My name is Ramce but I am called Dzamce. Why? Because I am more naked than dressed, I live in a house, in fact a shack made out of carton, live bricks and iron. I will tell you a secret, I hid a jar buried in the ground and I hide money init. I want to collect more money to by my sister an invalid cart. After I finish eight grades I do not know what to do. I want to be a wall painter to dress in white so that I can be white. Sometimes I think that people do like me because I am black. But what can I do my grandmother says that our God is black. I am Ramce in fact Dzamce, through my window I see my future.

This is an extra from an essay of the student Elena Nakova from Stip on the subject “What is it like to be a Roma in school, home and the society” rewarded by the Macedonian center for international cooperation. (more…)

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Every tenth Roma child finishes eight grade. From about 8000 Roma pupils that enrolled in elementary school, not even 600 finished it. The largest dropping out of schools with the Roma is in the fifth grade, and their biggest problem is learning the Macedonian language. The Roma children do not know the Macedonian language when they start going to school and causes many problems for them. This is how the condition of the Roma looks like with the education, which should improve with the new campaign “The key is your hands” – which was presented yesterday by the National Roma Centrum. The campaign according to the center is with the purpose for greater inclusion of the Roma children in schools through motivation of the parents as well as decreasing stereotypes and prejudice for the Roma pupils. (more…)

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Alvaro Hil Roblens the Human Rights commissioner in the Council of Europe recently in Strasburg presented a report on the Roma rights in Europe. The endangerment of this ethnical population was practically the life motive that went through in all the tones of the report. The main word was about the 10 million Roma in the member countries of the Council of Europe. This story in a kind of report presented by commissioner Roblens, is a story about the check up of the human conciseness in the first decade of the 21st century. The commissioner of CoE only pointed out of the necessity of partnership between authorities, institutions and the Roma themselves for realizing a string of measures on a general civilization level which will support the efforts in the “Roma decade” in all the spheres of the social and economic life. Therefore the base and the priority of every effort in that direction is the education. (more…)

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We often say for everything which is arguable, when it is dirty, complicated, something promised and not fulfilled, is Gypsy business. I try to understand that stereotype, where does it come from, and yet it is very often used. The Gypsies I know call themselves Roma. They call them selves Roma community and not drifters and huts, they call them selves the only municipality in Europe, although in short we call it Sutka. Movies, stories, they are sung by many … oh to have, like I don’t have, to by myself … stories with a lot of honesty, a lot of love, a lot of smiles, joy, passion, to like, to love, to sing, to fight with all its hart… NO, this is not gypsy business! It is not them. (more…)

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Roma Education Campaign in Macedonia “The key is in your hands” The education is a key towards integration and prosperity Unlock the real door

Plans and activities for the Roma education in Macedonia Working sessions

Skopje, 5th of April 2006

Information for the public

On the 5th of April in the “Holiday Inn” hotel in Skopje at 9:00 o’clock we are organizing a Working session for solving of the problem with the Roma education on which representatives from government institutions, the local self government and Roma non governmental organizations will attend. Based on our so far activities, we consider that the Roma are still on the margins of the society’s living. The basic factors which bring the Roma in this position are the crisis through which this region passes, as well as the difficult financial and social condition. (more…)

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