ON February 2 2005 Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovakia signed a declaration to improve the situation of their Roma communities at a Bulgaria-hosted conference. The plan was dubbed the Decade of Roma Inclusion and was set to span 2005 to 2015 with a focus on education, health care, creation of jobs and improvement of housing for Roma.
POLINA SLAVCHEVA, TEANNA SUNBERG and NEIL CONNOLLY report on the situation one year on.

Roma education: No easy way in
BULGARIA’S priority in the Decade of Roma Inclusion programme was the education of children and illiterate Roma from the country’s 400 000 Roma minority. One million leva was earmarked from the Budget. This is how the educational integration of Roma children looks a year after the start of the programme in the small town of Botevgrad, home to 2325 Roma people.

“I will tell you why I don’t go to school - because they tore my backpack and stole my gloves, and they pushed me in the toilet and when I tried to get out, they started kicking the door in,” says seven-year old Bobinka, a Roma child; she doesn’t seem too perturbed by the events. Her stepfather, Iordan Kamenov, an unshaven man of about 40, has come out of the house as well. So have four of their Roma neighbours from the two-storey unplastered brick house, whose two upper floor terraces are lined with hung-out frozen linen.

“How can I let her go to school? Tell me,” says Kamenov, “when she comes back the next day and runs a temperature. It must be fear neurosis or something, I don’t know.”
A pretty Roma third-grader named Miko stands next to Bobinka. He tells of how he was expelled from school because Bulgarian kids bullied him and he beat them up. While Miko is talking, Roma chalga is booming somewhere from the first floors, threatening to bust the windows, and the Roma adults have started talking to the Botevgrad Head of Ethnic Integration Department Marin Peev about unemployment, bad housing conditions, their reluctance to send Roma kids to the mostly Bulgarian school to the south of the town, and whatever else has managed to find its way into their conversation during the short visit.

“Don’t listen to this Mangal (offensive term for Roma) nonsense,” says Peev the moment we get out of Bobinka’s house. Peev is Roma himself, so hearing this classification come from him is surprising enough. “I spoke to her and she told me she wants to go to school, but her stepfather won’t let her. He doesn’t give a damn about this kid. She is not his kid. Her mother is somewhere in Germany, working. So if he’s boozed up he can’t get up in the morning, dress her and take her to the bus. At noon she’d also be a nuisance, because he’d have to take her back; for him it’s better to go sit in some pub and drink,” Peev says.

The Roma quarter where Bobinka lives is home to most of the 2325 Roma people of Botevgrad, which makes up about 11 percent of the overall population of 20 000. The quarter has its centre, its stores, and its municipal houses, which the mayor Georgi Georgiev gave to the Roma people as a gift; its renovated block of flats that cost about 50 000 leva, and its asphalted and canalled streets. Everything looks fine and promising. New houses will be built as well. Since taking office, Georgiev has helped many Roma people get jobs in municipal factories, founded a Roma football team and a Roma dance troop called Roma Youth. In short, he has done a lot to help Roma people have a better life. The integration of Roma children into Bulgarian education, however, has become a stumbling block. “It’s a hell of a job,” Peev says, “and I would quit, but the boss (Georgiev) says: ‘No, you’ll stay here as long as I tell you.’”

A year after the start of the Programme for Roma Inclusion, the four Roma who run the Ethnic Integration Department still find themselves playing the role of parents to Botevgrad’s Roma kids. When a child doesn’t go to school, has bad grades or any other sort of problems, teachers call the department, so they go to the child’s family the same evening to discuss the issue. They say that Roma parents often do not care to check on their kids or send them to school, so this happens a lot. Bobinka’s case is the same.

“We spoke to him (Kamenov), he promised he’d let her go the next day, but he didn’t,” Peev says. “Now I have to make him sign some document that this kid has given up going to school, and that she will eventually sign up as a first-grader again next year.” “We are powerless here,” says Pavel Marinov, the principal of the Levski school, which is close to the Roma quarter. “The attitude to these parents has to change on a national level, institutions should punish them for not letting the kids go to school.”

