A Monthly Periodical of The Roma Inclusion Office The Roma ... 23/engleski.pdf · The Roma Decade...

1The Roma Decade in AP Vojvodina

The Roma Decade in

AP Vojvodina

A Monthly Periodical of The Roma Inclusion Office no

. 23,

Dec

embe

r 20

12.

ROMA STATUS IN 2012.

Pictures of life:A Ball in Hand,

a Look to the Sky

Interview: dr Željko Vidović

2 The Roma Decade in AP Vojvodina

The Founder and the Published of the Periodical:The Roma Inclusion Office of the

Government of AP Vojvodina

The Editor:Duško Jovanović, dipl. ing. of agriculture

The editor of theme of the number:Duško Jovanović, dipl. ing. of agriculture

The Team:Dragana Rajić

Snežana Dimić, dipl. pedagogistZita Farkaš, pharmachologist

Correspondents:Roma Coordinators of APV

prof. dr Vladimir GecelovskyIvana Koprivica, dipl. psychologist

Translation in Roma language:Igor Dimić, preschool teacher

Translation in English language:Mirjana Serdar, BA in English Philology

Technical Preparation and Printing:MAXIMA GRAF, Petrovaradin

[email protected]

Circulation: 1000

Address: Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 25,21000 Novi Sad

INTRODUCTIONDear Readers,In this issue’s topic we summed up the results that

were achieved in the process of Roma inclusion in 2012. Progress that has been made is not negligible, but many things still need to be done as a task for the year to come - not just for us, but also for domestic and international institutions.

We wish you in 2013 to be our witnesses of new steps, together with us. We will try to put all problems that bother our countrymen on pages of this magazine, in order to start solving them, because solutions of those problems are important for both individuals and collec-tive.

We thank you for your previous proposals, sugge-stions and criticisms of our work and magazine and wish you to continue that in the New Year.

We believe that the year to come will be filled with smiles and successes.

Your editorial board

* Correction of the article „The fight against indiffe-rence teachers, no. 20, September 2012. page. 11th

Aleksandar Stojkov is the pedagogical assistant at P. S. „Jovan Popović” in Kikinda, not in P. S. „Klara Fejes,” as stated in the text.


This month’s topic: Roma status in 2012.

INTERNATIONAL MOTHER TONGUE DAY

UN General Assembly established 21st February as the International Mother Ton-gue Day. It is celebrated by all members of UNESCO in order to promote linguistic and cul-tural diversity and multilingu-alism.

On the initiative of the Roma Inclusion Office and Co-uncil for Integration of Roma this year the International Mo-ther Tongue Day was celebrated

at the Pre-school Teacher’s Tra-ining College “Mihailo Palov” in order to promote the Roma language, tradition and history.

The ceremony was atten-ded by the Government presi-dent Bojan Pajtic, provincial secretary for culture and public information Milorad Djuric, director of the Roma Inclusion Office Dusko Jovanovic, may-or of Vrsac Cedomir Zivkovic, professors and students of this school.

YEAR 2012 FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE The end of year is the time to sum up the results from the old year and make plans for the following year.

Here is how the year 2012 looked from the perspective of our editorial board.

WORLD ROMA DAY

World Roma day, 8th April, was established at the First World Roma Congress held in London in 1971. On that occa-sion the song “Djelem, djelem” was declared a Roma national anthem and their flag with a wheel as its central symbol was also established.

This year the World Roma Day was celebrated in the As-

sembly of AP Vojvodina. The ceremony was attended by re-presentatives of the republican, provincial and local institu-tions, Roma non-governmen-tal organizations, councils of national minorities, as well as educational and cultural insti-tutions.

The program included the performances of students of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.

Poems of renowned Roma po-ets wee recited on Roma and Serbian by students of the ele-mentary schools from Djurdje-vo, Sangaj and Sajkas. Theater “Suno e romengo” presented parts of a play “Yerma”, wrote by a Spanish artist Garcia Lor-ca.

“I am happy because this year we are expecting our first graduates on the Program of Roma pre-school teacher’s education on the Roma langu-age at this college. Through this program we educate young Roma, who will take the entire Roma community forward. Its goal is to create favorable con-ditions for inclusion of Roma children in pre-school institu-tions, as well as to create the cadre necessary for education on mother tongue, the Roma language.”

dr Bojan Pajtić

Celebrating the International Mother Tongue Day Students of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad

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Reciters

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ROMA INCLUSION OFFI-CE CELEBRATED SIXTH ANNIVERSARY IN MAY

The sixth anniversary of the Roma Inclusion Office was marked by the anniversary of publication “Decade of Roma in AP Vojvodina”. For that oc-casion a press conference was organized during which provin-cial secretary for work, employ-ment and gender equality and director of the Roma Inclusion Office discussed the results, problems and further plans.

“The Government of AP Vojvodina shows with its example that it cares about solving Roma problems.

I am not sure that everybody in the Republic of Serbia un-derstands that Roma are the poorest and most vulnerable national community and as such, require greatest aid. When the Roma com-munity becomes on average equal with other communities, they will not need such aid.

I appeal to society’s consciousness, which is still not sufficien-tly expressed and does not understand how important it is to help Roma.”

Miroslav Vasin

“We are still the only institution, not only in Serbia, but in the entire Europe, which is created to directly deal with problems of Roma national community.

The goal of our Office is to design, in cooperation with do-mestic and international institutions, associations and individuals, such projects whose goal would be the integration and promotion of the position of all members of the Roma national community.”

Duško Jovanović

Press conference

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Press conference



Department for education of pre-school teachers in Roma at the Pre-school Teacher’s Tra-ining College “Mihailo Palov” in Vrsac was opened in acade-mic year 2009/2010 on the ini-tiative of the Government of AP Vojvodina, the Roma Inclusion Office of AP Vojvodina and di-rector of this college Dr. Groz-danka Gojkov.

Students were enabled ca-reless studying, because costs of enrollment, textbooks and accommodation in student do-rmitory were paid for them. The study program lasts for three years. Every year students need to pass fourteen exams, mostly professional - pedagogical. Eve-ry semester students will take six obligatory subjects and one sub-ject in mother tongue - Roma.

This academic year (2012/2013) twelve students enrolled on this program.

NEW GENERATION OF PRE-SCHOOL TEACHERS IN ROMA LANGUAGE AND THE FIRST GRADUATE STUDENT OF THIS MAJOR

Merima Nika defended her thesis in November this year and thus became the first graduate of this major and the first pre-school teacher in Roma.

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MEASURES OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Measures of affirmative ac-tion are applied to students of Roma nationality, who enroll on high schools, colleges and facul-ties. The measures also apply to students’ accommodation in do-rmitories, as well as scholarships.

The reason for adoption of these measures is fight against poverty and inhumane living conditions of Roma population.

The goal of affirmative me-asures is to increase the number of highly-educated Roma who wo-uld influence the improvement of socio-economic status and contri-

bute to solution of existential pro-blems. Every year the number of children enrolled on high schools and faculties is increasing. This year 235 university students and 204 high school students were en-rolled.

Students at the enrollment Congratulations to Merima Nika



ROMA LANGUAGE IN ELE-MENTARY SCHOOLS

New school year started a new round of introduction of elective “Roma language with elements of national culture” in elementary schools in Nova Crnja, Stari Ba-novci, Dobrica and Ilandza.

Goals and tasks of Roma language teaching

The goal of Roma language teaching is for students to master basic rules of Roma, mother ton-gue, to learn to communicate in it,

to learn about the literature of their nation, but also other nations and national minorities in our country, as well as world literature, film and theater.

Thus, they would build awa-reness of social-historical and cultural role of language and li-terature in connecting nations and national minorities and their cultures, but also connection of their destinies and joint living. In addition, they would also learn about variant characteristics of the Roma language and development of linguistic tolerance towards

other languages. The most important thing for

them is, of course, to learn how to read and write, to develop need to follow the press, radio and televi-sion regularly and critically.

The most important part of the school subject the Roma lan-guage is correlated with the sub-ject the Serbian language, in order to confirm and expand the know-ledge acquired from the Serbian language through this one.

Schools where the Roma language was introduced: P.S. „Slobodan Savković” i P.S. „Sava Veljković“

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SIGNED CONTRACTS ABOUT DISTRIBUTION

OF FUNDS FOR SELF-EM-PLOYMENT OF ROMA

Project “Improving Employ-ment of Roma in APV” is suc-cessfully reaching its end. This year ten more firms were founded, whose owners were given subsi-dies totaling 160 000 RSD, provi-ded by the Provincial Secretariat for Economy, Employment and Gender Equality and the Natio-nal Employment Service, as well as additional 40 000 provided by the Roma Inclusion Office. The project is realized in twenty Vo-jvodina municipalities and ena-bles training for learning skills for professions in deficit, as well as training for a well-known employ-er and includes projects of Roma self-employment.

