Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Article on Roma Gypsies

Many of you have asked us some great questions about the Roma people we work with here in Romania.  Here's an article that was published this week about the specific group of Gypsies that are here in Romania.  It's actually a book review for a new book that's been published about the Roma (The Romani People by Yaron Matras), but the article itself give a brief history of this people group and brings up many of the same questions we have been asking ourselves since we began working here.

Here's a sneak peek that reveals the difficulties of school attendance that we are trying to address through our after-school program:

"For a variety of reasons, the Romani fight school systems tooth and nail. In the Romani world, Matras writes, the child is extremely important, and the removal of a child from the household even just for the day is extremely painful. It also represents, in the mind of the Romani family, an opportunity for the government to influence children away from the Rom life. Depending on the branch of Rom, the pursuit of education by a female may not be permissible beyond a certain point. As a result, Matras writes, Romani parents sometimes work assiduously to keep their children from getting a full education." - William O'Connor, The Story of the Roma, Europe's Most Discriminated Group

You can access the full article here.

Hope you're all having a great week!

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