communications Office (Ukom) announced after the government meeting. Guess what is among the missing strategic plan? The Roma.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Roma Spirit

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The winners of the Roma Spirit 2022 contest were unveiled yesterday in Prešov, Slovakia. Roma Spirit celebrates exceptional people, inspiring activities, great artists, who help on the integration and acceptance of Roma.

The award in the Non-Governmental Organization category went to Cesta von civic association for timely early care in an environment of generational poverty, and in the Company and Employer category the award went to Tesco Stores SR, a.s. The municipality of Varhaňovce was the winner in the category Village and city. Roman Čonka received an award in the Media category for his more than twenty years of activities. Community leader Marián Bubenčík received the award in the Personality category, and in the Culture category the author and protagonist of the author’s monodrama František Balog.

In the Action of the Year category, the award for defending the rights of children from Hermanovec during the legal process of illegal segregation in education went to the Counseling Centre for Civil and Human Rights.

“All three nominations deserve great admiration and recognition for their work, determination and the help they provide,” declared the member of the Action of the Year Jury and RomaSpirit laureate Martina Horňáková.

Litauen News Osteuropa

Roma in Lithuania

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Ištvan Kwik, a well-known Rom in Lithuania, the leader of the band “Sare Roma” and the owner of a Restaurant “Gypsy Lounge and Grill” in the capital has launched an exhibition in his restaurant highlighting the Roma origins of several well-known persons such as Charlie Chaplin. The aim of this exhibition is for as many people as possible to learn about the roots of the Roma nationality and its spread in the world. And the most important thing is to break stereotypes.

Kwik stated tat “Employers are still afraid to hire Roma because they are guided by various stereotypes that arise from fear or ignorance. It is also the case when Roma are looking for a house to rent, Roma children are still bullied in schools and are often ostracized by their peere”.

Ungarn News Osteuropa

Project in Hungary

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An article about the InDaHouse association which teaches young children from poor families, mostly Roma. Kinga Tillmann has been working for the InDaHouse association for six years and today coordinates the early education program. She believes her work has the greatest impact at this stage of life: “There are families where there are no developmental toys at home, no books, and no knowledge of how to play with a six-month-old. We want to compensate for this so that there are no backlogs that could lead to school failure.”

“It’s mainly urban, academic volunteers who come to the villages and take care of the children and assure them of their love and trust. These children will still experience racism on a daily basis, but because they get a lot of positive reinforcement from us, we believe that they will be able to function as equal partners, as citizens in society,” explains InDaHouse President Fruzsina Benkő.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Roma in Slovakia

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Not the usual lecture in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung – an article about Roma. And for once not that negative. It speaks of the Roma in Slovakia and how the lack of workers in that country is pushing companies to start hiring Slovak Roma instead of importing workers from the Balkans (who are often Roma by the way) or even further.

Better late than never.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Romano Forum

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The journalist Pavol Lacko (35) has created an online magazine called “Romano Forum” with the ambition to make it the first opportunity to find relevant information about Roma in Slovakia. He is helped by cooperation with the local N, which is a partner website of the magazine. Lacko, an investigative journalist, brought high standards to the magazine and has also expanded the focus on LGBTI+ people. For more than a year of operation, Romano forum brought 100 articles and does not avoid criticism inside the community.

News Osteuropa Serbien

Serbia and Social Services

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According to Amnesty International, the new Serbian law on the social card is an intrusive surveillance system that risks harming the most marginalized members of the company, in particular to the Roma communities. Amnesty is submitting a legal opinion in the framework of the examination of the constitutionality of this law.

Coming into force on March 1, this law authorizes the creation of a centralized government database which processes 130 data categories concerning people who request social security in order to assess their eligibility. The Serbian authorities affirm that this procedure allows a more equitable distribution of funds intended for socially disadvantaged persons, but it is in reality an intrusive digital surveillance system which threatens the right to equality.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

From the Osada to Higher Education

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An impressive interview with Jana Zacharová, a Romni who grew up in an Osada, a Roma settlement. Thanks to her own efforts and small support from her teachers and the non-profit organization Divé maky, she managed to study, later even abroad. Today, she finances her studies of medical pedagogy herself.

She says:

I mainly remember the social side, which was very difficult. In the settlement, there were not many opportunities for development or people I could perceive as a role model. And my parents had problems with alcohol.

So I know what it’s like to have absolutely nothing. What is it like to be hungry because there is no money for food. Or not being able to go to school because there is no money for the trip. These are things I will remember for the rest of my life. The poverty was very crushing.

News Osteuropa North Macedonia

Hate Speech

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A Romani organisation organised a conference on hate speech in North Macedonia and worked on a project on the more general topic of Hate Speech in the Western Balkans.

The Council of Europe published the information yesterday.

News Osteuropa Polen

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas

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The exhibition of Małgorzata Mirgi-Tas’ works, entitled “Wędrujemy images”, will be open to visitors from December 2nd at the International Cultural Centre in Krakow. This is the first exhibition of a Roma artist after her success at this year’s 59th Venice Biennale.

News Osteuropa Polen

Polish Racism

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A book on Polish racism has been published and is reviewed in the Polish edition of Vogue. The book, called „Odejdź” [Leave] authored by Agnieszka Kościańska and Michał Petryk is insightful, written with exposing passion, painfully interesting and just as necessary. Because Poland is not a tolerant country, but rather a structurally racist one, and has been for many decades. Contempt for the Other is part of our culture.

Polish racism is doing well. It peeks out from almost every corner and withered bush. It is clearly visible on our border with Belarus, where people are dying as a result of the illegal decisions of the Polish government and the joyful consent of many Poles. It can even be seen in relation to some Ukrainians (it is not – so far – fashionable, but who knows what will happen in a moment)

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia Lunik IX

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An interview of the Roma mayor of the largest Roma settlement in Slovakia: Lunik IX.

Marcel Šaňa says that he experienced the biggest prejudices as a Roma when he wanted to buy a family home.

For the third time, he was sovereignly elected mayor of Lunik IX, where he has lived for over forty years. He graduated from university while working with his wife, and this year he also completed his doctorate.

“Maybe this whole thing was good for something. We stayed in Luník and were able to help the people here,” explains Marcel Šaňa, the mayor of the Košice district of Luník IX, who is also the vice-chairman of the Roma Coalition Party, in an interview with Postoj.

He took his children to school elsewhere because, according to him, the elementary school in Luník was weak. He explains why the education of the Roma is important, how they cleaned Luník, and also revealed whether he ever plans to move out of the Roma settlement.

Deutschland Moldawien News Westeuropa

Germany, Moldova, and Refugees

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There is an ongoing controversy in Berlin currently where the Senate wants to send 600 Moldovan refugees back to Moldova before Christmas to make room for Ukrainian refugees. Some of those 600 are Roma so this is not good.

News Osteuropa Ukraine

More on the Ukraine Killings

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More on the Ukraine Killings

This time in the Slovak Press, an article that cites the same sources as the Ukrainians regarding the execution of 28 Roma in Ukraine’s occupied territories by Russian troop.

Bad.

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