Newly-opened firms

Marijana 021, shop for construction of new and restora-tion of old instruments, entrepreneur Stevan Zlatarev from Curug; Gradjevina MS Ilic, construction of residential and non-residential objects, entrepreneur Sladjana Ilic from Od-zaci; Bata Zelenilo DOO, arrangement and maintenance of green surfaces, founders Djulbehara and Sacip Karamani; Deki 025, collection of secondary materials, entrepreneur De-jan Petrovic; Giga Junior, bricklayer’s service, entrepreneur Jovica Novakov, Banatsko Novo Selo; Pedja and son, fish shop, entrepreneur Branko Mijatov from Curug; MN Stille, hairdressing salon, entrepreneur Milica Nikolic from Novi Sad; Sever otpad, collection of secondary materials, entrepre-neur Rodzer Radivojevic from Srpski Krstur; Diavolo 021, café-pancake restaurant, entrepreneur Sabina Jovanovic from Novi Sad; Pale stop, pest control, entrepreneur Zoran Soralov from Curug.



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EUROPEAN MAYORS IN INCLUSION OF ROMA

The first conference of ne-twork of Mayors making the most of EU Funds for Roma Inclusion (MERI), where the Roma Inclusion Office partici-pated in, was organized by Eu-ropean Commission and Open Society Fund from Budapest. The conference was dedicated to presentation of experience of

using EU funds for Roma inc-lusion, in areas of employment, housing, healthcare and social protection. The conference was attended by representatives of local self-governments from EU member countries and West Balkan, as well as representa-tives of international organi-zations which realize program and projects of Roma inclusion.

The editorial board

Acknowledgements for best practice in this area were given to 17 lo-cal self-governments at this conference. One of the re-warded was the municipa-lity of Apatin, as one of 13 municipalities from Serbia which were presented at the conference.

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Miroslav Vasin presents Milica Nikolic with a computer

Promo material

At the conference

Rewarding the president of the Apatin Municipality



InterviewGoran Basic, deputy of Ombudsman of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia

STRATEGY IN PRACTICE Ombudsman of the Republic of Serbia will soon present a report about the results of Strategy for the

promotion of the position of Roma before the Assembly of Serbia. In this interview for our magazine the ombudsman of the citizens of the Republic of Serbia, Dr. Goran Basic presented the results he reached toge-ther with his team.

*From today’s point of view, what problems occurred at the beginning of your work on the strategy?

-The work on the strategy started in 2002. It was adopted in 2009. What was written in 2002 in that strategic document is no different than what was adopted seven years later. In se-ven-year time there were a lot of things that could be impro-ved in the strategic plan, but no-thing was done. It remained the way it was. What is interesting is that Local action plans which always follow the strategy were actually made before the stra-tegy in 2005, when the Deca-de of Roma was signed. There are many things which are not related and raise suspicion in the strategy. The strategy is a very serious and responsible job, because it deals with the decrease of structural poverty of a large number of people. It is not only necessary to intro-

duce certain measures, but also to enable another functioning of the system, by introducing new institutions in our system. It is true that certain new measures are being taken, but they are not implemented systematically. The mission of this story is to expand culture of human rights and influence change of aware-ness. The media has to have its role in it.

*What is the goal of your report?

-We want to point to two things: first, to the examples of good practice and second, to all that is bad in this system. We divided all of it into few areas: education, employment, housing, healthcare and social protection. I listed these areas according to priorities from our perspective. What is interesting is that when we asked Roma what was the most important thing for them, they said that it

was employment, then housing, followed by education and fi-nally healthcare and social pro-tection. That is understandable, if you take into account their economic and living standard.

*What are the results in the area of employment, which, as you said, Roma singled out as the primary area?

-We found many programs for employment, retraining and additional training and all that is given in this report. Howe-ver, when we did fieldwork, we got some really disappoin-ting results. So, 90% of Roma have never had a job offer and more than 80% have never had an offer to be re-trained or ad-ditionally trained. As far as pro-gram for employment of Roma is concerned, there was a big problem with employers, who often take advantage and abuse benefits and subsidies for em-ployment of Roma. Besides, a small number of subsidies were distributed.

In my opinion, the basic problem is the fact that the pu-blic administration keeps for-getting that the right to work is one of the basic human rights. The same situation is with the legal and health protection. And that’s what I keep repeating - all people should have their right on basic health protection.

*What would you single out as the best results in the area of health protection?


Interview

-As far as health protection is concerned, Roma can now get health protection more easi-ly, because those who do not have residence on the territory of Serbia will be able to register temporary two-year residence at the address of an authorized Center for Social Work.

On the other hand, persons who do not have an identity are able to prove their identity within an off-the-court proce-dure in a period shorter than 3 months. According to estimates, there are 6500 such persons in Serbia. Normative conditions are fulfilled and members of

parliament voted for these laws. Now we need to monitor the en-forcement of these laws. UNH-CER and Ministry of Justice are going to help us in that.

Programs and projects of health education brought great results and progress.

*What about the area of ho-using?

-In my opinion, housing is the biggest problem, not just because of the housing condi-tions under which Roma live in their settlements, but also be-cause of the eviction of Roma settlements where Roma who

emigrated from Kosovo live. I agree that we should work on the eviction of these illegal settlements. However, these pe-ople have lived here for twelve--thirteen years and now you are offering them accommodation in collective refugee camps. In the meantime, you denied them an opportunity which other re-fugees had, who have built their houses by now. And that is real-ly unfair.

However, what really wor-ries me as a person is that when you ask Roma who can solve their problems, they say “the state”, and when you ask them if that is really going to happen, the smallest number of them will give a positive reply.

*In your opinion, how much has the Roma’s awareness of human right violation changed?

-It is interesting that when we started doing fieldwork, only five-six complaints had re-ached our ombudsman. The re-ason for that is their inadequate knowledge. Since Roma are one of the most vulnerable catego-ries, we formed a team, which together with me, visits Roma in their settlements. Now, the number of complaints is incre-ased by 200%. And that is good, not because of the number, but because it means that Roma trust our institution, that they developed an awareness of their rights. Even though I wouldn’t like to see that number increase, it is clear that it will continue a tendency of increasing.

Dragana Dimitrov

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Visiting Roma settlement Veliki Rit in Novi Sad


Interview

* Tell us about your muni-cipality.

-There are several reasons why the municipality of Vrbas can have a future which will create conditions for a good and modern life of its citizens. The first and most important thing is the human potential of unlimited possibilities and pro-fessionally trained workforce; however, in order for this po-tential to be fully realized, it is necessary for every individual to continually wishes and ma-kes efforts to contribute to the community’s development by personal development. When a long industrial tradition, indu-strial and trade zones, favorable geographical position adjacent to important traffic roads and a set of local incentive measures for investors with a highly pro-fessional local administration build on this strong foundation, there is no reason why, with little persistence, we shouldn’t believe in a better future of the municipality of Vrbas.

We base our strategy of de-velopment primarily on hiring our own resources and poten-tials, but also on connecting with provincial and republican organs of authority and part-ners from Europe. This is the exact model which turned the municipality of Vrbas into the biggest construction site in the area of utility infrastructure. Expansion of the sewer system, improvement of water supply, further gas installment, recon-struction of road network, con-struction of central factory for waste water processing, and many other projects, among which revitalization of Great Backa Canal stands out, will create conditions for our com-munity to become an attractive place for domestic and foreign investors and a leader of regio-n’s development again.

*What position do Roma have in your municipality?

-The municipality of Vrbas is a multinational and multicon-fessional community in which all nations and nationalities have absolutely equal rights, with nurturing its own tradi-tion, as well as mutual respect and appreciation.

*What has been achieved so far in the area of education?

-Red Cross Vrbas has been realizing a project of the Ser-

bian Red Cross “Support for Vulnerable Roma Children in Education” since November 2005. The project is financed by SDC - Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (“Common Program for Inclu-sion of Roma and Marginali-zed Children in the Educational System”) and a part of costs is also covered by the local admi-nistration (premises for the re-alization of activities and funds for technical costs).

Activities in the project in-corporate children of pre-scho-ol and school age and they are structured in the following areas - preparatory pre-scho-ol program (4-6 years of age), help in studying (7-14 years of age) and work with parents (pa-rent-teacher meetings, informal education for parents). The pro-ject includes 20 children of pre--school children, 30 children of school age and 20 parents (only one parent per family, usually mother, is included).

