Today, May 26, 2015, there was a historic event in the life of the Roma minority in Ukraine. The event which will be the beginning of a new stage of development of the Roma in our country. This happened in Mukachevo, a small town in western Ukraine, but in the biggest Roma settlement in our country.
Today the initiative group filed to the City Hall documents for registration of Ukraine’s first body of the self-organization of the Roma community.
Perhaps to many people this information may seem ordinary, but for the Roma it is a new era, the beginning of a new history, where there are such things as the right to vote, the right to education, work, self-improvement, social mobilization, civil responsibilities and obligations to society, democracy.
Half of the Roma camp (almost 5,000 people) want to start to defend themselves. The preparation of legal part of the establishment of the self-organization body is nothing compared to the bold step made by the part of the Roma camp.
As one of the Roma activists, Andriy Horvat said: "We are tired of being slaves, we are tired of being pushed around and not being allowed to say a word. We want to make decisions for ourselves and to take responsibility for their fulfillment. We want to open the camp so that residents of Mukachevo see that our children are the same as theirs. We want changes and we want to change people’s attitude to us."
The development of Roma self-government will radically change the relationship of the Roma community and local authorities. Now they are infinitely far from ideal. They are rather dominated by the mutual distrust and hostility. The situation will change when representatives of Roma self-government delegated by the Roma community are conducting a dialogue with the authorities as equal partners, suggesting joint projects, and not begging for another benefits or allowances.
According to the materials of the Charity Foundation "Rozvytok"
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