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Interviews with Roma throughout the region highlight the range of different Roma experiences and living conditions, across and within countries. Snapshots from around the region provide a window into this diversity and underscore the various challenges they face. Education Many Roma children do not attend school. Some parents are unable to send their children to school because of lack of basic supplies, or even clothes. In other cases, barriers include social and cultural factors, such as language. | We can't afford to send them to school in the winter. We have no sneakers, no proper shoes for snow. They can't go to school in slippers. They don't have jackets or warm clothes either. We can't afford anything – copybooks, pens… Children have no money for meals. That's why they don't go to school. – Parent, Bulgaria Children from segregated Roma settlements do not master the Slovak language and do not understand their teachers. The teachers do not speak the Roma language, so they communicate by using gestures. – School Director, Slovakia. | |
While demand for education is low among some Roma communities, other parents expressed a strong interest in their children's education and recognized its importance for their success in the future.  | My grandson is a first grade student. We sent him to kindergarten and hope in the future that he will put more importance on education than we did. – Grandparent, Slovakia. I waited for my daughter to return from school every day, and asked her what happened at school. I sat beside her when she was writing up her homework. I would not let her go out until I saw that she had finished. I would not allow anyone at home to touch her and make her do some other housework…I do not know what will happen to her after she completes her education, but whatever that is, it will be better. She can become a doctor, a teacher, she will go higher than us. – Parent, Bulgaria. |
Employment Formal unemployment in some Roma settlements can reach 90 to 100 percent. Many Roma face severe obstacles in finding a job because of their low education and skill levels, as well as discrimination on the labor market. | Who is going to give me a job? I have no education, no skills and am Roma, even in my neighboring village nobody wants to give us any work. – 35 year old father of five in Slovakia. If his Bulgarian name is Angel or Ivan or Stoyan or Dragan, he'll get all the application forms and be asked to come in. As soon as they realize he's Gypsy, Roma, he's turned down, they lower their voices and tell him to come some other time. When your name is Bulgarian and they see you are a Gypsy, they throw you out! – Roma, Bulgaria. | |
Roma Identity In Hungary, experiments with alternative education for Roma high school students, which include Roma language, culture and history in the curriculum, have sparked interest in Roma identity among young people.  | I would like to know more about the origin of my people and our values. – Student, Hungary My grandmothers spoke the Roma language and my parents can understand it. I do not speak the language, but I would very much like to learn it. – Student, Hungary |
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