Vrbas is one of 50 muni-cipalities in Serbia in which organizations of Red Cross re-alize the same structure of the project, but with specific cha-racteristics of their local com-munities. Project team of Red Cross in Serbia supervises acti-vities in every local project and project activities have been de-veloping through phases in the past seven years. The project

President of the municipality of Vrbas, Dr. Zeljko Vidovic

FOR VRBAS ON THE MAP OF ECONOMIC CENTERS In the interview for our magazine, Dr. Zeljko Vidovic represented his municipality, as well as the results

it achieves in the priority areas of the Decade of Roma. Even though outstanding progress has been made, Vidovic says that there are many things left to be done. “Goal of the municipal team is to get Vrbas back on the map of economic centers”, Vidovic emphasized.

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Interview

hires a psychologist, homeroom teacher, math teacher and an-dragogist, and Roma assistants have been included since the beginning of realization. Socio--inclusive activities are also re-alized in the project - birthday celebrations, excursions on the territory of Vojvodina, ten-day stay at the seaside (Children’s Resort “Krista Djordjevic” in Baosic). Regular participants in project activities get a modest package of school equipment twice a year, birthday presents, New Year presents and presents in accordance with the goal of a certain workshop (healthy life-style, prevention of various di-seases). Volunteer camps have been organized continually sin-ce 2009 with the young from Vrbas municipality, as well as with young volunteers across Europe and America. Volunteer camps are organized in order to conduct educational workshops with Roma children with the topics: personal hygiene, sports activities, how to include them

in the social community, how much they are important to so-ciety as individuals and others.

*Tell us about the situation in the employment of Roma.

-During the entire 2012 according to project “Second Chance” which included a lar-ge number of institutions in our municipality (municipality of Vrbas, Elementary Scho-ol “20th October” and High School “4th July”, National Employment Service, Public Company for Transport of Pas-sengers Vrbas, Center for So-cial Work and others), there is a large number of persons in-cluded in the program of fini-shing elementary education and program of practical training of adults, which include the lar-gest percentage of Roma. The main objective of the project is to increase the competences of people who belong to workfor-ce with no qualifications. Those people are trained to be assi-stants in craftsmen professions

and they were, of course, given a possibility for further training in occupational fields which are their preoccupation or cho-ice. People were also trained for programs of job searching because the whole concept is based on the principle of taking responsibility for your own po-sition. They have full institutio-nal support in that. We are go-ing to work on that in 2013 too.

With the project “With Se-eds to Food” 100 Roma fami-lies were provided with inter-mediate goods, i.e. seeds for various agricultural crops (for garden). 70% of project was re-alized with approximately 500 kg of groceries (agricultural products). Food was distributed to socially vulnerable residents of the municipality, regardless of their nationality.

A sewing course was orga-nized for 20 members of Roma nationality who were provided with a sewing machine after the course was finished.

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Excursion to Palic


Interview*Apart from education and

employment, healthcare, social protection and housing are also priority areas of the Decade of Roma. What results has your municipality achieved in these areas?

-An educational forum fo-cused on family planning and reproductive health with direct advice of a gynecologist was organized for female Roma po-pulation with the help of De-partment for social activities of Vrbas municipality and General Hospital Vrbas.

We provided help for col-lection of documents needed for issuing identification do-cuments to members of local Roma population, as well as advisory service for obtaining healthcare and social help.

Citizen association “Smi-le” works on the improvement of quality of life of all citizens, especially vulnerable target groups which include young Roma persons and Roma chil-dren. With the support of local self-government and American Embassy in Belgrade, it has been realizing a project “I Have Right and Equal Possibilities to Know” for the second year.

Peer educators of “Smile” shared their knowledge about children’s rights, social skills and reproductive health with their peers in school “Brother-hood - Unity”, school “20th October”, participating in hu-manitarian project “Children from Streets” intended for Roma.

Adaptation of 3 houses where members of Roma na-tionality lived was carried out, while 6 Roma families were provided with bathrooms or

plumbing in their homes. A number of volunteer ac-

tions in which Roma people were also included were orga-nized: school whitewashing, distribution of humanitarian aid, education of children re-garding socialization, simpler and easier communication with local environment.

*Does your budget include funds intended for implementa-tion of action plans related to solving Roma’s problems?

-As I already emphasi-zed, Vrbas municipality made Action plans which make all nations and nationalities or national minorities equal - it incorporates all citizens in the same way with its educational, healthcare and other programs, guarantying their constitutional right.

*Who are your partners in this process?

-Our partners are: Natio-nal Employment Service, Cen-ter for Social Work, Red Cross Vrbas, Citizen Associations, Religious communities, Non--governmental organizations, Public companies, Representa-tives of local media and many others.

*What are your municipa-lity’s plans for the following pe-riod?

-In order to attract inve-stors, we make effort to make our administration faster, more efficient and transparent. Next year we plan to found the com-plete Service Center, business incubator or Geographical in-formational system, if compe-titions which include these me-asures are open.

The municipality of Vrbas is in the process of Certification of municipalities with favorable business environment by Na-tional Alliance for Local Eco-nomic Development (NALED) and we are on a good track to get it in June 2013. That would mean a good reference and re-commendation for investment to every serious investor. The-re are numerous ways in which we attract investors: promotion at Fairs, both domestic and fo-reign, publishing brochures for certain areas, presentation at the municipality’s website, stu-dy visits.

Many things have been done so far, but a lot of work is still waiting to be done in order to fulfill our goals - get Vrbas back on the map of economic centers with the lowest rate of unemployment, and then to do the same on the maps of cultu-re, tourism, sport and other are-as of social life for all citizens of the municipality of Vrbas.

Dragana Dimitrov

Excursion to Palic

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Education

* How did you decide to be-come a pedagogical assistant?

- The school’s director and pedagogue asked me to come to a job interview. They told me that there was an open competi-tion for a pedagogical assistant. At a seminar, which was a pre--requisite for my hiring, I met many people who have the same goal as I do, which additionally motivated me to fight and help my people.

* How many children attend elementary school in Milosevo? Why was there a need to introdu-ce a pedagogical assistant in the above-mentioned school?

-Approximately thirty Roma children regularly attend classes, even though that number wo-uld be much larger if tradition was not respected here, or if the idea of the significance of educa-tion was expanded. Namely, the Roma community in this place

still respects traditional customs regarding marriages, i.e. parents are still the ones who decide on their children’s fate. Young Roma often do not have a chance to express their opinion, because they respect their parents’ deci-sions. Boys often leave educatio-nal institutions in order to help their fathers stabilize their fami-lies economically.

* Did you have a clear pic-ture of what was expected from you?

- At first, I did not want to accept it, because I didn’t know what kind of a job it was. Howe-ver, the condition to start wor-king was to go to the seminar and finish the initial module. When I went to that seminar, everything was clearer. I realized that it was a beautiful and responsible job and that I would do it with ple-asure.

* What did your beginnings look like?

- Every beginning is hard, and so was mine. I showed up in the school as a pedagogical assistant; everything was new to me. I started meeting students, teaching staff… At first, my big-gest problem was to act as an au-thority before children who had already known me before and did not see me as a person who is

Pedagogical assistant Stevan Stojkov

PEDAGOGICAL ASSISTANT FROM MILOSEVO Pedagogical assistant Stevan Stojkov was introduced to the Elementary School “Djordje Jovanovic”,

which is located in Novo Milosevo, primarily to stop students from leaving school, but also to popularize education among four hundred Roma who live in this village and fight against early, arranged marriages by awakening children’s love for education.

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Stevan Stojkov at the awarding of certificates for Roma language teachers

With colleagues at the seminars for Roma language teachers


Educationa part of educational cadre. Befo-re that, I had seen those children at various family gatherings and I was a stranger to them as a pe-dagogical assistant.

* What is basic in your job description?

- I help children in studying, children from readmission and from vulnerable residential are-as.

* What do you see as an ob-stacle in your work?

- The most frequent pro-blems I encounter are irregular class attendance and frequent departures of Roma families to foreign countries.

In addition to all problems, the biggest problem is still chil-dren’s poor pre-knowledge. Knowledge gaps of students I work with are big and easily noticeable. It can be seen that they do not study anything at home. They do not do their ho-mework regularly, with an excu-se that there was no one to help and explain something to them. There was often the problem of language barrier, so children of lower classes had difficulties un-derstanding lessons and tasks.

* Are you satisfied with your cooperation with parents?

- Cooperation with parents is good, but it can always be better.

* What are you particularly proud of?

- The result I am proud of is that I helped a student of Roma nationality improve his grades and enroll on a high school he wanted.

Dragana Dimitrov

CRIME HAS NO COLOR, NOR ETHNICITY

Due to inadequate integration of Roma and strong prejudice aga-inst them, the municipality of Kanjiza, Council for Roma Integration and the Roma Inclusion Office of AP Vojvodina held two meetings with representatives of local institutions and Roma non-governmental orga-nizations. The meetings were held in the Local communities of Martonos and Horgos. The meeting’s results and conclusions were presented at the press conference in the reception hall of the municipality of Kanjiza.

