April 8 is the International Roma Day and it is the day when the Roma culture is celebrated and global awareness of the problems Roma people face every day raised.
Author: Đorđe Krajišnik
In order to talk more about the position of Roma, and the problems with the education of Roma children, the humanitarian organization “Alfa” from Bihać launched a project in the Una-Sana Canton titled “Joint, sustainable and creative preservation of Roma culture and heritage.” The realization of this project includes one hundred workshops that started at the end of January, with participants from Bihać and Bosanska Krupa, aged from 9 to 20 years old, and will last until May this year.
Reduce inequalities
According to Alfa, the workshops are part of the activities of this project, launched with the intention of reducing inequality and highlighting the beauties of diversity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the support of the European Union and the Council of Europe through the project “Promotion of Diversity and Equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
– I hope that the veil of mystery about my people will be lifted because the unknown always scares people. We Roma have a big heart and we love all people. We live like other people, we only differ in customs and origins, but that is the wealth of one community, believes one of the participants in the workshop realized by the humanitarian organization “Alfa” from Bihać.
Bihać and Bosanska Krupa were chosen as the places of implementation of project activities because the largest number of Roma people in Una-Sana Canton live in these local communities.
– In order to work on better assimilation, especially young Roma men and women accept the culture and customs of the area in which they live, which inevitably leads to less knowledge of their own culture, traditions and customs. Therefore, workshops such as “Alfine” are very important for learning about their own origins. The way of work is even more motivating because in addition to educational, it includes creative segments of activities and connects schools, parents and the local population. This approach contributes to the development of the love of young Roma men and women for their own culture, customs and language, with pride and not shame because of their own origin and national identity, explained “Alfa”.
In addition to learning about the origins, as the project further points out, thanks to the workshops, Roma men and women learn about their rights and how to protect them, but also about the ways in which rights are violated, such as preventing children from going to school regularly. In the atmosphere of mutual support within the workshops, the humanitarian organization “Alfa” emphasizes the experiences that the participants went through, whether it is the impossibility of continuing the secondary education of a young Roma woman because her parents oppose it or the impossibility for a young Roma man to play football because his parents are unable to pay the club membership fee.
Roma are good people
– I am unhappy that I can’t hang out with the girl I love because she is not Roma, and other children will avoid her. I want to show by my actions that Roma are good people who should be loved and respected. There are good and bad people in every nation, said the twelve-year-old participant of the workshop, who together with others in the group will have the opportunity to learn how to deal with prejudice but also how to convey information about the values of Roma tradition and people who are the most successful representatives of this community. Roma community is unique and contributes to the wealth of every society.
In the end, the humanitarian organization “Alfa” points out that, within this project and other activities, it is important to create a number of preconditions for better social integration of Roma men and women and to remove prejudices that interpret Roma life as a result of culture, tradition and habits and not as the result of poverty, insufficient understanding of the environment and life on the social margins.