Kamenov says he wants to sign Bobinka up for Levski after she “ran away from” the bigger and mostly Bulgarian Nikola Vaptsarov school in the south of the town. The school is about a kilometre away from the Roma quarter, so most Roma parents complain about not having time to take their children there. Last September, however, a bus started running from the Roma quarter to Vaptsarov each day, “and our kids still do not want to go, because... I don’t know what they want anymore,” Peev says.

Marinov says there is no place for Bobinka in Levski because both of his first-grade classes are full. “The capacity of the class is set by the ministry. We can’t make an exception. That would break the proportion between Roma and Bulgarian kids and the Bulgarian kids will start running away. It’s not that there are conflicts between the kids, but a higher number of Roma kids alienates the Bulgarian kids and parents don’t let their kids go to school.”

This supposed identity threat is not the only issue. Roma children tend to do worse in school and this affects the pace of work. “It’s not that they don’t want to study, but they don’t have the learning habits, the ‘we are going to school here’ attitude. They swear a lot and so on - they copy what they see in their surroundings,” says Marinov. 

There is an improvement in Roma integration this year thanks to the Roma inclusion programme, but on the whole the process is very difficult, Marinov says, and is made worse by the demographic crisis, which reduces the number of Bulgarian children and increases the number of Roma children. If a class has more than six or seven Roma children, Bulgarian parents don’t sign their children up. Marinov says sending the extra Roma to the Vaptsarov school would solve the problem, but Vaptsarov’s principal Petia Kochkova “is a bit reserved and always looking for reasons to clean her classes from ‘gypsies’.” Kochkova denies the charges and says she has always publicly encouraged Roma kids to come to Vaptsarov and never returned a Roma kid who wanted to sign up. “The problem’s neither with me, nor the teachers, but with the parents. They won’t bring their kids to Vaptsarov. We personally go to the families of children who do not attend classes, we encourage them to come, but these problems are obviously a sediment of time.”

The road to educating the future
THE approach to the school does not give a clue to what lies inside. Nestled into a neat and quiet corner of an equally neat and quiet village, the Vidrare school appears to be just that, an ordinary school.  There is a football field, obviously well used albeit in need of some new equipment.  The rose bushes and other plants that line the approach to the school’s front door give testimony to a conscientious gardener. There are four buildings of varying ages, which constitute the school’s campus. A seemingly ordinary school, situated 90 minutes outside of Sofia in a quaint little valley surrounded by mountains.  The ordinary succumbs to the extraordinary with the first handshake and the first welcome encountered.  The ‘extraordinary’ are the people that inhabit this miniscule titbit of the universe. 

Roughly 90 students attend the Vidrare School, ranging in age from seven to 16.  The majority are ethnically Roma from three surrounding mountain villages.  Many of their parents shepherd for a living and their living conditions can be challenging:  families may live in divided dwellings where one side is reserved for people and the other side houses the livestock.  Homes can be situated a significant distance from the village, some requiring a two-hour walk to reach the school.  For this particular group of Roma children then, the journey to receive an education begins at home.  It is a journey that will be defined by challenges and lined with roadblocks:  disheartening distances, lack of appropriate clothing for the elements, and a lack of adequate nutrition top the list.  

The school is unique in its attempt to break down some of the barriers for these children; it removes itself from the specific definitions of educational institutions as defined by the government.  In order to make school available to its clientele of children, the school provides boarding through the week for the students who come from further distances but it is technically not a ‘boarding school’.  It is also not an orphanage, since the children have parents.  Therefore, although the school carries a greater financial responsibility for the kids by providing food and heat throughout the week, it only qualifies to receive the stipend awarded to every other public school. The yearly budget of the school allows for a mere 200 leva to be spent on school materials and supplies:  paper, textbooks, chalk, and writing utensils, for example. 

Four years ago, the school was on the verge of being shut down.  The stoves that heated the buildings were over 60 years old and had become a fire hazard.  In an attempt to save the school, its new director, Maya Pencheva, sent out a plea for help from humanitarian organisations.  Her efforts were rewarded when a Christian organisation donated funds for new stoves and a second organisation donated computers.  In subsequent years, both of these organisations have continued to invest both financially and personally in the school and that has been significant.