Timea Kljajic, member of the Municipal Board in charge of social protection and Dusko Jovanovic, director of the Roma Inclusion Office spoke at the press conference.

With joint forces to integra-tion

Timea Kljajic was the first to address the audience. She pointed out that, when it comes to theft, the focus must be on the crime itself and it should not be connected to any natio-nal community.

“As a citizen, I condemn any type of crime, but crime still does not have color, nor ethnicity. Every offender has

his or her name and surname. I think that we all have to work on this together in order to find out who are the individuals who are trying to break the peace of our community.”

In addition, Kljajic said that, according to the last cen-sus, 2% of Roma live in the mu-nicipality of Kanjiza; however, the actual estimate is that there is almost 3% or 800 persons of Roma nationality. They are mostly Roma natives, except for Roma who had recently mo-ved from Kosovo into the local community of Martonos.

Local self-community allo-cated funds from the budget in

order to improve living condi-tions of the Roma community. The focus was on the integra-tion of Roma children in the pre-school institution and ele-

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Work meeting in Horgos


mentary school and extra-curri-cular classes were organized as a part of day care center.

“Integration has a great si-gnificance. Many things have been done so far, but it’s never enough. Education has a great role in this story. I don’t mean only education of children, but also education of parents, be-cause a child returns into his/her primary family after clas-ses.”

In the end, Kljajic said that in the next year “they will focus on social entrepreneurship and provision of funds for founding companies for waste collecting and making of rollers” and ad-ded that “only by joined work of local, provincial and repu-blican organs and all citizens of Kanjiza the problem of integra-tion can be solved”.

“Roma do not live next to you, but with you”

Director of the Roma Inc-lusion Office, Dusko Jovano-vic, expressed gratitude to the municipality of Kanjiza for accepting the initiative started by the Council for Roma Inte-gration and the Roma Inclusion Office of AP Vojvodina.

“The fact is that there were some problems in the previous period. The reason why we in-itiated today’s meeting is that last summer at the meeting of locals in the local community of Horgos we had an opportu-nity to hear the way the citizens of this local community saw the members of Roma popu-lation. I am glad that it cannot be generalized and that today I heard that citizens of the muni-cipality of Kanjiza see Roma as

Roma about problems

Tomislav Petrovic, Assciation Roma Martonos

-We have only eight Roma households who moved from Kosovo. There are 15 elementary-school students in them. Ac-cording to them, they filed a request to the school to be educated in Serbian, but had not received a response yet. I talked to them yesterday and when they told me that they weren’t able to en-roll their children on school on Hungarian, because they do not speak this language, I told them that that is not an excuse. My son did not know Hungarian when he started school, but now he successfully attend school in Hungarian. However, they did not what to hear about this option.

Closeness of the Roma population who moved from Koso-vo is emphasized as the biggest problem. Other Roma, so-called natives who make about 5% of the total population of Martonos, live, work and cooperate with all residents of this local commu-nity.

Jozef Kolompar, Association Pharo Drom, Horgos

-The biggest problem we have is that there is no coopera-tion between the local community and Roma associations and citizens. No one of us Roma is avoiding cooperation, because cooperation can only make things better for us. I learned about this meeting only today, without previously knowing the topic of this meeting. I learned for the first time that there is a problem with my people in my place. If there was a better communica-tion between Roma and institutions, everything would be much easier. Now we are making no progress.

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Press conference in Kanjiza


their co-citizens. I think that is a good start.”

Jovanovic added that the way to escape this situation is to solve essential problems an

ordinary man faces, which is providing a better life for his family and himself.

“Roma are not the only ones who have difficult lives

and they are not the only vulne-rable category. When a man is poor and has a family and chil-dren, he often goes after means which are not in accordance with the law. That is the cause of all these problems. I don’t want to protect in any way pe-ople who break the law. Eve-ryone is equal before the law. No one has the right to violate anyone’s security of property, not even under the pretext of poverty.”

According to Jovanovic, Roma national community “passed through ordeals and, unfortunately, it is still a com-munity which is discriminated against and suffers a great amo-unt of intolerance. Prejudice is not the only obstacle to inte-gration. In addition, one of the main problems of integration are inhumane living conditions in Roma settlements.”

Jovanovic concluded his speech with the following words:

“Roma community on the territory of Kanjiza municipali-ty is ready to make every effort necessary to complete the inte-gration. Roma do not live next to you, they live with you. An entire national community can-not be accused of something just because of one individu-al. Roma are not the only ones who commit crime; however, only when a Roma commits crime, it has a national mark and that should not be so. We started discussing the solution of the integration problem on time and I hope that we will to-gether fulfill that goal.”

D. J.

Conclusions

• Council for Roma Integration and the Roma Inclusion Office of AP Vojvodina, as well as the municipality of Kan-jiza, are going to forward an official letter to the Ministry of Interior Affairs and ask them to increase the number of police officers in this municipality, especially in local communities of Martonos and Horgos. Besides, Council and Office are go-ing to demand a larger number of police officers of Roma nationality.

• As for integration of Roma children in educational in-stitutions, the situation will be improved by introducing an elective Roma language with elements of national culture, but also by hiring new pedagogical assistant. At this moment, the pedagogical assistant works only in the local community of Horgos.

• In addition, it is necessary to for Council of local com-munities to enable representatives of Roma community attend meetings.

• Roma should have their place in the local institutions, thus it is necessary to hire a coordinator for Roma issues of the municipality of Kanjiza.

• The local self-government should make strategic do-cuments for solving Roma problems, i.e. Local Action Plans for education, employment and housing.

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Work meeting in Martonos


The day of Molovin libera-tion in the Second World War is celebrated every year by placing a wreath on the memorial to fal-len soldiers and a commemora-tive plaque dedicated to mem-bers of Roma national commu-nity who died in Jasenovac.

This year was the same. The event was attended by president of the Assembly of municipality of Sid Branislav Maukovic, pre-sident of local community Mo-lovin Nikola Subic, vice presi-

MEMORY IS A SIGN OF RESPECT

The morning of 4th December 1944 brought freedom to the residents of Molovin, a village in Srem near Sid. 43 out of 138 Molovin soldiers died, but they were not the only victims. During the summer of 1942, 165 residents of Molovin were taken to the notorious concentration camp Jasenovac. There were 127 members of Roma nationality among them. They were mostly famous musicians of the family Familic, who had been per-forming across the entire Kingdom of Yugoslavia before the Second World War. Together with a few thousand patriots of Srem, the Familics were initially taken to Sremska Mitrovica and then to Jasenovac, in a notorious ustasa (Croatian revolutionary movement) action known as “Srem’s Bloody Summer”.

“This is a significant date for our village. Sixty--eight years ago this vil-lage was liberated from oppression and the ones who started it. Our Roma people were also banished during war. The comme-morative plaque, placed to keep the memory of them, by the Local community Molovin, municipality of Sid and the Roma Inclu-sion Office of AP Vojvodi-na, includes only one third of names of the people who died in Jasenovac.

Every year we celebra-te this day, which puts our little place in the history of National Liberation War. ”

Nikola Subić

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dent of SUBNOR Board of Sid Gavrilo Vincic, representatives of the Roma Inclusion Office of AP Vojvodina and local resi-dents.

The event was enriched by recitals of patriotic poems by students of the Elementary School “Sremski Front” who

live in Molovin: Stevica (2nd grade), Danijel (4th grade) and Danijela (3rd grade) Djurdje-vic, Dejan Petrovic (3rd grade),

Jovan Valentirovic (2nd grade) and Dragica Smajic (2nd gra-de).

D. J.

“The Day of Liberation of Molovin is a day of me-mory of all victims, both Ser-bian and Roma. Memory is a sign of respect; that’s why we must not forget it, but we must nourish our memory in order to pass it to the future generations.”

Branislav Mauković

“Gypsy’s sadness is far too great”

Gavrilo Vincic, vice president of municipal board of SUBNOR Sid is a living witness of the following unfortunate event from “Srem’s Bloody Summer”:

“There were 23 Roma houses in Molovin before the war. They were lovely and honest people and everybody loved and respected them. They had their own hamlet in the end of our village. The richest of them was Cukure Familic, who lived in the center and dealt with the trade of ducats.

That summer night the Germans surrounded the Roma hamlet at abo-ut 3 o’clock. Everyone except Branko and Slavko Familic were taken to the concentration camp Jasenovac. Branko managed to get away from the Germans through a window to a forest and survived even though they organized a chase after him. He was in the Second Vojvodina Brigade and he later settled in Backa Palanka and had a family there. Slavko Familic also survived, having been transferred to Susek, as ordered by his military commanders.

