Reaching the Roma
Habitat seeks partnerships in European communities of extreme need

Slide Show

The settlement of Pata Rat seems to sink into the thick mud. Built next to a garbage dump in the Romanian city of Cluj, the collection of makeshift houses is home to more than 100 families. Grandmothers, children, young fathers sort through the dump's mounds of garbage, looking for items to salvage or sell.

The families who live in Pata Rat are Roma, a distinct but diverse ethnic group believed to have immigrated from northern India centuries ago. Long excluded from European society, many Roma families attempt to adopt mainstream culture, but many wish to preserve their language, culture and traditions. Through the years, Roma individuals, once called gypsies or travelers, have endured the suspicion, violence and neglect of their neighbors. And poorer Roma--the residents of Pata Rat and other desperate enclaves in cities and villages across Europe--are routinely denied education, employment and easy access to health care. They frequently settle wherever they can, fashioning shelters often too tiny for large families.

"A veil is drawn over the living conditions and plight of the Roma people in Europe," says Don Haszczyn, Habitat for Humanity International's area vice president for Europe and Central Asia. "It is hugely shameful that people should suffer such discrimination and poverty alongside some of the highest living standards in the world."

In Macedonia and Romania, Habitat works with numerous Roma families able to qualify under the standard Habitat model. But for each family served, there are thousands more beyond Habitat's reach. Working with the Roma, says Haszczyn, "is a big area where we've done some little things. Roma people suffer many more problems than just inadequate shelter. We can't be the solution, but we can be part of the jigsaw."

For several years, Habitat's E/CA area office has looked for ways to reach Roma communities of extreme need. E/CA has successfully partnered with a local organization to improve the living conditions of nearly 140 Roma families in Svinia, Slovakia. Habitat's project partner recently received a grant from the Open Society Institute to do more in Svinia with Habitat.

Habitat also has initiated research projects on Roma housing issues in Hungary, Macedonia and Romania. The parallel research projects included forging contacts within Roma communities as well as with church groups, local governments and Roma nonprofits.

Haszczyn knows Habitat can help. "Good housing," he says, "can be a key stepping stone to bringing Roma people into equal citizenship--no longer in ghettos, no longer looked down upon by others but as fully contributing members of an equitable society."

--Shala Carlson