An interview with the popular Czech Roma actor Zdeněk Godla, in which he states “Why should I call myself Roma when I’ve been a Gypsy all my life?” A touchy question.
The Ri Rock Association started the celebration of its eighteen years of activity with Open House Days, which will culminate at the end of the year at the 45th Ri Rock Festival. The association, together with the Roma Youth Organization of Croatia they are organizing the second edition of the cultural and artistic manifestation dedicated to Roma culture and art: “Turning the Inclusive Wheel”. The goal of the event is to promote Roma culture and identity through music and art.
Yesterday was Erdelezi, the Feast of St. Georges, celebrated by Roma throughout the Balkans.
School games under the motto “Sports for everyone” are taking place today at Osogovo Stadium in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. Children from schools that educate children of Roma origin in Kyustendil region, took part in the competitions.
The initiative is carried out under the project “Improving coordination and dialogue between the police and the Roma community”, financed under the program “Home Affairs” of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism, and GDNP is a beneficiary of the project. The project envisages improving coordination and dialogue between the police and the Roma community.
The project envisages the construction of 20 stations or their renovation in ten regional directorates in which there are areas with a compact Roma population. “The police inspector is the closest to the people, and when there are no station desks in the Roma neighbourhoods themselves, it becomes difficult for people to access the law enforcement agencies,” the organizers also pointed out.
Juraj Čokyna left his job at a newspaper five years ago and went to teach children from settlements in eastern Slovakia for two years. He wrote a book about it, called “Where are the edges?”
Three years later, he is interviewed and states that: “The best are those who went abroad. For Slovak Roma, especially when they live in excluded communities, this is the only chance to experience an environment where they have dignity and the necessary support, for example in schools. Abroad is the only chance for them not to immediately hit the glass ceiling, which they will bang their heads against here in Slovakia very soon.”
Sad.
Right after the congress of the International Catholic Committee for Roma in Prague on April 24, Fr. Stanisław Opocki – the national Roma chaplain and a member of the Polish Episcopate Commission for Migrants – went to Lviv to support the emerging Roma pastoral care there. Using Polish experience in this area, he assured that he would support the creation of similar structures and work on the educational needs of the Roma in Ukraine.
Apparently, it is never too late for the church.
At least 35% of young Ukrainian men and women polled by sociologists have prejudices against Roma, and another 28% towards LGBT fellow citizens. These comes out of a study “The impact of war on youth in Ukraine”, which was conducted by the Cedos analytical centre and the Info Sapiens research agency.
Well, even though these number are high, they are lower than a while back.
The new Roma mayor of Žehne, near Prešov, Slovakia, wants to radically solve the discrimination of children in kindergarten.
There are purely Roma children in one class, and their non-Roma classmates attend the other class. Other children from the Roma settlement only go to the community centre in the morning. “So that the children are mixed up. When we have 14 children here, there will be seven and seven there. Also Roma and non-Roma,” explained the mayor.
Dessi, 23, is one of the first Roma teachers in Bulgaria. The teaser of the Deutche Welle interview states that “only about 3 percent Roma in the country have higher education, only 23 percent have secondary education. Added to this is the fact that Roma girls tend to marry off the record very early – a common practice that is illegal but usually tolerated by the state.”
Well, all stereotypes, and total lack of the most basic math skills: They do not know how many Roma there are in the country. So how can they state exact percentages?
The President of the Slovene Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, recently held a consultation with representatives of the Roma community, which was also attended by the State Secretary from the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr. Anton Grizold. The latter is the head of the working group for dealing with the Roma “issue”, which met for the first time almost half a year ago. At the meeting, Grizold said that the task force will tackle the challenges in a two-pronged manner – with an action plan for the most pressing problems and with systemic solutions.
The area of particular concern is the region of Novo Mesto where the police intervene hundreds of times a year in the Roma settlement Žabjak.
Jana Pierová, a Romni, founded a theatre club in 2016 after she became a classroom teacher at Podsadok Primary School in Stara Ľubovna, Slovakia. “I attracted the children to the activity, they were probably oversaturated with dancing and singing. They welcomed it, thanks to the theatre they could express their emotions,” she recalls
“We try to use art to break down prejudices so that the majority perceives us differently,” she explains. Among other things, theatre helps children process difficult topics, such as the Roma Holocaust.
“I am sincere and not politically correct,” says Patrik Banga, author of the autobiographical novel titled Skutečná cesta ven – The real way out. This book, which traces the eventful life of a Roma child and adolescent in the effervescence of the 1990s, won its author the Magnesia litera prize for the first novel.
Time has passed since the legislation allowing people who were forced sterilised to ask for compensation. Well, so far, only 275 have received the money. This is almost deliberately slow.
The pope met Roma, Ukrainian refugees, and many other refugees and migrants while on visit in Budapest this weekend.
A podcast on the issue of segregation of Roam children in the Slovak school system for which the country is sued by the European commission.
In Slovakia, 65% of Roma pupils between the ages of 6 and 15 attend schools where all or most of the pupils are Roma, which represents an increase of 5 percentage points compared to 2016. Slovakia is thus the EU member state with the highest rate of segregation of Roma in education, reports the European Commission.
On April 13, President Petr Pavel and his wife Eva received a group of Roma students at Prague Castle. The meeting took place as part of this year’s International Roma Day, which fell on April 8.
“What I consider to be one of the biggest dangers of our time – and it is far from only affecting Roma people – is prejudice. They often stem from a lack of information, from stereotypes, from a lack of will to listen to each other and understand each other’s arguments… For me, you represent an opportunity to point out good examples not only towards your community, but above all to the majority community. You are an example of the fact that it is possible to get out of the circle of prejudices,” Pavel said at the beginning of the meeting.
An editorial on the discrimination faced by Roma refugees form the Ukraine in Western Europe.
While some of the statements on the Roma situation in Ukraine are not fully correct, the fact is that many Roma faced discrimination while fleeing.
Since Wednesday, the House of European History in Brussels has exhibited a copy of the protection document for the Roma, which was issued 600 years ago at the Spiš castle by the Hungarian king and Roman-German emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg. This event was also attended by the vice presidents of the European Commission (EC) Věra Jourová and Maroš Šefčovič, who took part in the ceremony of handing over a copy of the historical document.
During this year’s celebrations of International Roma Day, D21 theater visitors presented a new theater production Pal e marikľi? Actors Michal Žolták and DAMU student Nikolas Ferenc played the roles of two bakers, Michal and Hynk. A fairy tale based on the motifs of three Romani fairy tales brings the situation from the life of the Roma people closer, which bear many features and characters of the present day.
The president of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik started insulting the family of the tennis player Djokovic. He said: “Though, I can tell you, these Djokovics are a bit hard on the motherfucker, ugh… Our people experience it emotionally, and when you get into work aww.. Quite a gypsy, I can tell you… Those associates of his, lose more…”
This provoked protests from Roma organisations.
FR 
EN 
DE