Everybody else went to their death with a song. They played music and sang along dusty streets. The Germans enjoyed their playing, while the whole village cried. I had an impression that the nearby forest and hill also cried.

The best musician of them, Rance Familic, was at the head of the procession and was playing music together with a young Roma girl who was dancing barefoot. I remember that sight. Rance was dressed as a gentleman and wore a borsalino hat, an Italian suit and shoes with drips. The Roma girl who was dancing was the most beautiful female I have ever seen. I remember the song - it was “Gypsy’s Sadness is Far Too Great”.

Muga Familic who made prim tambura was also in the procession. He gave a prim he was hiding beneath his jacket to Jovan Smoljanovic, who came out to greet his locals for the last time in front of the village tavern. That prim is still kept in the house Smoljanovic.

The procession of our innocent Roma walked all the way to the train station in Sid, where they were initially sent to Sremska Mitrovica by wagon train, and then to the death camp of Jasenovac.”

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Gavrilo Vinčić

Reciters


CHILDHOOD WITHOUT CHILDHOOD

On burn-out ruins

“This used to be my house”, a seven-year child, too young for his task, points to it with his little finger, with a tear in the corner of his big black eyes.

“Come, I’ll show!” “My mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, their baby and I used to live here, and we would often

have guests visiting us – many relatives and friends. One evening we went out to earn some money in front of a church and when we came back we saw that our house burnt down. Someone forgot to put out a candle and there you go. Now everything is burnt down. “

- Was that your house? „No, it wasn’t, one good man took us to live with him. He lives alone and it was nicer for him

to live with us. He still lives here, even though everything is burnt. “ - Where do you live now? “At our relative’s.” - Do you go to school? “Yes. I didn’t go for two weeks, but then the people from the Shelter and my teacher gave me

a bag again, books and notebooks, because all my things were burnt. Now I go again. I really like studying and coloring in school. When everyone goes to recess, I stay in the classroom and color.”

- What would you like to be when you grow up? “A police officer.” - Why for? “I want everyone to be fine because of me.” - Thank you very much and you will achieve that only if regularly go to school. “I go to school whenever I can.”

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Pictures of life


The hero of our story, little S. is looking at us and gently smiling, while his mother is gi-ving a statement. She is not be-ing honest with us. She is giving us socially desirable answers to questions related to her chil-dren’s education. As you can assume, she is telling us about their difficult life, unfortunate accident when their house burnt down, convincing us that it was not their fault.

We were not in a courtro-om, but in a classroom of little S. We were not judges, nor a jury. We were not looking for a guilty person. We only knew the victims. Children are always the biggest victims, whether they are the victims of their parents, or poverty, society and tradition.

We were not investigating anything. (And neither did the authority.) We just wanted to hear a mother of a bright child who is not meant to spend his childhood at a playground, to laugh with his peers, to send bir-thday invitation cards, to go to school and other competitions. He is never angry for having a lot of homework which prevents him from going fishing with his father or going for a walk with his mother.

Instead of wishes, life bro-ught only plain existential needs into his dreams.

With mother in front of a church, with father over a dumpster

The life of the entire S. fa-mily is not easy at all. Their fate is colored with pain and darke-ned with a shadow of uncerta-inty. This family lives without any regular income. The mother spends her days with children in front of Novi Sad churches with her hand up, begging passers-by for mercy. The father searches through the city dumpsters.

S’s needs and wishes come down to one thing: he wishes to find in a dumpster as much bread with as little mold as po-ssible, to see as many merciful passers-by near the church, to have warm weather today and to see his mother get enough mo-ney so that they can return home as soon as possible. And while sitting next to her, he is trying to catch passers-by’s looks, to show them with his sad eyes for a second or two that their money will get him to bed sooner. And when “the business is going well” and mother’s bowl with some picture of Virgin Mary

starts to fill, and she quickly starts taking the money out and putting it in her dress, moaning that she has not even earned for bread and begging for more, lit-tle S. is happy. It does not mat-ter that he is sleepy and cold; he only has one wish: “earn” as much money as possible.

Even though he will not get a toy or a notebook tomorrow, even though the house will be

Our hero’s neighbor

“It’s good that they moved away. It was not pleasant living next to such people. Here, not far from the center, they lived as in a tent. They even lit a fire in the middle of yard. The man in whose house they moved in as if they were his guests until they burnt it, and who is, by the way, a mental patient, had the most difficult time. Then they ran away and left him to live on that burn-out ruin. I haven’t seen them after the fire. Once their son S. came to pick up some pots and other stuff which they collected and sold as secondary materials”, we learned from a lady who lived in the neighbor-hood of a big Roma family.

She is happy because they are no longer there. And we know that they were not good neighbors, but we believe that she will never stop thinking about the damage they bring to her and others. And we know that she will never spend not even two seconds thinking about why they don’t manage to swim in these waters like others, why fighting with waves is their every day. Compassion and under-standing for them will never visit her poor soul.

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Pictures of life


Roma from Europeas cold as a refrigerator, it does not matter. He knows that all is good when the bowl is filling. Why is that so good - he never wondered.

Stranger in a hometown

He does not know about other mornings and careless days. We get an impression that he is not even aware of how dif-ficult life he has. The world in his surroundings, his peers and all people in the world are stran-

gers to him. He does not live with them, but next to them.

He did not have time to mo-urn the house he had lived in since birth - in which his books burnt and a few toys other chil-dren threw away because he/she outgrew it or because it lacked a wheel or two, not even his lit-tle room where he lived, when it burnt down. The harshness of reality imposed new imperati-ves and the only important thing was to find another shelter and a new crust of bread.

We are worried about his health, his future. We know that he is already following the fo-otsteps of his parents, stuck in deep mud. Those are certainly not the footsteps of policemen

he admires. A question was posed…

and resignation! And hope. Does our society know

what its children are going thro-ugh? The ones whose pockets are full with money donated by Europe for the Decade of Roma, the ones who buy mansions and eat with golden spoons, the ones who rob hungry children to buy themselves watches that cost a few thousand euros, the ones who are so ridiculously rich -

we wish them to be visited by images of hungry children on streets every night before they go to bed.

We know that they are not even going to read this story. It is not on their list of interests, because it brings no profit.

What about you? Was a wish to help this child awaken in your heart?

New Year is coming. You can be Santa for little S. He ne-eds everything. You know our address…

Dragana Dimitrov

THE STATUS OF ROMA IN CZE-CHOSLOVAKIA

UNTIL 1989Another of the fundamental

steps of state that affected the de-stinies of Romanies in Czecho-slovakia, was carried out the liqu-idation of unwanted Romany camps and the subsequent disper-sal of their inhabitants mainly from 1965. The conception of di-spersion and removal created the beginning a new phase of their forced assimilation allowing the mechanical procedures, manipu-lation of Romany population and other violations of fundamental human and civil rights. Discrimi-nation measures of this concep-tion against Romanies coincided generous allocation of funds and in order of priority in the first pla-ce the disposal of huts and villa-ges, and therefore preferred solu-tion to the housing problem of Romanies. The hallmark of this conception was the fact that the dispersion was required and at the same time it had to be voluntary. It failed, however, to connect in time the liquidation of Romany settlements with the dispersion, which then ran very spontane-ously. As a consequence of this, there was the migration of Ro-manies from Slovakia to the terri-tory of Bohemia beyond control. In bigger cities it began to deve-lop new isolated Roma camps si-milar to today´s ghettos. The in-structions for elaboration the ta-sks of dispersion and transfer part of Romany population into the Czech regions became the Orga-nizing principles for dispersion and removal, already approved in December 1965 by the Govern-ment Committee. The Govern-ment committee even recommen-

S’s teacher

„S’s is the oldest child in his family. They did not want to en-roll him on school but they did it (after September) after the Shel-ter for Children of Streets insisted”, we learned from S’s teacher. She claims that S is a very peaceful and quiet child who spends his recess drawing in the classroom. She is sad that his peers already know almost entire alphabet, while he can barely recognize a few letters. He cannot catch up with them, because he did not attend pre-school and does not attend school regularly.

