News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma and Schools in Slovakia

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Ildikó Kotlárová comes from the Olaš (VlaX) Roma community and has been breaking stereotypes since she was a child. As a teacher and director of the Lajos Mocsáry Elementary School in Fiľakovo, which is attended primarily by students from the Roma community, she fights against stereotypes.

She says that those who live in generational poverty cannot lead their sons and daughters to education. Even if they wanted to learn, they don’t have the finances to do so.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Discrimination

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A polemic article in the Slovenian press on Roma and on the defender of the principle of equality of the country. Basically, they say that Miha Lobnik, defender of the principle of equality, must ensure that Roma “are discriminated against” in order for him to justify his salary and that of his 28 employees.

Well, in Slovenia, discrimination against Roma is ripe. The article tends to dismiss it.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Roma in Serbia

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The association “Urma” was founded in 2003, and the primary area of activity was the preservation and nurturing of Roma heritage, through traditional Roma dance and music performed by members of the cultural and artistic society. They received funding from the competition of the Provincial Secretariat for the Economy, Employment and Gender Equality for the performance of public works. Miodrag Veldi, president of the association, spoke to Telegraf.rs about the implementation of this work.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbia: Romodrom

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As part of the traditional musical and stage event ROMODROM, organized by the Roma Cultural Centre, the audience had the opportunity to enjoy the music of the Amaro Del group and the recitation of the actress Iskra Brajović, who interpreted verses in the Roma and Serbian languages, Miroslav Mika Antić and Jovan Nikolić Jofa.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Another case of the Roma “problem” in Slovenia. In this case, the difficult cohabitation of Roma and locals in the town of Šentjernej. The people there apparently no longer feel safe in their municipality, the situation is getting worse, and their trust in state authorities to improve things is decreasing. Apparently, insecurity is indeed increasing.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Poetry in Serbia

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The Association of Roma Writers and the Association of Writers of Serbia organised a poetry New Year and presented the book “December Meetings” – a collection of poetry for children and adults, prose and aphorisms, as part of the traditional Poetry New Year.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Business Seminars

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More than 80 Roma from Žarnovica and its surroundings took part in infoseminars aimed at starting their own business. The Black and White civic association organized these free seminars for Roma people interested in starting an independent business in the region.

“In total, we conducted 12 seminars on the topics: Legal forms of business (starting/restarting your own business), Economic aspects of business and Basics of marketing for small entrepreneurs. 84 interested people took part in these, a quarter of them were women, which makes us very happy.” said Andrej Kováč, chairman of the civic association.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland: Interview

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An interview with Sonia Styrkacz, a psychologist from a Silesian Roma family married to a Carpathian Polish Rom.On Christmas traditions, she says: “On Christmas Eve, various traditions mix in our house – Romani, Polish, Catholic, Silesian, highlander. I am a Silesian Roma, my husband is a mountain Roma from Podhale, so our family traditions are different. In my family home, holidays were a time of meeting, peace and conversation. Religious aspects receded into the background. For my husband, there are no holidays without mass. We also have different culinary traditions – my husband’s family fasted on Christmas Eve, while mine ate meat. We weren’t preparing maybe 12 dishes, but there had to be a lot of food – stuffed cabbage rolls, pork chops and minced meat, roulades, which we took over from Silesian cuisine.”

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland, Prisons, and Roma

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Reports and complaints about the improper treatment of Roma in Poland’s prisons have reached the ombudsman’s desk and indicate the widespread use of stereotypes and violations of prisoners’ rights.

Bad, but not surprising.

Europe

Interview with Željko Jovanović

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An interview with the president of the Roma Foundation for Europe. He says that “If Europe wants to live up to its own values, it cannot continue to treat the Roma the way it has before”.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma

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An interview with a Czech activist living in Slovakia. She speaks about the prejudices that Roma are facing there. About stereotypes, she says:

“That Roma don’t want to work, they are just a burden and if they wanted to, they would get out of that situation right away. That’s a narrative I don’t agree with because social problems can’t be solved quickly. And people feel that it is everyone’s personal fault when they live in poverty. But often it may not be the fault of the person and his family, but the fault of the system. Especially if a person is already born into generational poverty and is not to blame.”

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Usual Narrative

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A fairly usual story: Roma built houses without land deeds. Communal lands, but also on plots where they have been since before the war, and where, after the fall of socialism, they did not manage to get deeds. Here, a town ploughed a field in front of a settlement, saying this was due to garbage, but did not manage to get rid of the houses. Probably next step.

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia: Discrimination

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Recent research shows that Roma men and women are the most frequent victims of discrimination, but the number of cases reported to the Ombudsman, special ombudsmen, police and courts is still extremely low. In order to empower the victims of discrimination, Informative Legal Center (IPC) Roma mediators visited Roma settlements in Brod-Posavina and Osijek-Baranja counties for 10 months and spoke with victims of discrimination and connected them with IPC legal staff who provided them with free legal assistance. The victims of discrimination with whom the Roma mediators talked most often complained about discrimination at work and in employment. They say that employers can often conclude that they are members of the Roma national minority based on their name, surname or address, and do not even invite them to a job interview. If they come for an interview in person, they find that employers use various excuses to not hire them, such as the position being filled, even though the ad is still active.

Slovakia

Slovakia, Elections, and Roma

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Another article about the 500 Euro promise made by O’lano and Roma. The articles in the Slovak press are pretty unanimous: Without this promise, the party would not have made it above the 5% threshold. It is now very convenient that a Roma organisation is suing this party for false promises.

Effectively, the narrative is that all Roma votes have been bought. While in some places this may hav been the case, it still needs to b proven…

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Elections, and Roma

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Members of the National Council (NR) of the Slovak Republic for the Slovakia movement Peter Pollák Jr., Lukáš Bužo and MEP Peter Pollák Sr. reject the accusations of the Union of Roma in Slovakia that they deceived the Roma before the elections in connection with a 500-euro allowance for participating in the elections.

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