The story of a Czech man, who founded the Christian Roma Mission in a Roma settlement in Slovakia. Success and difficulties.
An article about the issue of waste from a Roma settlement in Slovakia (an ‘Osada’) which washes down in a water reservoir below. Of course, the blame is on Roma who dump garbage and more behind their houses.
But …
There is no garbage collection, there are no sewers, and in many of those settlements, there is no runnign water. Now, who’s to blame?
On September 8, shots were fired in the Roma settlement of Šmihel in Novo Mesto, and just a few minutes later another house caught fire. Apparently, two Roma families quarreled. One of thm reported the other for illegal construction, whereby the second shot at his neighbour.
Bad.
The local community of Pušča shows a rather different image of a Roma settlement compared to the Roma settlements in Dolenjsko. In the village there is a shop, a fire brigade, a football club and also a bookstore. The kindergarten, which has been around for more than 60 years, is especially important.
In the Romano kindergarten in Pušča, in addition to the teachers, there is also a Roma helper who makes sure that the children from the village get used to everyday life in the kindergarten as soon as possible.
Nice, but this is segregated schooling, which is not good.
We are not all the same, say the Roma at the community center in the Brezje Roma settlement in Novo Mesto. The coordinator for Roma groups at the DRPD, Elzana Adnan Odjoski, deals with them there. She runs a program aimed at teenagers and young mothers, in which young people from the age of 15 are involved.
The young mothers agree that their children should go to kindergarten, but not to a Roma kindergarten, but to a normal kindergarten, where they get to know other children and learn the language at the same time. They also said that “Some talk to us, some don’t even look at us, and some immediately run away when they see us”.
Quite a few discussions in the Slovene press of the action of the Ribnica mayor who said he’d not supply drinking water to settlements as long as Roma do not improve their behaviour. Another mayor said that if people believe that denying drinking water in settlements (that by the way, are de-facto illegal) will encourage children to go to school is not understanding anything about the Roma issue. Another article, on the opposite side bemoans the increased criminality of Roma in the country. On the Slovenian TV, a round table on Roma says that Due to the ineffectiveness of institutions in responding to burglaries, robberies, violence and illegal constructions, mayors and residents are increasingly angry. Where did all the millions that the state distributes to all ends for greater inclusion, employment and education of the Roma go?
Bad.
In the town of Ribnica, in Southeastern Slovenia, Roma organizations and the management of the municipality met at a joint meeting. Among other things, they agreed that the municipality will provide drinking water to two settlements when the residents there meet a set of requirements. The municipality requires that Roma, among other things, be get involved in the integration process, send their children to school regularly, clean up the settlement and determine land boundaries.
In brief: So that the municipality provides a service that is due to all its residents, Roma have to fulfil some criteria. Especially the integration one, how will they measure that?
On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) visited the infamous Mojžíř housing estate in Ústí, where a large group of Roma live and where unemployment lies at around 80%. He heard complaints from some of the old settlers about the mess, the smell and the swearing. The visit was planned to start the campaign for the autumn regional elections.
The municipality of Velingrad has started a procedure to legalize the illegal buildings in the Roma neighbourhoods of the city. In Bulgaria, many houses in Roma settlements have never been registered and there are often no property documents.
The aim is to give the households who live in the houses there the right and the obligation to pay taxes. This will limit the illegal use of electricity and water.
Šimon and his wife Romana only know life in a Roma settlement. They show their house in Hrušovce, which has only one, but cozy room. It serves as bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom all in one. Šimon says that they would like to move with the help of the organization DOM.ov.
The organisation helps Roma obtain a better home. They have to be employed, have an income to be able to pay the mortgage. At the same time, they must start saving a year in advance, at least 100 euros per month. The NGO then helps them getting and building a new home.
The sad story of Roma two settlements in the South of Slovenia where less than 1’000 Roma live. According to the article, in spite of the work of the municipalities, the situation in those settlements is bad. They say that Roma destroyed the sewers and other infrastructure that has been installed, that in spite of schools being set up, not a single Roma child has completed primary school.
The blame is on the Roma in these kinds of articles. No one asks why this is happening…
Following a monitoring visit to Slovakia, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty called for an urgent housing solution for the Roma, who often live in unsatisfactory conditions without sewage or access to drinking water.
Following a monitoring visit to Slovakia, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty called for an urgent housing solution for the Roma, who often live in unsatisfactory conditions without sewage or access to drinking water.
Let’s see …
Police forces are raiding the Roma settlement of Lokve in Črnomelj, Slovenia, searching for weapons and drugs. Apparently, this was prompted by a spate of shootings in the last 6 months.
Another article about the conflict between Roma and the rest of the population in the village of Koszary, in the Limanowa region. This conflict has been brewing for a long time, and there is no end in sight.
Acclaimed Slovak director Martin Šulík made an uncompromising film about a young Roma boy born in a settlement in Eastern Slovakia.
The director said: “We wanted to make a film about our Roma because we realized that we don’t know anything about them. We know the Gypsy Kings, a one-hundred-member Roma orchestra from Budapest, but we have no idea of the conditions in which two hundred thousand Roma live in eastern Slovakia. Before we started writing the script, we travelled around Roma settlements and met interesting people who opened up to us and told us their stories. Our film was made up of their stories. We did not want to mythologize the Roma, look at them as folklore or romanticize them. We wanted to capture their life truthfully, because life in a Roma settlement is a reflection of our world. It’s just that everything is more emotional, more intense and more direct.”
The formal inauguration to a small Roma settlement in Slovenia says a lot about the living conditions of Roma in the country.
At the opening, Nataša Horvat, who is the representative of the Roma community in the municipal council of the Municipality of Lendava, expressed her enthusiasm for the positive changes in the settlement and in the Roma community. She emphasized the development of the settlement from its beginnings in 1961 until today, with at last a modern and safe infrastructure.
Osada, the Slovak name of Roma settlements, are slowly changing. Here the story of new hairdresser in a new house in the settlement in Medzev, Eastern Slovakia.
- Romské osady na Slovensku se mění. V Medzevu rostou nové domy a barbera Daniela čeká stáž v USA. In: iRozhlas. 18.05.2024. https://www.irozhlas.cz/zpravy-svet/romske-osady-na-slovensku-se-meni-v-medzevu-rostou-nove-domy-a-barbera-daniela_2405181128_kac
Housing, water, sewerage, but also education and work are among the biggest problems of the marginalized Roma community. However, improving these issues is often slowed by the problem of land ownership, which is very often unresolved in such settlements.
A TV crew visited a controversial Roma settlement in Koszary, near Limanowa. The case of these Roma has filled many articles in the Polish press.
During the broadcast of the report, Roma children said in front of the camera that they were called names, ridiculed, attacked and beaten – but the young boys did not present any specific situations. Their parents told that they had no other choice than to burn refuse to heat, something what neighbours hav been complaining a lot.
More than a year after a fire ravaged a Roma settlement in Trebišov, Slovakia, a more suitable housing has been provided by a NGO. Until then, many of the Roma had to live in tents, even through the winter.
The state is pretty much absent here.
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