1. Case-study No. & Title:
No. 210. Community-work and community-development in a Roma community, living in small flats and in a traditional Roma settlement, Žehra, East-Slovakia:

Time-frame: November 1998 - December 1999

Keywords

2. Author information:
2.1 Author’s Name
Peter Mulder

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Peter Mulder (Chairman občanské sdružení Spolu-CZ)
Spolu-CZ
P.O. Box 651
661 51 Brno-2
The Czech Republic

Tel.: +420-603-843.982 (private)
Fax: +420-5-4524.61.66 (work)
E-mail: peter.mulder@post.cz

2.3 Date recorded
01/11/2000

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:
The project deals with community-work in the Romany community in the village Žehra in East-Slovakia. The project has been initiated by the Regional Development Agency Spišská Nová Ves (Slovakia) and the Spolu International Foundation (The Netherlands). This pilot-project was meant to be integrated into a larger Regional Development Project, directed to improvement of the social and economic development of the East-Slovak region of Spišská Nová Ves. Although, due to external circumstances, the latter has not taken place, the project has succeeded in bridging gaps between the local Romany community on the one hand and the local authorities, local institutions and the white people on the other.

3.2 Location:
Žehra is a village of 1,500 inhabitants in the East-Slovak region of Spišská Nová Ves. Geographically, the village is divided in two parts. One part is the "centre", with the church, a shop, a pub and the municipal-office. In this part live approximately 500, mainly non-Romany, people. The other part, which belongs to the village, is situated at 2-3 kilometres distance from the "centre". This part consists of a traditional Romany settlement ("the old settlement") and 12 small blocks of flats. In these flats and in the old settlement live approximately 1,000 Romanies. In both parts there is a scarcity of decent places to live, but it is especially the case that in the old settlement many Romanies live in extremely bad conditions. There are a few brick houses, but most of the houses are made out of wood. Some of these wooden houses are in a relatively good condition and have electricity. The largest proportion, however, are more like wooden huts. In some of these small wooden huts live 20-30 people. There is no access to running water and to gas.

The unemployment in the Romany community is close to 100%. It is only when seasonal labour is needed, that Romanies are in demand. Many people live in extreme poverty, party because of the existence of usury within the community: money is lent to people against extreme high interest rates (100% a month is not a rarity).

There is very little contact between the white and Romany communities. Both groups look at each other with distrust. Since a Romany man was elected mayor of the village in November 1998, the relations have become even worse. The non-Romany inhabitants of the village have started an administrative procedure to separate "their" part of the village – which also contains also some historical monuments, like the old church and the Spiš Castle (the latter is on the list of cultural heritage monuments, protected by UNESCO) – from the "Romany" part. If this attempt were successful, it would leave the Romany village without any means of existence (the few economical and administrative activities take place in the "white" part) and the relationship between Romanies and non-Romanies would become even worse.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:

3.4 Major Actors Involved

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
Money has been allocated for the preparation of the Regional Development Plan (costs for experts, organisation costs, preparing technical documentation for the housing-projects). However, these costs have not been incurred within the pilot-project, described here. The costs of the present project have been the following:

These costs were financed through the Spolu International Foundation, which received this money from different, mainly Dutch, Foundations.

A lot of investments "in kind" have been provided by the Regional Development Agency and the municipality of Žehra (like, for example, time-investment by people, use of spaces to organise meetings, etcetera).

3.6 Timeframe
The initiative was first proposed in 1997, officially launched in mid 1998, put into practice in November 1998 . The project described here finished in December 1999. The Slovak NGO "Združenie SPOLU" is working on a follow-p of this project.

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
During 1997, the Dutch-based Spolu International Foundation was invited by the Regional Development Agency of Spišská Nová Ves (East Slovakia) to assist this agency in addressing the complex problems in the region concerning the Romany minority. These "Roma-projects" were part of a Regional Development Plan, which was drawn up to address many different topics and spheres (industry, housing, tourism, etc.). These Regional Development Plans had been drawn up for different Slovak regions and were initiated and co-ordinated by state-financed Regional Development Agencies. With establishing these Agencies, the Slovak Government intended to stimulate the economic development in Slovak regions with high unemployment-rates.

The Roma projects within this development plan were directed to several villages in the region in which live large Romany communities, addressing problems in the sphere of housing, education, employment and the relationships between Romanies and non-Romanies. This plan has been drawn up in close co-operation with the local authorities of the different villages in the region. In general, they supported the projects. Financing the whole development plan was based on financing by local authorities, state and the PHARE-program. Especially in the case of the housing project were existing rules on the financing of state-owned flats applied to the projects.

The project described here has been carried out within the framework of the Regional Development Plan for the region Spišská Nová Ves.

4. Good Practice Description
Mapping the social situation of the Romany part of the village (the blocks of flats and the old settlement
First of all information was gathered which was already available about the village and about the situation of the Romanies in Žehra. This was already quite a lot, and was very useful. However, some more "first-hand" information was needed to get a real picture of life in the Romany community. By talking with Romany people from the village, with the mayor and with the people from the RDA (Regional Development Agency), an up-to-date assessment of the situation could be made.

