Fwd: Roma News - English Weekly Bulletin - November 26-30, 2001

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Subject: Fwd: Roma News - English Weekly Bulletin - November 26-30, 2001

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Fwd: Roma News - English Weekly Bulletin - November 26-30,
2001


Sample of a weekly dispatch of news regarding the Roma in Romania
published every Monday by the Roma News - Roma Center for
Communication and Media Relations operating in Bucharest, Romania,
ever since September 2001. Subscription info in the header.

Lucian Branea

----- Original Message -----
From: Roma_news_en=20
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2001 5:47 PM
Roma News - English Weekly Bulletin - November 26-30, 2001

Roma News
November 26-30, 2001

This material is a weekly synthesis of the daily news flashes produced
by Roma News - Roma Center for Communication and Media Relations. Some
of the most relevant information published during the previous week
are elected, synthesized and translated into English. The material is
sent out each Monday via e-mail. If you wish to receive this bulletin
on a periodical basis, please send a blank message to:
[email protected] or [email protected] - contact
person: Teo Zabava.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

-Political-

Public Information Ministry to bring euro 6 million for Roma situation
improvement

Public Information Ministry (MIP) negotiates a euro 6 million grant
for the implementation of the National Strategy for Roma Situation
Improvement, Dan Jurcanu, State Secretary within MIP, declared on
November 26. The money is to come through a PHARE program and is to be
used for local development (mainly infrastructure, social residences,
health and education). Mr. Jurcan believes that these funds will
determine a real change in Roma communities starting with 2003. Roma
experts within Prefecture County Offices are to assess and present the
infrastructure priorities by March 2002. (Roma News, November 26)

----------------------------------------------

Local implementation of the Strategy

National Office for Roma organized between November 23-25 a conference
on local implementation of the National Strategy for Roma Situation
Improvement. The approach was consistent with the theme initiated
within the OSCE Conference: "Equal opportunities for Roma and Sinti.
>From words to action". The discussions focused on the main aspects
connected to the enforcement of the strategy in the Romanian counties
whereby large Roma communities live. The participants presented during
the workshops some concrete cases, more or less successful, and tried
to identify and analyze the causes. Among the successful cases there
were mentioned the establishment of the County Offices for Roma, the
development of Roma associative structures, the increased number of
projects aiming at solving concrete problems within Roma communities
and the real involvement of local authorities in identifying solutions
for Roma social problems. The difficulties mentioned by the
participants included the lack of concrete information of Roma current
situation in each county, the lack of material and human resources and
communication problems between central and local authorities. However,
the participants agreed that both sides (local authorities and Roma
representatives) need to have the right perception upon the problems
in order to solve them and that the efforts have to be mutual. (Roma
News, November 26)

----------------------------------

Public Information Ministry wants to reconcile Roma leaders

Public Information Ministry intends to reconcile the Roma experts who
want to leave the Joint Committee for Monitoring and Implementing the
National Strategy for Roma Improvement. State Secretary Dan Jurcan
wants to organize a meeting with the three experts who complained
about the cooperation between the Government and Roma Party. According
to Mr. Jurcan, the three experts (Vasile Ionescu, Costel Bercus and
Delia Grigore) are discontent with the fact that the Government
doesn't rely exclusively on them as far as the partnership with the
civil society for the Strategy implementation is concerned. "The
Government won't give up the cooperation with Roma Party and, if the
three will insist on withdrawing, we will find other experts", Mr.
Jurcan said. (Roma News, November 28)

/////////////////////////////////////////////////

-Social-

Roma in Cugir to have resource center and social canteen

Cugir city Mayor Aurel Voicu announced the City Hall and Roma Party
run a series of programs aiming at improving local Roma community
situation. He mentioned the establishment of a social canteen (within
an euro 30,000 project funded by PHARE) and of a resource center for
Roma. The partners also want to organize tutoring classes for
disadvantaged children studying at School no.2 in Cugir. (Roma News,
November 27)

