Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

Limanowa, Poland, and Roma

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The mayor of Limanowa, Poland, on solving the issue of a Roma settlement with funds from the state and the reactions of the people. This saga has lasted several years, and the city was repeatedly condemned by the Ombudsman.

Exhibition on Roma and the Holocaust

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In the gallery of the City History Museum in Fiľakovo, Slovakia, visitors will be able to view the exhibition of the Dutch photographer Jutka Rona entitled Hungarian Gypsies – Survivors’ Testimony dedicated to the memory of the Hungarian Roma holocaust.

Hungarian-born photographer Jutka Rona was two years old when her parents immigrated to the Netherlands.

Lithuania: End of a Project

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The restaurant “Gypsy Lounge & Grill” of the leader of the Roma community, singer Ištvans Kviks recently closed its doors. The place, full of culture, gathered a lot of people both on weekends and on weekdays. As the restaurant owner testified, it was a place that destroyed stereotypes about Roma people. He said that  “Our task was to introduce Roma cuisine to the public, but unfortunately, the three-year project ended. Our main task was to recruit Roma people. We employed a lot of Roma, and without a higher education, they are now working on their own, creating their own lives.”

Hungary: Special Exhibition

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On November 5, the World Day of the Romani Language, the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest invites for a temporary exhibition on Roma stories. The foundation of the exhibition, which opened on May 23 this year, is quite extraordinary: the Kamill Erdős legacy has been preserved in the collection of the Ferenc Erkel Museum in Gyula. For the first time, the interested public can see the results of the research conducted among Roma in Hungary in the 19th century.

Ida Kelarová

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The Romani singer and activist Ida Kelarová eceived from the hands of Czech President Petr Pavel the state award, the Medal for services to the state in the field of culture, education and education.

She is the first Romni to get this award and only the third person of Romani heritage to do so.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=6652216778232623

Moldova and Education

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Roma pupils and students with good academic performance will receive scholarships of up to 1,200 lei if they pass a competition organized by the Agency for Interethnic Relations. The decision was approved by the Moldovan government.

Montenegro: Dictionary

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The promotion of the Dictionary of the Roma-Montenegrin and Montenegrin-Roma language / Rromengo alavari by Dr. Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić was held in the National Library “Radosav Ljumović” in Podgorica, Montenegro. The publisher of the Dictionary is the JU Centre for the Preservation and Development of Minority Culture of Montenegro.

The Czech Floyd

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Stanislav Tomáš, who died two years ago in the summer after an intervention by the police, has a new tombstone at the Teplice cemetery. The police was exonerated, a conclusion that many did not accept. On his tomb, there is simply the word “Pativ”, here standing for respect.

North Macedonia: Resistance Exhibition

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North Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski visited the exhibition “Roma partisans – photos and biographies” authored by Daniel Petrovski, organized by the Association of Romani Folk Art Lovers “Romano Ilo” – Skopje. The exhibition presents 50 Roma fighters who participated in various brigades and divisions in the NOB during the Second World War.

Ida Kelarová

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On Saturday, Czech President Petr Pavel will award state honours to more than 60 personalities. The Castle does not want to publish the specific names of the awardees until the ceremonyAccording to information from Lidové noviny, singer and guitarist Vladimír Mišík or Romani singer Ida Kelarová could be the next awardees.

Ida Kelarovà would thus be the third person of Romani origin and the first Romni to receive this distinction.

Murska Sobota Festival of Roma culture

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The Roma Culture Festival started on Thursday at the Youth and Cultural Club in Murska Sobota. The Roma Association of Slovenia has been preparing the music and dance event for more than 10 years. Roma and non-Roma music and dance groups, musicians of various nationalities, and Roma and non-Roma children will perform under the slogan All the same – all different.

Poland: Exhibition

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An exhibition of photographs by Arkadiusz Gola about the Silesian Roma community at the Schoen Palace in Sosnowiec, close to Katowice, Poland, is opening on October 26th.

Slovenia: Attacks

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On Monday, a group of Roma walked past the Novo mesto School Centre and attacked several students who were coming to school. Several students were injured and had to go to hospital. The police, who do not know the reason behind this attack, managed to catch most of the attackers.

This is not good.

Romanes Classes

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An article about the first course of Romanes in Kuplin, Vojvodina, in an elementary school. The Ministry of Education has approved two classes, and there are five students from the first to the fourth grade, and seven students from the fifth to the eighth grade.

Romnja and Violence

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According to a recent survey in Serbia by the Roma Centre for Women and Children “Daje”, more than two-thirds of Roma women have been exposed to psychological or physical violence at least once.

The authors of this research state that, due to the specific culture of silence in the community, Roma women hesitate to talk about the violence they are experiencing. Being brought up in accordance with rigid patriarchal norms leads to them accepting violence as something normal and as an integral part of life. In addition, Roma women often do not recognize that they are exposed to violence.

We have a problem with these statements: Two third of the surveyed women may very well have been subjected to violence. But two third of all Roma women? How do they know? In addition, the patriarchal norms are not quite accurate.

Roma Culture Award

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On Friday, October 20, 2023, the Museum of Roma Culture in Brno hosted the award ceremony of the Museum of Roma Culture Award, which is awarded annually by the museum to personalities who have contributed to the development and preservation of Roma culture. This year, the prize was awarded in memoriam to Robin Strio, director, cameraman, Roma activist and former curator of the museum’s video collection, who died in the spring at the premature age of 33.

Montenegro “Young, brave, loud”

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The NGO “Center for the Affirmation of the RE Population – CAREP” organized a two-day workshop on the topic of democracy, and 20 young people from the municipalities of Nikšić and Plužine took part.

The workshop was realized as part of the “Young, brave, loud” project.

“With this project, we want to increase the degree of participation of young people in the local community, especially young people from vulnerable groups, and thus contribute to social cohesion in Nikšić and Plužine. Young people are very interested in our activities, and we will also have a two-day training on youth participation, English lessons language, swimming and music, but also a two-month, paid internship program for young people from the RE community”, explained Nardi Ahmetović, executive director of the NGO “CAREP”.

Slovenia and Roma

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Bojan Kekec is a member of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia. He gave an interview to the press on Roma saying that “Living with them is very difficult. I don’t know how they would look in Ljubljana or other places when a beehive or grain in a field is set on fire. Such actions are unacceptable. There is a lot of crime and misdemeanours.”

Again, the picture chosen is not an actual photograph of the places mentioned, but just a stock picture, perpetuating the stereotypes.

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