In an interview, Pencheva outlined the roadblocks that exist for her group of students.  Roma parents are typically sceptical of school.  There are exceptions but in general, formal education is not a high priority.  Pencheva feels special concern for the significant number of students who desire to get an education but whose families obstruct or forbid school attendance.  She believes that most of her children want to come to school. 

Pencheva and her dedicated team of eight teachers are all Bulgarian and live within the community or in the neighbouring, larger town.  They endeavour to understand, firstly, what will motivate Roma parents to send their children to school and secondly, how best to educate their students with the minimal resources they have at  their disposal.  Their commitment goes beyond a nine to five job and a paycheck.  The teachers rotate nights staying with the children who board at the school.  They bring produce from their own gardens to supplement the diet at the school, which consists mainly of beans and bread.  The staff is incredibly creative in their attempts to raise extra finances by crafting Christmas cards and artwork to sell at exhibitions.

There are a variety of reasons why the Roma parents of this area are hesitant to integrate with the school.  One of the most common factors is the fear that children will ‘leave’ and not return.  The Roma are fiercely family-oriented, creating a unit from the combination of multiple generations.  In fact, in many communities, the power lies with the eldest member of the largest family group.  Couple that with an innate distrust of government and ‘outsiders’ - a distrust that is legitimate, if history books accurately depict the plight of Roma in the past several centuries.  Finally, Roma religion is a confusing blend of tradition, folklore, and the adopted dominant religion of their host culture which produces a variety of beliefs and religious attitudes.  At a very foundational level, however, the Roma can believe that ‘outsiders’ are polluted and contact has negative connotations for the individual in question, (www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/beliefs.htm#Religion).  This mix of religion, worldview, and attitude create a formidable roadblock for any individual who attempts to build bridges of opportunity for the younger generation.

The challenges that threaten education are not only philosophical, they are practical as well.  In a conversation with a Roma mother of four who does send her children to school, the following question was posed.  “What would cause you to keep your children from attending school?”  Her comments were exceptionally enlightening.  She prefaced her answer by explaining that her children get themselves up and ready for school of their own accord.  They assume the responsibility for their homework and attendance. She went on to answer the specific question, “I can not send my children to school when they do not have shoes.” 

The barriers to education for this generation of Roma children are the fundamental potholes that face most minority groups:  poverty, fear, mistrust.  How does a team of teachers with a 200 leva yearly budget put shoes on the feet of their students so that they can make the two-hour trek to school?  How does a culture assimilate, educate, and invest in a minority group that is reluctant to trust?  In the face of several centuries of challenges, can a decade of inclusion bear fruit in this generation?  There are no easy answers for the future, but there are some certainties in the journey.  The roadblocks will remain for years to come and the path to inclusion will be predominantly up-hill but given the proper care and resources this generation of Roma youth can bear fruit for the future.  With eyes focused this decade and toward the future, it is encouraging to note the path we are on.  There may not be a field of roses lining our journey but there are certainly some prospering plants and they reflect a conscientious gardener’s touch.  Extraordinary people like Maya Pencheva and the teachers of the Vidrare School are Bulgaria’s hope for this decade of Roma inclusion and for Bulgaria’s future.

The Roma Abroad
PART of the difficulty in examining the problem of Roma integration in Bulgaria is that most of the criticism comes from abroad.  This tends to range from general concern to a patronising attitude towards Bulgaria, as if it was in some sense “backward” for having this integration problem.  So is the situation different and indeed better for the Roma and Traveller peoples in the rest of Europe, particularly in the EU?

One should start by saying that statistical evidence involving Roma people is both variable and somewhat flawed.  There are several reasons for this: firstly, there is the transitory nature of their lifestyles, particularly in western Europe; secondly, in certain countries there is stigma attached to designating oneself Roma (thus we get a similar situation to Bulgaria, where many Roma adopt Vlach or Pomak designation); thirdly, there is the neglect of the authorities, a failure on their part to evaluate and measure the problem, or even to recognise the nationality, as in Greece; fourthly, there is the fact that the Roma themselves do not make up a coherent unit, some speaking Romany, others Sinti, some the local language.  Furthermore there is the confusion with other itinerant peoples in northern Europe, such as the travellers in Britain and Ireland, which suffer similar discrimination, although are more strictly called a cultural rather than ethnic group. This article makes use of EU and OECD statistics, as they are the most reliable.