----------------------------------

Alternative education system attracts Roma children to study

Roma children from Rosia village (Sibiu county) have been studying for
three years in a school whereby they have never been given grades,
homeworks or test papers. All the children graduate and are treated
equally, therefore there is no reason to drop out of school. The
teachers say this method attracts a lot of children and they are very
diligent as far as school is concerned. This alternative education
system is being implemented within a project based on Waldorf
pedagogy, ran by Vasile Voiculescu Association and funded by a series
of foundations from Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. The project
also facilitates access to education for children without ID papers
and for those who are older that the maximum age limit allowed by
standard primary education system. The School in Rosia has presently
five classes with 12-15 Roma pupils each, in a village whereby some
1000 Roma families live. (Roma News, November 27)

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

-Economic-

Only 22% from Roma population rely on salaries

According to a study published by Life Quality Research Institute, 22%
from Roma population in Romania have the monthly salary as the main
income source, 18.9% earn their living on day wage basis, 15.6% live
on their pensions and 13.3% rely on social benefits. Other 5.2% earn
their living on agricultural or domestic activities and occasional
work and small-scale trade provide the income for 4.5% from Roma
families. 2.6% rely on business or work abroad, 1.6% on begging and
1.2 on gambling and usurious interest lending. Average wage/per Roma
person amounts to ROL 150,000 (some USD 5), representing 10% from the
minimum monthly salary in Romania. (Roma News, November 30)

------------------------------------------

Investment in young Roma people

World Bank, Ford Foundation and Great Britain Embassy in Budapest
invested USD 25,000 each in the training of 19 young Roma people from
4 Central and Eastern European countries: Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria
and Slovakia. The youngsters attended a 10 months training program
held by British experts, within a project initiated by Pakiv-Europe,
an NGO based in Budapest. The program aims at drafting an economic
strategy to be implemented at national level. The 5 Romanian Roma
trainees are to realize a phesability study for some income generation
projects to be run in Roma communities. The study will be presented on
February 3 2002, in Budapest (Roma News, November 30)

///////////////////////////////////////////

-External News-

Save the Children launched "Denied a Future?"

Save the Children launched on November 28 in Budapest the report
"Denied a Future?" a call for Roma children education improvement and
segregation eradication addressed to European governments. "Otherwise,
the largest ethnic minority in Europe will be affected by social
exclusion and poverty", the authors concluded. According to the
report, 30% from the 3 million Roma children don't ever attend school,
30% attend special schools for mentally disabled children and 30%
attend normal schools and often drop out of them on discriminatory
treatment or poverty basis.
"Governments need to take measures to improve Roma education and to
prevent the apartheid in schools. There is no more time for talking.
We need long-term grants, we need to monitor the results and to learn
from our successes. The governments achieved poor results compared to
the invested money and energy. The way Roma people are treated is
already the most important human rights issue in Europe. It's
unacceptable to deny a decent future to millions of children", Mike
Aronson, Save the Children UK Director, declared. "Government actions
for education access improvement will bring benefits to the whole
society and must be a pre-condition for joining the European Union",
Mr. Aronson concluded.
(Roma News, November 28).

//////////////////////////////////////////

-Miscellaneous-

Roma artists database

Summer School Amala from Belgrade announced its intention to put up a
database including information upon Roma artists worldwide. "If you
are a Roma artist or you know such people - actors, dancers, musicians
or visual artists - contact us", is the message sent out by Amala to
Roma people in the world. Those who want to be included in the
database must send an e-mail at [email protected], with their
names, field of activity, contact information, brief resume and a
presentation of their work. The messages are to be sent to Dusan
Ristic. (Roma News, November 29).


These materials were realized with the financial support of the
European Community. Opinions expressed in these materials belong to
the Media Monitoring Agency Academia Catavencu and Romani CRISS, and
they do not represent the official position of the European Community.

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