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Current AffairsEU says Czech Republic discriminates against Romany children
The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia has criticized the
Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary for allegedly discriminating against
Romanies from an early age by sending many of them to special schools for
people with learning difficulties. The EU report suggests that this
practice is at the root of the government's inability to deal with the
integration of Roma into society as such, because wrongful assignment to
special education has far reaching negative consequences for future
employment opportunities.
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Current AffairsRoma ghettos - hundreds, not dozens?
Could the number of Roma ghettos in the Czech Republic be much higher than
official government estimates? That is the preliminary result of a new
study, commissioned by the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry. It suggests
there are over 300 Romany ghettos - including districts, streets and even
individual apartment buildings. That contrasts greatly with the findings
of the government's Council for Roma Affairs: it says there are at most
only a few dozen ghettos.
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Current AffairsRomany women report cases of enforced sterilization
Some time ago Helena Ferencikova, a Romany woman, claimed she had been
forced to undergo sterilization. Her case set off many
more complaints from Romany mothers who said they'd received similar
treatment. Many of them wrote to the Ombudsman Otakar Motejl for help and
several have since taken their case to court. More
Current AffairsKumar Vishwanathan: building bridges between communities in Ostrava
Kumar Vishwanathan is originally from southern India. He was leading a
quiet life as a teacher in a provincial Czech town when in 1997 disastrous
floods swept through the eastern part of the Czech Republic and changed his
life for ever. Quite spontaneously he decided to help Romany families who
had lost their homes in the industrial city of Ostrava near the Polish
border. He thought he would stay for a few weeks. Eight years later, along
with his wife and small son, he is still there, working untiringly to build
bridges between Roma and non-Roma communities. It was in acknowledgement of
his work in Ostrava to combat social injustice that the American ambassador
in Prague presented him on Friday with the second Alice Masaryk award to
mark Human Rights Day. David Vaughan reports
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WitnessKumar Vishwanathan - an extraordinary decision to join homeless Roma
In July 1997 floods swept through the city of Ostrava in the east of the Czech Republic. The entire district of Hrusov was devastated, leaving dozens of Roma families homeless. At that time Kumar Vishwanathan, a young physics teacher from India, was working at a school about sixty kilometers away in Olomouc. In the wake of the floods he made an extraordinary decision that completely changed his life - to help the homeless Roma families by moving in with them into their emergency accommodation...
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One on OneKumar Vishwanathan - Indian community worker
Rob Cameron's guest on One on One this week is Kumar Vishwanathan - an Indian community worker living in north Moravia. Kumar has spent much of the last decade looking for ways to bring the local Roma community closer to majority society, and advocates a number of controversial measures - including dialogue with far-right skinheads and a "Coexistence Village", where Roma and white families will live side by side. Tune in to this week's One on One to find out more.
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