A large part of the information, especially about the social structures in the community and about the contacts with the white majority, was gathered by meeting people from the settlement and visiting their houses and huts. The approach that was chosen to effect the work was based upon this information.

The community-workers co-operated with the following people or institutions:

Regional Development Agency (RDA)
The Regional Development Agency (Krajská rozvojová agentura) in Spišská Nová Ves was one of the most important partners. This agency was the official partner for Spolu International when the project was initiated. They also played a central role in the co-operation with the different municipalities. Last, but not least, they were strongly supportive regarding the community-work in Žehra. This support varied from practical things like arranging financial matters, to helping to solve practical problems which appeared. During the period of the pilot project, the Agency started to co-operate independently with representatives of the Romany community in Žehra.

The Social Manager
The social manager was employed at the municipality of Žehra, at the initiative of the Regional Development Agency. This function was a ‘public useful job’ for one year. The task of the social manager, a Romany man from one of the nearby villages, was to solve practical problems for and with Romany families. Either this could be on his own initiative (when coming across problems when visiting the village or the settlement) or when asked to do so by families, schools, municipalities or other institutions.

A working-group of local Romany people
In the village and in the settlement, the main partner for co-operation was a working-group of local Romany people. This group was established immediately at the start of the project.

The mayor of Žehra
Especially when dealing with practical matters, there was a lot of contact with the mayor of Žehra. Or better still, with the two mayors: During the period the project was running there were local elections in which, as mentioned before, a Romany man was elected as mayor.

An inventory of problems
An early step was to make an inventory, together with a large group of Romany people, of the main problems in their community. In co-operation with the Agency and the social manager, a meeting was organised in a space in the Roma-part of the village, which was used as a church and cultural centre. Approximately 50-60 people attended the meeting. The community-workers asked the people to tell them about their life here, their problems, etc. Although there were at first a lot of complaints about everything and everybody, later people came with very practical matters about things which are bad, which should be changed, and how. This information, about what the local Romanies saw as their problems, was written down to discuss afterwards with a smaller group of people.

Establishing a working-group of local people
The next step was to put the information in order and to establish a smaller group of motivated people who would be willing to co-operate with us in solving problems. This working-group had to represent the Romany community. The social manager assisted the community-workers in making a first selection of individuals. On one hand there were people who showed interest during the first meeting, on the other hand were people the social manager knew would be interested, but who did not attend the meeting. This co-operation was an important instrument to keep, for example, the money-lenders out of the working-group. In the end, a working-group of 7 people was established. This number increased during the year to approximately 16, of which 7 were women.

The first thing to do together with the working group was to make a list of the topics which had been mentioned during the first big meeting. Then the working-group was asked to add topics which, according to them, were still missing. After this inventory of the problems had been made, and written down on sheets of paper, the working-group chose "housing" and "the old settlement" as the main priorities. These topics were looked at more closely, and the following list resulted:

Together with the working group, the community-workers divided the problems into categories identified as 'possible to solve easily and quickly', ‘ in the mid-term’ and those requiring ‘long-term solutions’. This was an important step: to agree on what is possible to solve quickly and what takes longer, without saying that one topic is more important than the other. From the 'easy and quickly' the group chose:

These topics were divided into tasks according the action needed, who was to do what, and what could be the result at our next visit. These agreements were written down in a kind of contract, signed by all participants of the working group, including the community-workers. The signing of a contract became an important aspect of the work and increased the commitment of the working-group members.

Concrete results of this co-operation:
Road-sign "Watch out! Children!"
The plan was to put in a request to establish an official road-sign "Watch-out children!" on the road which leads along the Romany settlement and which is frequently used by the Romanies from Žehra to walk to school, to the well, etcetera. For this, contacts had to be established with the municipality and with the department responsible for traffic and road-maintenance.
This appeared to be rather complicated, partly because of all kinds of temporary maintenance-activities on the same stretch of road. Due to these complications, the sending in of the final request for the sign was much delayed.

Public phone
A procedure has been started to establish a public ‘phone in the settlement. Unfortunately, this has been delayed by the Slovak telephone company.

Improvement of a part of the houses of the old settlement
The improvement of a proportion of the houses of the old settlement was very important. The work was carried out by members of the working-group. They also decided the priorities. Material for the repairs was paid for by the Spolu International Foundation. Although the problems were huge and there was not enough material and money to do everything, this was a success, for several reasons:

Round table meeting about education
Another important example of the work in Žehra was the organisation of a working-seminar about education. Although the word "round table" often implies something formal and official and organised from above, this was different. When the project was running, the people from Žehra expressed the wish to improve contacts with schools. There also was the wish to discuss school matters with different teachers or headmasters. This led to the organisation of a seminar-like discussion meeting which should be attended by representatives from the Romany working-group from Žehra and representatives from the different schools.
The meeting took place in June 1999. At the seminar, representatives of the local working-group, local authorities, regional authorities and schools were present. They discussed the problem of school-attendance of Romany children. It was the first time that people from different schools had sat together at one table to discuss real problems. The following topics were discussed:

Separate classes for Romany and white children
The headmaster of one primary school briefly explained their approach to this problem:

It was obvious that, although there were many points of disagreement, the teacher was trying to find solutions to this complex problem.

