A plea from the Traveller Equality Project

RE: CNGTR

conn.macgabhann@irishchaplaincy.org.uk

Hello

I  run the Traveller Equality Project which works in prison with Gypsies and Irish Travellers. I am getting a number of requests from European Roma for help resources etc. I have just received a letter from two Slovakian Roma.

 In the past I have asked some people working with Roma to provide resources, advice etc to no avail. Anyway, the point is if you have access to resources for Roma which are free please get in touch with me.

Thanks

Conn

 Traveller Equality Project
Irish Chaplaincy in Britain
50-52 Camden Square
NW1 9XB

Tel: 020 7482 5528

Conn has clarified that anything would be helpful: books, magazines, DVDs. - Jenny

Churches Network for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma

The objects of the Churches Network for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma are:

•   to work for harmony, understanding and co-operation between communities, churches and Gypsy, Traveller and Roma people

•                          to work with Gypsies, Travellers, Showmen and Roma to promote a better and wider understanding of the history, culture and lifestyles of Gypsies, Showmen, Travellers and Roma

• to seek to understand, bear witness to and challenge the prejudices and structural injustices which marginalise, exclude and endanger Gypsies, Travellers and Roma people
  
•     to ensure a voice for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma in our churches, and to encourage and support Christian vocations in those minority communities
  
•      to encourage churches to embrace the cultural identity of Gypsies, Travellers and Roma and the gifts they bring to the Christian church, as they prefer to express them in their worship
  
  If you share any of these aims, you are very welcome to join our facebook group, and to contribute to harmony and understanding.

Romani Resistance Day, May 16th

Romani Community Care, I hope you don't mind if I give your facebook post space here:

16 May 1944: Romani Resistance Day

Romani Resistance - 16 May 1944
Share on twitter Share on gmail Share on facebook Share on email More Sharing Services 0
It seems that the denial of genocide and the denial of racism are communicating vessels. An ethnic group whose genocide is denied continues to be targeted with racism.
Conversely, the recognition of genocide can start a healing process in society that can help it overcome racism. The Romani Holocaust, called the "porajmos" (destruction) in Romanes, is a part of history that is not only forgotten today, it is even denied.
We do not know much about this aspect of the Holocaust. There are just a few books about it, and very little historical research.
Be that as it may, some forgotten parts of the Romani Holocaust really deserve commemoration. Romani people did not always play the role of passive victims during that era.
What happened on 16 May 1944? In the extermination camp of Auschwitz II – Birkenau, section BIIe was called the "Gypsy Camp" (Zigeuner Lager).
Some of the Romani people transported into the hell of Auschwitz by the Nazis were not gassed immediately upon arrival, but were placed in the Zigeuner Lager. BIIe was a "mixed" camp, which meant children, men and women were imprisoned there together.
The Romani prisoners were forced into slave labor, observed and subjected to medical tests, and tortured. Dr Josef Mengele of the SS, a sadistic psychopath known as the "Angel of Death", chose Romani individuals, most of them children, to subject to perverse experiments.
During the night of 2 August and the early morning of 3 August 1944, all of the prisoners of the camp, without exception, were murdered in the gas chambers. Because of this known, official history, 2 August has been commemorated as Romani Holocaust Day.
The Nazis had actually wanted to close BIIe and murder its Romani prisoners in the gas chambers earlier than that, on 16 May 1944. At the time there were more than 6 000 Romani prisoners there.
On 15 May, the underground resistance movement in the camp warned the Roma of what the Nazis were planning. On the morning of 16 May, the Romani prisoners did not show up for the usual morning roll call and ceased cooperating with the SS guards.
The Roma barricaded themselves into their shanties. They had broken into an equipment warehouse and armed themselves with hammers, pickaxes and shovels, taking apart the wooden sections of the bunks they slept on to make wooden stakes.
The children collected rocks. When the SS guards entered the camp in the late afternoon to take the Roma to the gas chambers, they began to fight for their lives.
The Roma fought to the death. Children, men, and women all fought.
Auschwitz had never experienced anything like it before and would not experience it again. There were losses on both sides.
The SS were in shock because they had completely failed to anticipate this resistance. Concerned they might lose more men and that the uprising might spread to other parts of Auschwitz, they retreated from camp BIIe.
No Roma died in the gas chambers that day. The Nazis subsequently put the prisoners of BIIe on a starvation diet.
On 23 May 1944, the Nazis moved 1 500 of the strongest Romani prisoners to Auschwitz I, many of whom were then sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. On 25 May 1944, 82 Romani men were transported to the Flossenburg concentration camp and 144 young Romani women were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
Less than 3 000 Romani prisoners remained in the family camp at BIIe, most of them children. On 2 August 1944, the Nazis gassed them all to death in gas chamber V, although the Roma fought back on that dark night as well.
Glory and honor to the memory of these Romani heroes! You can find more information about 16 May 1944 on the following websites:
Documentation and Culture Center of the German Sinti and Roma

