Greece News Western Europe

Greece: The “No one should be left behind” Project

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The project “Empowerment of young Roma women in matters of health, prevention and human rights” implemented as part of the Active citizens fund program sees Roma schoolgirls return to their camps and teach other women a great lesson about human rights, health and domestic violence.

17-year-old student Katerina Mukani from Zefyri was one of the students trained by experts to give a great lesson on human rights, health and domestic violence to the rest of the Roma women back in the camp where she lives. She says: “My daily life in Zefyri is boring and I feel trapped. I think a lot about my life after the Panhellenic Games, while many nights I dream of the moment when I will leave Athens, even far from Greece. Educating other Roma women helped me a lot to understand that my dreams and all of us are possible because we all deserve something better. None of us should be left on the sidelines.”

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland, Minorities, and Foreigners

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Americans, Italians and Czechs, as well as Slovaks, are the favorite nations of Poles. This was shown by a new public opinion poll, TASR took over the report from the Polish news agency PAP. Up to 65 percent of respondents in the CBOS survey expressed positive feelings towards Americans. They are followed in second place by the Italians with 63 percent, ahead of the Czechs (61 percent), Slovaks (60 percent) and the British (55 percent).

Poles have the most negative views of Russians (76 percent), Belarusians (47 percent) and Roma (43 percent).

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Uzhhorod Roma School

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The Czechoslovak president Masaryk contributed to the establishment of a should for Roma in what is now Transcarpathian Ukraine and before was the Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia. The school was opened as an experiment to try to integrate Roma in the regular school system and Roma contributed to its creation. It was also a de-facto segregated school…

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Roma Education

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In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights, in a ground-breaking decision, condemned the Czech Republic for discriminating against Roma pupils in their access to education.

However, the Czech Republic continues to discriminate against Roma children in education in spite of this condemnation. Recent statistics show that 15% of Roma children are educated outside of the regular school system (i.e. special schools) whereas for the majority population, this is the case only for 3% of the children.

So there are still special schools in addition to at least 130 segregated ones.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Prague and Roma History

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Jana Kokyová, chairwoman of the Roma Holocaust Compensation Committee, recalled the tragic fate of the Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust at a memorial meeting in Prague-Ruzyn on the 11th of March. In her speech, she emphasized that almost 90% of the Czech Roma and Sinti were exterminated and that this chapter of history is still neglected. She pointed to personal family experiences with Nazism and expressed concern that history might repeat itself. She criticized the insufficient representation of Roma history in school curricula and called for the support of educational programs that would help build a fairer and more tolerant society. At the same time, she drew attention to the current increase in extremism and the need for financial support for the Roma and Sinti Centre to continue its important work.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Comedians

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The comedians Andrej Bakreni and Aljaž Poredoš filled the hall in Noršinci on Women’s. This stand-up performance by the two comedians breaks stereotypes about the cooperation and coexistence of Roma and non-Roma.

Andrej Bakreni is the first and at the same time the only Roma comedian in Slovenia. He jokes that he is a strange Roma because he attended kindergarten, then finished elementary school, then high school, got a job before the age of 20, had his first child when he was only 27.

France News Western Europe

On a Murder

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Her name was Angela Rostas, she was Romni and lived with her husband in a caravan on isolated land in Chênex, in France. She was 40 years old, the mother of three daughters and seven months pregnant. On February 22, she was shot and killed. That day, around 5 p.m., “she heard noises outside her mobile home. Going out to see what it was, she was shot on her doorstep and died,” says the French organization Voix des Roms in a press release, which also indicates having filed a complaint the week passed.

Roma associations suspect a racist murder.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Not much this week in France about Roma: Basically several articles on the movie “Comme un fils” [like a son] from the French director Nicola Boukhrief featuring the actor Vincent Lindon in the role of a depressive teacher saved by a young rom.

Other news is the upcoming eviction of a camp in the South East of France.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Roma in the Ukraine

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A reportage in a Roma settlement in the Ukraine close to the Hungarian border. Recently, Roma residents have been afraid to leave the Roma camp in the Transcarpathian village of Berehove. “They are forcibly taking us away. Nobody wanted to go. If you don’t go, you’ll get something for it,” recounts a resident of the Stěpan settlement. At first glance, the camp looks empty, in the streets the CT staff met mainly women and children. Before the full-scale Russian invasion, the local community had five and a half thousand inhabitants, now only a few hundred remain.

The police of the administrative city of Uzhhorod stated that it had nothing to do with the mobilization activity. The military registration and recruitment office of the city of Berehove pointed out that everyone must register. “Everything must be according to the law. No one is taking anyone away by force,” he emphasized. The CT staff was not a witness to forced conscription, added Stomatová.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech President on Roma

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Czech President Petr Pavel commented about Roma in his speech Deník na Kladno.  On Wednesday, he visited the Vinařice prison, where the majority of Roma prisoners are. He thought about why that was.

He stated: “We have fifteen primary schools here, two of which are racially segregated, almost all the children are Roma. I think we will not move on until the majority realizes that the integration of Roma is an important long-term task of the Czech Republic. And until we get Roma for the task as well.”

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Another one of those articles on the Roma “Problem”. The article speaks about more security, and Roma say their children are not well taken care of.

The dialogue is not on equal terms here…

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia and Roma Settlements

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It may sound unreal, but in the area of Međimurje, hundreds of families in the local Roma settlements still live without electricity. Electricity should finally reach the homes of the residents of the Kuršanec settlement, because the Government has recently provided 265 thousand euros for it.

Let’s see …

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland, Sewers, and Roma

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Another article about a controversy started by Bogdan Trojanek, a Romano Activist and Founder of the Roma band “Terne Roma” and the construction of sewers in the region of Limanowa, Poland. There, he accused the mayor of the municipality to use funds allocated to Roma programs to build the sewers. The municipality strongly denies this claim but had to admit that in previous years, they indeed used Roma funds to build a treatment plant.

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