Another problem that was mentioned is the fact that many Romany children who start school in the first class do not speak the Slovak language well. This leads to bad results and repeating classes. At present only a small number of Romany children attend the kindergarten, which has capacity for 20 children.

Relationship between Romany parents and schools
This discussion was sometimes quite difficult. Certain members of the working-group were quite demanding in their approach to the schools, and it was obvious that there was a lot of mutual mistrust. Two members of the working-group mentioned fear of racist attacks as a reason for parents to keep the children home. They also mentioned the fact that children were not allowed to take schoolbooks etc. home, and thus could not study at home, parents do not have money to buy school-materials, etc..

Some teachers felt offended by the confrontational approach of some Romanies. They felt their efforts were not recognised and appreciated. They also felt that Romany parents use all kinds of arguments to hide their own non-interest in sending their children to school. Also the high demands and expectations from the side of parents without looking at their own part in the problem, was something which made some teachers and headmasters who were at the meeting angry. Hardly any Romany parents visit meetings of parent-assemblies or contact the school to receive information about how their children are doing at school.

It was obvious that many of these topics needed to be elaborated on more in a future meeting with the working-group. But it was also obvious that a majority of the teachers and the working-group members were interested in trying to co-operate. The seminar lead also to some concrete agreements:

Establishing contacts between parents and the school has been a success. Both sides overcame a barrier and started to communicate with each other. In the period after the seminar, several representatives of the working-group have visited schools to keep up the contacts between schools and the Romany community in Žehra. And during one of our next visits, one of the headmasters spontaneously decided to attend one of the working-group meetings to discuss with the working-group their responsibility in supporting Romany parents apply for secondary education for their children.

At the time of finishing the pilot-project, the other agreements had not yet resulted in concrete results. The plan to identify motivated parents was delayed by the fact that during the summer and autumn following the seminar, the majority of Romanies were employed in seasonal labour. A few months later, the pilot-project in Žehra had to finish, so there was no opportunity to develop this plan further with the working-group. However, the working-group kept in touch with the kindergarten.

The plan to elect one working-group member to travel with the children to and from school has not worked until now, because of the fact that the candidate for this job did not take it seriously. A new candidate now has to be found.

Problems which appeared during the project
Money-lending (usury)
The problem of usury is an enormous problem in the community in Žehra, as well as in other Romany communities in East-Slovakia. The community-workers kept it as a strict policy to make no compromises with the money-lenders and to keep them out of the activities of the working-group. From the beginning it was obvious that this was appreciated – even while the members of the working-group themselves did not dare to act openly against the money-lenders.

The economic situation
Another major problem is the economic situation in Slovakia. Since the first contacts of Spolu International Foundation in the region, the economic situation in Slovakia has become much worse. This has meant that a large part of the plans which were meant to be carried out in the region during the period in which the community-work took place (concerning housing, or employment) were delayed and had less and less of a chance to be carried out.

Finishing the project; follow-up
After a bit more than one year, the work in Žehra had to be finished. Because of the lack of (financial and other) support from the Slovak government and from the EU, the planned regional development program, in which the pilot-project should have been integrated, was more and more delayed. There was a lack of money from the side of the Spolu International Foundation to continue with the project in the same way as before. However, the minimal time for a project like this would be at least 2-3 years. This time is needed to make the process sustainable and supported by the local people themselves.

Because there were no possibilities to continue the work in Žehra as before, it was agreed that Žehra would become one of the locations in the network of the Združenie Spolu, the Slovak branch of the Spolu. At the moment of writing this text it is too early to evaluate this co-operation.

Conclusion
The pilot-project has been finished after approximately one year. As indicated in the previous paragraphs, the results of this year of working are in general positive. Working intensively with the working-group has reinforced their self-esteem and self-confidence. Slowly but surely the working-group, representing the local community, became seen as a serious partner to co-operate with by the local authorities, schools, etcetera. The regular presence of the community-workers in the community, and the fact that local people were taken seriously has had a positive impact on both the working-group and on those who were less actively involved in the Spolu-activities. Another important fact is, that it has been proved possible to motivate people to be involved with matters which concern the community as a whole, and to be active in the public sphere.

Also on an international level the community-work in Žehra has gained attention. The High Commissioner for Minorities of the OSCE, Mr Van der Stoel, has visited Žehra and was impressed with what has been achieved in co-operation with local people.

Note 1: This is something, however, which many people have different opinions about. There seems to be a consensus about demolishing the huts in which people live under very bad circumstances.