So, how many Roma are there in Europe and indeed the European Union?  Estimates vary, but the OECD states that between eight and 13 million Roma live in Europe. There is an indigenous Roma population in all European countries bar Switzerland, Ireland, and Scandinavia.  One should note that these areas all have Roma immigrant communities.  After Romania and Bulgaria join the EU, there will be more Roma citizens in it than people in Scotland, Wales, Ireland or Denmark, some six to nine million.  The question of integration is thus a pressing one for Europe, and not just a case of a few beggars on the Paris metro.

So how integrated are the Roma?  Anecdotal evidence is easy to come across, as examples abound of both discrimination of Roma and indeed perceived antisocial behaviour of Roma.  In the Czech Republic, the town of Usti nad Labem built a wall around the Roma area of the city, effectively making it a physical ghetto.  This is not a story from 1937, but actually something that took place in 1999.  Similarly, some towns in Italy “pay” Roma residents to leave the city at the start of the tourist season, feeling that their presence deters visitors’.  On the other side, there is the story from Slovakia, where the authorities in Kosice built a large number of apartments for the local Roma population, yet after a few months the fittings, metals, pipes, even the glass in the windows, had been removed and sold.  In 2004, an attempt by the Slovak government to lower unemployment benefit provoked riots among the Roma community.

There is undoubtedly a problem then of integration on a Europe-wide scale.  This can be seen easily in education. This is one area which can promote integration and improve the condition of minorities; one only has to look at the success of education in helping to integrate south- and east-Asian immigrants in Britain to see this.  Yet within the Roma community the success is negligible. In the Czech Republic, over half of all children in remedial schools for slow learners and the handicapped are Roma, an extraordinary figure.  The situation is even worse in Slovakia and Hungary, albeit countries with a bigger percentage of Roma in their populations.  Again though there are community problems, such as absenteeism, which is far higher among Roma, that mitigate attempts to improve education for them.

The situation is even worse in tertiary education, where the Roma community is virtually unrepresented, with far less than 1 per cent continuing to that level. This compares with 21 per cent for Europeans as a whole. One can surmise that although their conditions and position in society may be similar, it is far more difficult to improve the lot of the Roma when compared with the Afro-American community, for example, as they have no examples of educational achievement within the community to aspire to.  Bulgaria is perhaps making more of an effort than elsewhere in trying to desegregate its schools; Denmark has recently introduced specials schools for Roma “who cannot be contained in regular classes”, while in much of central Europe and Spain, heavy segregation is maintained by the existence of ghettoes, which effectively group the Roma together in the state school system.

In measuring the integration of the Roma people, what other areas should be looked at?  Relative employment and access and levels of health care would seem the obvious indicators.  Unemployment is an enormous problem throughout the Roma community in Europe.  The unemployment rates in Slovakia, Spain and the Czech Republic among the Roma communities are 85 per cent, 50 per cent and 65 per cent respectively. These are simply astonishing figures and go to show the amount of work that needs to be done to improve their lot. In health care, vaccination rates of children are  far below those of other Europeans, while the levels of hepatitis B, for example, are 8.4 per cent among the Roma community, as opposed to 1.4 per cent of Europeans as a whole.  The most basic indicator, however, is life-expectancy: in Ireland the traveller life expectancy is 11 years lower than that of the settled community; in Slovakia among the Roma, it is 15 years lower.

One should note the lack of positive stories concerning the Roma community. The recent winner of Croatia’s Big Brother programme was Roma. There are large Roma cultural festivals in France and Spain, such as at Sainte Marie de la Mer. Yet these stories are few and far between. 

The Roma appear to have lost much of their place in society, through erosion of their traditional trades (such as tin-smithing) and erosion of their traditional culture (through forced integration or settlement under communism). Perhaps the first step towards improving their situation is to regain this cultural community, which should eventually promote political representation.  It is only when we see the kind of political representation that Scots, Welsh, Irish and Danes enjoy at a national and European level that they can start to talk about the Roma having the capacity to improve themselves.