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. (περισσότερα…)