“He comes for two days, then he is gone for three days and all over again”, she told us.


ded twinning regions to imple-ment this shift in view of existing conditions and concentration of Romany inhabitants. For the terri-tory of West Slovakia there were determined the Central and South Bohemian Regions, for Central Slovakia it was South Moravia re-gion and the East Slovakia had to share with Romanies from North Moravia region and East Bohe-mia region. Because of a signifi-cant number of own Romanies, the West Bohemia and North Bo-hemia should not participate in the transfer. Thus, Romanies from Slovak settlements started to wander into the industrial-growth areas of Czech towns. The trans-fer had to be strictly organized and each unplanned, unorganized and unconfirmed transfer Roma-ny family or individual was con-sidered to be an undesirable mi-gration. The East Slovakian di-stricts requested to relocate du-ring the year 1966 of about one thousand persons to Czech re-gions. When disposing of the old Romany settlements in addition there was a very negative pheno-menon: while the destruction of villages together with the disper-sion of their people in different places of the Republic the family communities were becoming extinct, being at the same time the guarantee of sure moral order for

their members. The community functioning system of social insti-tutions could not be maintained under the new conditions. The anonymity in cities prevented the mutual supervision over obse-rvance of traditional customs. The dispersion was accompanied by other negative, such as the insen-sitive Roma settlements from dif-ferent backgrounds and groups next to each other, for example, as one prefab concrete block. The si-gnificant differences between in-dividual Romanies and the exi-stence of barriers between groups, for instance, through the applica-tion of gender-specific rules, pre-vented the harmonious co-exi-stence in shared dwellings. In adapting to the new resident then approached other problem. It was the practical ignorance of some of the achievements of civilization as well as their using (e.g. flush toilet, gas stove, electric oven, etc. – ed. VG). „The modern Ro-many settlements” that were cre-ated in urban areas and housing estates, can not be equated with traditional Romany community as a functioning social unit that was created many years of natural evolution. The national committe-es interpretated the „Voluntari-ness” of move as an obligation of Romany families to move into a designated region, regardless of

kinship ties and other circumstan-ces of life of Romany family in their locality. The whole situation in Slovakia was complicated by the efforts of some Czech districts to return back Romany families, even those that worked there se-veral years and had flats. In 1966, a total number of 263 Romany fa-milies moved from Slovakia to the Czech lands and only a small part migrated there. In the same year there were in Slovakia de-stroyed 59 villages and 1 715 shacks redeemed for 19 million crowns. There were repaired 139 housing units in the Czech lands for transferred Romanies. More-over, national committees in Slo-vakia hold the dispersion of fur-ther 1490 families in the frame-work of districts and regions, in the Czech Republic it was 28 fa-milies. For 325 families it was ar-ranged a new accommodation of public housing, 1097 families bo-ught an older house themselves and 325 families built their own one. The conception of state-run assimilation with dispersion fol-lowed to efforts of including Ro-manies among the general popu-lation, gradually remove all the differences that distinguished them from others. Specifics of Romanies were suppressed, so there was a systematic loss natio-nal identity of Romanies, so that they could be better placed. The-refore, the assimilation after the previous dispersion and removal had in itself an encoded failure since its very beginning. The un-natural and violent actions, which were pointed to the destruction of values coming to a head during centuries, created for Romanies a very dangerous moral vacuum. Their own values were scorned. As a consequence of this, Roma-nies, moreover, with a sense of shame gradually surrendered themselves. The government of

Roma from Europe


the Czechoslovak Republic final-ly recalled the dispersal policy and controlled assimilation in its resolution from 1970 (in Slova-kia, this policy applied for ano-ther two years – ed. VG). It was the end of conflicts between the Czech and Slovak authorities, when the Czech authorities stated that the process of integration is not so successful, because they come from Slovakia the most backward Romanies in the settle-ments, while the Slovak authori-ties claimed that, on the contrary, the most advanced leave their set-tlements and they are those, who realized the need to deal with his life and after their leaving the vil-lages are decimated with the sick, the elderly and mothers with chil-dren. The spiritual culture was quite far from Romanies and pro-bably only about a little more than a member of the majority under-stood and known culture of Ro-manies. Therefore, Romanies subjected to assimilation disrupti-ve pressures, took from the majo-rity the elements of material cul-ture in particular, on which, like many of them wanted to demon-strate their approach on the social ladder. The material facilities of Romany households increased

steadily, while from the spiritual point of view pasted Gypsies on the surface of „Gadže” society have been ridiculed, and therefore rapidly vanishing traditional Ro-many values were continuously fluently substituted with the nega-tives from the neighboring obse-rvation of mostly working class, sometimes explicitly pathological social environment. The imple-mentation of the new approach – The conception of all-round so-cial and cultural integration of Romanies began on the basis of the Government Resolution of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR) № 231/197, where the Romany issue as a multi-genera-tion problem was formulated for the first time. The focus of the ob-jectives was defined on the inclu-sion of all working-age Romanies into the labor force, the education of Romany youth and adult re--education, solution the quality of housing and the elimination of in-creased crime. Subsequent reso-lutions adopted by the govern-ment specified the intentions for each period, in fact, until the be-ginning of 1989. However, the goal remained the same – to inc-lude and assimilate. Just the form of its execution should not be so

violent, because in addition it pro-ved to be unsuccessful as well. The compensation with the majo-rity should take place through physical and social benefits to „ci-tizens of Gypsy origin.” Accor-ding to this conception, there were primarily allocated flats to Romanies, they received an in-creased social benefits, specially earmarked contributions under the social benefits etc. Although still referred to as an example of Romany ingratitude, just this „protectionist” approach paraly-zed most of the Romanies. In fact, it dulled their ancient sovereignty and independence. Moreover, the real Romany problems the mate-rial benefits for themselves were unable to solve. These benefits has just vailed the Romany pro-blems. Compared with past deca-des, the conception of social inte-gration of Romanies presented the certain procedure forward. Romanies could grow elements of their culture in limited extent, in the framework of hobbies they could base folk groups etc. Since the seventies appears a change in approach to Romanies in termino-logy as well. The word „Gypsy” has already been written with a capital letter, then it is used the

Roma from Europe


Tawanda Mutasah, director of a program in the Open Society Fund

FOR A BETTER LIFE OF MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES

*Tell us about your CV? Businessmen usually start

from their current engagement, because that is, certainly, the-ir biggest career success they have had so far. We are curren-tly monitoring the opening and management of programs in the Open Society Fund; I encoura-ge cooperation between pro-grams, as well as cooperation between programs and founda-tions. Before I became director of the program, I had worked as an executive director of the Initiative of the Open Society Fund in South Africa. I have also worked in Oxfam Gre-at Britain for their negotiating team, as a media spokesperson in Africa.

However, in my opinion, my education was crucial. I studied law at the University in Zimbabwe and at the Universi-ty in New York, and I also have the degree in management from

the University in Johannesburg. That determined my path.

*How would you present your Fund in a few sentences?

Open Society Fund works on the making of live and to-lerant societies whose govern-ments are responsible and open for the participation of all pe-ople. Besides, it searches for ways and mechanisms in order to strengthen the rule of law; respecting human rights, mi-norities, as well as diversity of opinion, by advocating for de-mocratic relations of the elec-ted government and civil so-ciety. In addition, it helps shape public policies, which provide greater justice in political, le-gal and economical systems. It conducts initiatives for the pro-motion of legal and educational system, public health, as well as independent media. It builds alliances between countries and

In cooperation with European Commission, Open Society Fund held the first conference of European network of Mayors Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma Inclusion (MERI). On that occasion we met Tawanda Mutasah, director of the program in the Open Society Fund.

collocation Gypsy-Romany, which at least partly take into ac-count the own Romany ethno-nym. As sovereign ethnic group, Romanies, however, were not practically recognized before 1989, they were from now on considered to be the socially re-tarded group, which has to be re--educated following the pattern of the majority. It should be noted, however, that the system has re-ached, on the one hand, a number of partial targets, but on the other hand, in the implementation of conceptions there was fully appa-rent the dogmatic effort to deny the Romany identity. No respect of the cultural particularities of Romanies then naturally led to unforeseen consequences.

Conclusion

In this sense of solving the Romany issue, they did not beco-me and could not become a sub-ject of its own socio-cultural in-tegration. They remained, mostly, the passive object under the pro-tective hand of the socialist sta-te. The official recognition as an ethnic group, however, Romanies received just after 1989. In the pe-riod after 1989 it was also foun-ded the ROI and other Romany organizations. It was followed by development of Roma culture, the establishment of the Museum of Romany Culture in 1991, the es-tablishment of Romany periodi-cals, centers, and other support in this particular culture, both at the initiative of Romanies themse-lves, as well as the initiative and support of the majority society.

prof. dr Vladimír GecelovskýSource: authors archive

Interview


Health

“YOU CANNOT KNOW UNTIL YOU TAKE THE TEST”

According to data of World Health Organization and UNAIDS, the-re were 33.2 million HIV positive persons worldwide at the end of 2007. The same year 2.5 million people got AIDS, while 2.1 million, of which 330 000 were children, died of AIDS. About two thirds of HIV infections happened in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are 1694 persons living with HIV in Serbia nowadays. It is estimated that about 1800 persons are not aware of their HIV infection.

