The Roma strategy of association “Testvérvárosok Baráti Egyesülete”, related to support of Roma families

The city of Jászberény has nine twin cities, it means that the different activities of the association are strongly connected to the activities of all the twin cities. Four of them have larger Roma communities.

These are: 

1./ Sucha Beskidzka (Poland),

2./ Conselve (Italy)

3./ Gyimesfelsőlok (Romania)

4./ Nitra (Slovakia)

We regularly exchange experiences with the educational institutions and civil organizations of the four twin cities regarding the support of Roma students and families.

The Gypsy population moved to Europe from India approx. 700 years ago. It was the “lowest”, poorest caste, which was divided into several strata, consisting of horse traders and tinsmiths. The musical gypsies were a separate class. The poorest made up the “tented” gypsies, who constantly travelled with their horse-drawn carts. This was typical for Hungary as well.

There are just few typical family models, the most relevant characteristics of them are the casual labor and giving birth to many children. As a result, their family model hardly changed, which was a cohesive closed community with many children. The children typically continued the family life they saw from their parents. They didn’t go to school, they got married early, they gave birth to children at the age of 14-16, due to this fact there were 6-10 children in a family.

As a result, their number in Hungary has quadrupled in the last 70 years, from 300 to 1.2 million. The stratification has changed, the richest are the gypsies who are musicians and metal dealers. The poorest are those Gypsies, who typically live in temporary accommodation or emergency housing provided by the municipality, due to disappearing of nomad lifestyle. 

The number of children in the rich Gypsy families decreased, but the poor families consist of 6-8 children as usual. Few have a permanent income, they mainly live on public support received after the number of children, local government support and casual work. This does not ensure the livelihood of a family of ten, so they supplement their income with other activities. (Begging, stealing, etc.). Since the Union prohibits the compilation of statistics on Gypsies, it is estimated that more than 60% of prisoners are of Gypsy origin.

Today in Hungary it is compulsory to go to school, only in this case the citizens are entitled to receive state support for children. At the same time, the family model has hardly changed among them. They get married early and have children early, constantly “reproducing” the poor family model. There are just few opportunities of an outbreak. It often happens that a student who is really talented at school and who is likely to apply for further education is unable to continue his studies due to early marriage and childbirth.

The issue of segregation is a completely legitimate goal, but at the same time it does not work in practice, because non-Gypsy parents cannot be forbidden to send their children to another school.

The association’s activities and programs related to the topic

The association is not an educational institution, but a civil organization with foreign relations.

As for our twin cities, we have permanent cooperation with their educational and public institutions, we regularly exchange our experiences between the schools. There are different symposiums not only in the circle of students but also in the circle of teachers. This enables them to deal with the situation of social minorities (migrants, gypsies, and other nationalities) and to exchange their experiences and learn from each other.

There is also regular contact between local governments, the police, fire department and other civil organizations. The situation of minorities in the country and in the settlement also arises here.

The task of the association is to support, coordinate and organize the relationship between the cities and their organizations. This makes it possible for the association to examine and help the situation and integration of Gypsies beyond the school. The experience of the twin cities helps us with this work.

Mapping the situation and support of the Gypsy population in Jászberény, defining goals and tasks

Program 1:

Participants:  

Jászberény: Municipality, Primary Schools, Lehel Vezér Grammar School, Pedagogical College of Jászberény, Association of Testvérvárosok Baráti Egyesülete

Sucha Beskidska: Municipality, Grammar School

Vechta:  Municipality, Civil Organisation of Twin Relationships

The teacher at the college gave a general presentation on the settlement, stratification, territorial location, and development of the Roma population in Europe, gaining deeper insight into the current situation of Gypsies in Hungary.

The local health officer of the Municipality in Jászberény gave a general overview about the support of Gypsy families related to the pregnancy and the birth of the baby. 

Although all families receive support for the child’s nursery and kindergarten admission, there are only few families who take this opportunity, preferring to keep the children at home, resulting from presence of strong family cohesion.

Primary school education is free, and they can also apply for free books. Primary schools are divided by district, but it is also possible to apply to another school. It is an interesting experience that “rich” gypsies do not like to take their children to schools where many “poor” gypsy children go. Gypsy children regularly attend primary school, because if the child does not attend school, the state support may be withdrawn from the family.

The participants visited a house given by the municipality to a Gypsy family with 6 children. They got to know the family’s living conditions. The husband makes a living from casual work and works as deliveryman. They regularly receive targeted support from the municipality, e.g., to heating. But because of the 6 children, it is really hard to provide the right conditions for raising the children.

Afterwards, the participants went to a primary school and a secondary school, where they learned about differentiated education and integration methods. Thus, they can help students who are in disadvantaged social background and have difficulties in acquiring the learning materials.

Program 2:

The participants paid a visit to a battery factory, where they investigated the working conditions of Gypsy people. Although there are quite difficult jobs in the factory, the number of hiring is increasing.

Unfortunately, they found only one Gypsy man, who has been working here for several years and is employed currently as a foreman. According to the factory manager, the gypsies do not work here for more than 2-3 months, they find the work difficult.

They visited a community center as well where a complete kitchen is also equipped. Here they can learn to cook, sew, and do needlework. This gives them the opportunity to make their home more beautiful and to be able to prepare food suitable for a healthier diet.

After that, they visited an agricultural foil-tent garden, where mainly Gypsy men and women were taught how to plant and raise seedlings to be able to produce for the family in their own garden.

Due to the collaboration with twin cities, the association of Testvérvárosok Baráti Egyesülete can monitor the long-term, targeted and integrated measures aimed at reducing the social and economic marginalisation of Roma communities, in particular through the adoption of labour market integration measures, including strengthened links between social assistance and activation, increased school attendance by Roma children and the reduction of early school-leaving