Everyone - Group for International Cooperation on Human Rights Culture
Miroslav Brož, Konexe, translated by Gwendolyn Albert

April 8th is International Roma Day

. 





International Roma Day recalls and celebrates the contribution of the Roma peoples to European and world cultures,

as well as remembering their history

their experiences of suffering

and the present-day injustices, discrimination and denial of basic rights.

THE GAVVERS GIVE US A NICE SURPRISE

If I had to say who comes across as enemy number one in the autobiographical writings of Romany Gypsies, it would have to be the police, although there is often agreement that individual officers are widely different.

But a new association is possibly going to make a huge difference to that. The Gypsy Roma and Traveller Police Association held its inaugural meeting on 27th March, and is a support Network for Police Personnel who are from a GRT background. It is a National organisation but its reach is International as it aims to link in with Police colleagues from around the world.

Jim Davies, the Chair of the new Association explains, “The GRTPA’s main aim is to unite and support all Police Officers and Staff who are from GRT backgrounds . We will do this by promoting equality and fairness and by providing a support forum where members can share and discuss the issues which affect their working life.

“Intrinsically linked to our main aim is the desire to foster good relationships between the Police and GRT Communities. We aim to do this by facilitating discussion, negotiation and co–operation between UK Police Forces, GRT communities and organisations. In doing so, we will establish a platform for sharing good practice in working with GRT Communities.”

The Association already has a professional looking web site and I can tell you that the response if you contact them is tip top and fast!

Selling your services

You’ve got something to offer to customers.  

You’ve purchased whatever you need to be ready  to meet orders when they come in.  But they don’t come in.  

What do you do next?
                                                               
You’ve got rent to pay, bills to meet, mouths to feed.   If you’ve got any get-up-and-go, I guess you’ll get out there and tell people directly about your product or service.

  That’s exactly   what “A Gypsie’s wife” thought, and she described the cold, wet, chilling experience it can be better than I ever could.  Please note her "good practice guide"!   

"So you knock on a door; stand well back, smile and with a ‘sorry to disturb you’ ask for the work. Don’t push: point out the job and ask if they’d like a quote.

If they say no; back off, politely.

If they display a notice telling you not to call; then don’t. "

Please note also that she knows the need to allow a "cooling-off" period for the customer that says yes right away.  

I was reminded of her blog recently after I’d got my own business online, tweeted and facebooked the news, and written to potential contacts.  For me, the next step may be sending a few more e-mails, writing some letters, making phone calls, but at some point, I’m going to have to go out there and meet people.  Not an easy thing to do!

As I’ve done electoral roll canvassing for the District Council, I know how many doors have “No hawkers” prominently displayed, and how careful you have to be not to make people feel threatened.  Also, they’re sure to unload onto you all their feelings about any bad experiences they’ve had in the past, so you need endless tact and a tough hide!

Looking at it from the other side, I hate people cold-calling me.  So what’s the answer?

All I can suggest is that we always try to remember that the other person, whichever side of the desk or door they may be, is only human like you, and good manners, even in saying “No” cost you nothing.  Or you could say, “Leave me some details, and let me think about it.”

       

Great Romani Artists – Tcha Limberger

The “blind Belgian violinist” (London Jazz News)  played in England as recently as 2013, but sadly I hadn’t ever heard of him then.

If I’ve understood the Dutch article in wikipedia correctly, Tcha was born in 1977 into a very musical family, and grew up playing first the guitar and then later the violin.  The London Jazz Review speaks of his “calling” to follow the Hungarian and Roma folk musical traditions, and youtube has a video of him playing beautiful Transylvanian folk music.

The web site dedicated to his music recounts how, having played in Budapest, he learned Hungarian in order to go back at age 23 and study there for 18 months.

If I’m right about his date of birth, Tcha is still only 37, and I look forward to seeing his fame grow.  You may like to join me in following him on facebook.