Fight against AIDS Day was established in 1988, when ministries of healthcare from around the world held a meeting and agreed that the concept of this day was a way to show the importance of AIDS and show solidarity in fighting against this disease.

World Health Organization defines HIV as a chronic infective dise-ase people can live with.

Slogan of this year’s World AIDS Day is “You cannot know until you take the test”. In more than thirty cities there will be Caravan of testing where citizens will be able to get advice and undergo HIV test in vans and several student dormitories and health centers.

What is AIDS?

AIDS is acquired immu-nodeficiency syndrome. It is caused by human immunodefi-ciency virus (HIV). Being HIV positive is not the same as ha-ving AIDS; it means that viru-s’s antibodies were discovered in the bloodstream.

Many people who are HIV positive do not get ill for many years, but they can transmit the virus. In time HIV threatens immune system, making the

body more prone to other dise-ases. A person who is HIV po-sitive is diagnosed with AIDS

The first cases were discovered in Los Angeles on 5th June, 1981. In Octo-ber 1981 new cases were discovered in New York. In 1985 the first tests were made and in 1987 the first medicine that could help patients were produced.

continents as far as corruption and freedom of information are concerned. In all parts of the world where Open Society Fund operates, society prioriti-zes protection and promotion of the lives of people in marginali-zed communities.

*What values do you advo-cate for in Fund?

Fund believes and advo-cates for the respect of basic human rights, dignity and rule of law, but also for a society in which all people are completely free to participate in civil, eco-nomic and cultural life. We are working on the solution of in-equalities at several levels, in-cluding race, class, sex, sexual orientation and citizenship. Our task is to react fast and flexi-bly in the most critical threats to open society, such as sup-porting solutions and systemic changes regarding controver-sial questions and encourage-ment of critical discussion and respect of different opinions.

*What are the goals of MERI network?

The goal of this network is to collect as much EU funds as possible for capacity building of local self-governments in programs intended for Roma, considering that Roma people are one of the most vulnerable communities in almost all parts of the world. Investing in edu-cation is primary, because edu-cation is the basis of all proces-ses.

Dragana Dimitrov


when his/her immune system is so damaged that the level of white blood cells who fight the infection (known as CD4+ or T-helper cell) falls under 200 units per microlitre of blood, or when a person gets one or more opportunistic infections (infec-tions which attack weakened immune system).

How is it transmitted?

HIV is transmitted by exchange of body fluids - blo-od, vaginal secretion, sperm and breast milk. Since HIV li-ves in these fluids, most people are infected with body fluids by which the virus gets to the

bloodstream: unprotected sex (vaginal, anal or oral) with an infected person, common use of needles or syringes (while

taking drugs) with an infected person, pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding when mother is HIV positive.

In order to become HIV positive, the virus needs to ac-cess your bloodstream. If you are having an intercourse and blood, sperm (including semi-nal fluid) or vaginal secretion

of your partner access a small scratch in tissue (sexual inter-course damages mucous mem-brane in majority of cases) of your vagina, anus or mouth, there is a risk of infection.

How is HIV not transmitted?

HIV is not transmitted by kissing, hugging, touching, sneezing, coughing, using the same cutlery or toilet. There are no registered cases of transmit-tance by saliva, sweat or tears. What is more, neither mosqu-itoes, fleas nor other insects transmit HIV.

How does the test function and when can you take the

test?

When you undergo HIV test, the laboratory searches for antibodies that your immu-ne system produces in order to defend itself from HIV. Even though these antibodies cannot destroy the virus, their presen-ce in blood can serve as a proof that you are infected. If the test shows the presence of antibo-dies, your HIV test will be posi-tive. Most tests can detect HIV within three months from the initial exposure, but sometimes it is necessary to have a period up to six months in order for antibodies to reach the number that can be easily detected. It is usually recommended to under-go testing six months from the possible exposure.

Zita Farkaš

According to data of In-stitute “Dr Milan Jovanovic Batut”, there are almost 13 times more newly infected men than women registe-red (88 men and 9 women). The majority of newly di-scovered positive persons are aged 20 to 49 and every third person is between 20 and 29. There are two per-sons among them who are between 15 and 19.

Between the first regi-stered case in 1985 and the middle of 2007, 245 cases of HIV infection were re-gistered in Vojvodina. Al-most 90% of cases were men. Since the start of epi-demics, 149 persons deve-loped AIDS and 85 died.

Health


Culture

Culture of outskirts is not outskirts of culture

The gift was designed and organized by the City Library Novi Sad and organization “Stra-da” from Novi Sad. It is connec-ted with a project Center on the outskirts - outskirts in the center, which strives to stop the culture of outskirts be outskirts of cul-ture. The project’s main objecti-ve is decentralization of culture, as well as the acquisition of new areas at the outskirts of the City, i.e. territories of local commu-nities where culture is the least available. The project’s objective is, also, to include as many resi-dents of Novi Sad as possible in the existing culture system and forms which have been confir-med for decades. Another, equal-ly important objective is to edu-cate people’s taste in beauty and create habits of making the cul-

tural content an everyday need. This project develops the spirit of membership, community and neighbors’ relations; it does not have a target group, but includes people of all ages, occupational fields and interests and its cultu-ral content is opposed to what we call gaudy and trash.

Magician from a theater

The first one who addressed the young audience was Emil Kurcinak, a drama artist from the Youth Theater in Novi Sad, who was a host of the program. His cloak attracted most attention, because it reminded everyone of a magician’s cloak from fairies.

Dialogue and smiles instead of serious monologues

Before the artistic part the children were greeted by two di-rectors - the library director and

REWARD FOR LOYALTY AND FRIENDSHIP Last November evening in the Library “Trifun Dimic” in Sangaj was marked by children’s smiles. The

children were able to enjoy the company of writers, actors and musicians, as a gift for their previous loyal friendship with this library. In addition to artists, the children spent time with the library director Dragan Kojic and director of the Roma Inclusion Office Dusko Jovanovic.

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director of the Roma Inclusion Office. At the very beginning both directors emphasized that they were not used to addressing young audience, but that they were happy to have that oppor-tunity, because it is much more difficult with adults.

Library director said that that library was founded primarily for children and that he was happy that they were the audience that

evening. In addition, Kojic pro-mised the children that they wo-uld have received one more gift

until New Year. Namely, their library will get a new look, consi-dering that most walls are dama-ged by moisture.

After this promise, director of the Office made a deal with the children, saying that they should meet for New Year at the same place in order to check if the pro-mise was kept.

This time directors were not only directors and did not give official lofty speeches. Instead of

speeches, they had a friendly co-nversation with the children. Jud-ging by the smiles on their faces, both sides enjoyed the conver-

sation. Moreover, children were thus assured that they are equal members of the society.

Poetry and music - highlight of the night

After that, poets Pero Zubac, Dusan Pop Djurdjev and Maja Familic recited their verses and talked with children about books, poetry and art. Poems recited in-cluded Zubac’s Lying poem and Why I do not love some poems, Pop Djurdjev’s Pampers Poem and Detede Poem and poems Jar of Hoping and Unnamed by Maja Familic.

Finally, the audience was entertained by Culture Studio Carolija, which together with the children performed well-known children’s songs, such as A Mo-use Sat into his Jeep, Iva’s Little Train and Mama’s Boy. Further-more, the children had the oppor-tunity to hear for the first time songs made by this studio: Yuck Song, New Year, Computer and Rock ’n’ Roll for Children.

The culture program was reaching its end with music and dance. However, the fun was not over. The children continued to enjoy the evening in workshops which was organized for them by Carolija.

What happened next, we can only imagine, because listening to words of St. Serafim Sarovski: “Let children play their innocent games, because that way they have fun with their Guardian An-gels”, we left the children enjoy the magic of their game.

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Library director addressing the children

Iva’s little train

Culture


One of the favorite persons of those children is Jovan Cepi, “our trainer”, as they call him. He has been playing football all his life; he played for many clubs - Jedinstvo, Proleter and others and now, when he is re-tired, he can commit himself to the ones he loves the most - chil-dren.

Trainer Jovan is now con-cerned. He says that winter is the worst period for training in Sangaj, because the children do not have a place to play. “If only

our school had a gym, our pro-blem would be solved. Now we can only train outside. Yester-day we scheduled training and children insisted on having one, even though it was very cold. Unfortunately, we had to stop the training, because it was ra-ining all day. The children were very disappointed and I felt so-mewhat helpless. Renting a gym in the city is very expensive and our children are not even able to buy bus tickets to the city”, said the coach sadly.

Although the teachers in all schools always complain that children do not read their obli-gatory reading regularly, do not attend additional classes and show no interest in extra-curri-cular activities, our little foot-ball players never forget about their training, are never late on training, and never missed to come to the bus station when their coach took them to mat-ches in Novi Sad and the surro-unding area.

“We go to tournaments and friendly matches in other re-sidential areas several times a year. We prepare long and in-tensively for those matches. Children see that as going to the world championship. When we win, the entire Sangaj knows about it; sometimes we lose and then we get angry with ourselves and swear that it won’t happen again”, trainer said with a smile.

So far he has trained five generations of children from Sangaj.

A BALL IN HAND, A LOOK TO THE SKY

Novi Sad residential area Sangaj does not have a problem with birth rate. Even though it only has almost two thousand residents, its streets are full of children. A large number of them worship domestic and foreign football players and have only one dream: to train football.

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Pictures of life


The requirement he set for children, which was a mem-bership card for every training or match at the same time, was having good grades at school. If trainer Cepi finds out that a child has an F, he immediately goes to his school and talks to the te-achers. When he learns about child’s school grades in detail, he starts imposing requirements: no training until the grades are improved. As he says, that is very motivating for the children. “And trust me, not even a few weeks pass before the school grades are improved.”

That’s why parents love him too. They are happy with their children’s love of football, be-cause they know that sports he-art can escape vices.

Jovan Cepi says that he had great support from the former president of the Council of lo-cal community “Sangaj” Bela Kurina. “Our president paid bus tickets for us, provided us with football shirts and tried to find a place for our training”, he said. Trainer Cepi knocked on many doors and tried to find the solu-tion for little football players in all ways possible, but with no success.

And while we are still wa-iting for the elementary school in Sangaj to get a gym, our lit-tle-big football players will, to-gether with their coach, look at the sky and wait for the warm weather to come so that they co-uld train outdoor.

Maybe a school from the city might call us and offer our players a gym where they could train once a week. Until then, we wish for the show in Sangaj to melt away quickly.

Dragana Dimitrov

Petar Zivanov is a se-venth-grade student. He says that he lives for foot-ball.

“Here we don’ have anything else to do. Whe-never we have free time, we want to play. Still, so-metimes we can’t play, if it’s raining or snowing, and that really kills our mood.”

We learned from Pera that he improved a few grades in order to be able to continue training. “My grandma told my coach about my low grades; he went to school and then I couldn’t play for two we-eks. I studied all day every day and I managed to im-prove my grades. Now I can train again, but at the moment everything is co-vered with snow, so I don’t have the place to train. The coach says that we need to be patient and at least watch football matches on TV as a sort of replacement for training.”

Aleksandar Kovac is a sixth-grade student. He loves football and Partizan.

“We just love playing football, and we don’t have anything else to do. We often have some ball, which is not even a football. We have foot-ball shirts, but then we don’t have sneakers. “

- Why do you love foot-ball?

“I love it because it cheers me up and I am very happy after each training ses-sion.”

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BELA KURINA – OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION

Member of the City Council for social protection and care of family and children, Bela Kurina

* What jurisdiction do you have as a member of the City Council in charge of social pro-tection and care of family and children?

- As a member of the City Council together with the May-

or of the City of Novi Sad and other members of the City Co-uncil, I participate in collective work on all questions in the area of social protection on meetings attended by the majority of members. Decisions are reached by majority voting at meetings.

* There were some doubts regarding your competence. However, you proved that uni-versity diploma is not the only prerequisite for success. What have you succeeded in this short period during which you wor-ked on this position?

- In this period, 250 000 dinars were allocated to the Safe Children’s House as a do-nation of Company C&A, and additional 250 000 dinars for children’s house as a donation of Erste Bank. We are curren-tly conducting an action of free hearing testing and donating of five hearing devices for socially vulnerable residents. Company “Alfa” from Kragujevac is the donor. We are currently nego-tiating with the Austrian Go-vernment about the construction of residential objects for Roma population, but also about the expansion of the recycling fac-tory which would provide new job openings. I would mention the help we get on the promotion of protection and care of persons with disabilities. We provided free annual tickets for the public transport for all members of the Society of insufficiently mental-ly developed persons who work. What we are constantly working on is the analysis of the need for

finding new forms and impro-ving the existing forms of social protection on the territory of the City of Novi Sad.

* A large number of chil-dren live on the streets. What plans do you have when it co-mes to the Shelter for Children on Streets, which takes care of these children?

The Shelter for Children on Streets started working in February 2010 in the premises given by the public company “Poslovni prostor”, as recom-mended by the Mayor of Novi Sad. Center for Social Work of the City of Novi Sad is inclu-ded in the work of the Shelter for Children on Streets, which is also supported by the region of Emilia-Romagna within the realization of Program “Support for the Policy for Children and Youth in Serbia”. Considering that the existing premises as a temporary solution do not satis-fy the need for this service due to its capacity, we undertook a number of activities and held several meetings in order to pro-vide an adequate space for the Shelter for Children on Streets. As for the Raiffeisen Bank’s readiness to donate to the City a house intended for the Shel-

He was the president of the Council of local community “Sangaj” for three mandates. His long-time work contributed to the realization of rights of members of minority communities regarding

the preservation of their national, cultural and religious identity, especially of the Roma national community - he contributed to the improvement of their difficult economic and social position. He is the president of the Roma Democratic Party.

Our interviewee Bela Kurina is a member of the City Council for social protection and care of family and children. He told us about his work requirements, presented to us the results of his work, introduced us to his plans and emphasized that there is only one road the Roma population must take - education.


Successfull Romater for Children on Streets, the Council of the City of Novi Sad reached a conclusion to choose the equipped object at the loca-tion within a planned complex of the Center for Social Work of Novi Sad. By constructing the house intended for the Shelter for Children on Streets with the help of Raiffeisen Bank’s dona-tion, the problem of space for the Shelter for Children on Stre-ets will be permanently solved , which would provide the con-ditions to transform the Shelter into a permanent form of social protection.

* What did you do to stop domestic violence?

- The City of Novi Sad pro-vides accommodation for wo-men and children threatened by domestic violence in the Shelter with private station “Safe house for women”, which is organized in the Center for Social Work of Novi Sad. Safe house for wo-men was constructed with the City’s funds. It satisfies all ne-eds according to high standards, not just for the territory of the City, but also for other munici-palities. The object was finished and equipped in 2006 according to the program of public com-pany “Poslovni Prostor”. The project started with the realiza-tion and funding from the City budget from 1st January, in or-der to become a permanent form of social protection in 2009, after the new Decision on re-alization of rights in the area of social protection. “Safe house for women” is equipped with a phone number and attendance of experts 24 hours a day seven days a week. Moreover, adviso-ry-therapeutic and social-edu-

cational services are provided by the Clinic for marriage and family in the Center for Social Work for individuals, couples and families in the area of ma-rital and family life, as well as for women and children who are victims of domestic violence, by conducting preventive activi-ties, diagnostics, treatments and therapeutic work based on the application of expert and scien-tific knowledge, as well as in-formative-educational work and research. Advisory-therapeutic and social-educational services of the Council for marriage and family are free.

* Those who are forced to knock on the door of the Center for Social Work often complain that social workers are extre-mely rude and deaf to their pro-blems. Did you recognize this as a problem and do you plan to do something about it?

- The workers of the Cen-ter for Social Work are extre-mely kind and I would always praise their work. They guide all people who come to them so that they can realize their ri-ghts as far as social protection is concerned. Procedures must be respected and users are often impatient or lack necessary do-cuments without which it is im-possible to realize rights, which additionally makes the situation difficult.

* What is your cooperation with the civil sector?

- Cooperation with the civil sector is reflected in me being always ready and open to admit all people who have problems in whose solutions I can help and I do it immediately, making

no difference between people whatsoever. I listen to everyone and I direct them to the people they need, which is usually the Center for Social Work.

* What are you proudest of, when it comes to Roma popula-tion?

- I am proud of all Roma who took part in education and are active in social life, sho-wing that they can be remarka-ble experts, artists, employees in the culture department. Thus they represent Roma in a better light, contribute to the preserva-tion of the Roma language and culture and become role models for younger generations.

*What do Roma need to change if they want a better life for themselves and their chil-dren?

- They must make radical changes in their lifestyle, which means that they need to work more and primarily get educa-ted.

* Your message to our re-aders?

- The state and civil sector together must make maximum efforts to inform the Roma po-pulation of all advantages and conveniences they can have if they take active part in the life of social community, of their rights, all in order to convince them that they are not condem-ned to poverty and that their children will have a healthier and better-quality life if they take the first steps to participate in the system.

Dragana Dimitrov

A Monthly Periodical of The Roma Inclusion Office The Roma ... 23/engleski.pdf · The Roma Decade...

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Transcript of A Monthly Periodical of The Roma Inclusion Office The Roma ... 23/engleski.pdf · The Roma Decade...