There were no beds or carpets in those few rooms and the whole house where Zjenepe lived with her mother and her brother was very untidy. Her father had passed away and her sister has gotten married, so due to their dire economic conditions, Zejnepe`s mother was forced to beg on the streets in Fushë Kosova.
Zejnepe, from Roma community, did not even know her last name or her age. As she explains, she only finished her first and second grade and was not able to learn either reading or writing.
“I went to a Serbian school, not to a Kosovar one, and I never befriended Albanians, only the Roma community here in Fushë Kosova. I was not able to learn reading and writing and due to dire economic conditions in my family, I was forced to drop out of school,” Zejnepe says.
Shpresa Berisha, 18 years old from the Roma community in Fushë Kosova, says that she also went to school only one year and was forced to drop out because of the constant bullying she experienced by Kosovar children.
On the other hand, boys in this community go to school and do not work. They are expected to learn. Muhamet, 13 years old from Fushë Kosova, attends the 8th grade in the school near his house and has Kosovar friends also.
“The economic conditions in my family are good since my dad works and my sisters are married to Diaspora and time by time send us money. Thus, I have been able to attend school. My sisters got married in an early age and finished only primary school. The Kosovar do not discriminate against us and they are very kind to us,” Muhamet says.
Jeton Jashari, the representative of Roma community in Fushë Kosova and assistant of the vice minister for Community and Return, says that this community is no longer discriminated by the Kosovar in Fushë Kosova and that boys are even pursuing their university studies.
“The girls of Roma community usually finish only the first grade. However, when they reach maturity they drop out of school because of sexual harassment at school and parents are afraid that something bad will happen to them. Since most of the Roma community is Muslim, girls get married at an early age and thus drop out of school,” Jashari says.
He also says that they have difficulties in finding a job. According to him, one must be part of a political party in order to gain employment.
Lorenta Kadriu, of the “Raise Your Hand for Help” NGO, asserts that the Roma community is not integrated in the Kosovar society as much as it should be. According to her, there are still ethnic prejudices and they mostly happen in schools and in sports and cultural events. Also, Kadriu emphasizes that the rate of illiteracy in this community is very high, especially for women.
“The difficult economic conditions in this community forces children to leave school and start a job in order to provide income for their family. This is what takes this community out of school in most of cases. A great number of the Roma community in Fushë Kosova do not have even basic living conditions. The rate of unemployment is high and this is evident and a majority of people have chosen to do recycling or do physical jobs in order to afford their living,” Kadriu says.
Based on the strategy for the integration of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian (RAE) communities of the Republic of Kosova, there was a report prepared by the office of the Prime-Minister of Kosova which shows that the women of RAE communities are in a discriminated and unfavorable situation characterized by leaving school. The economic conditions of RAE families, the poverty, ethnic tensions, harassments and the discrimination in schools are a phenomenon and a factor that impedes children from going to school.
In a research study on wages done by the International Labor Organization in 2006, the unfavorable and discriminative situation of these three communities was confirmed. In this research, there were 1,547 out of 12,126 companies included, mainly private companies that operate in Kosovo.
Only 0.1%, or only 12 individuals who worked there, were from RAE communities.
The study also showed that the average monthly income of RAE was lower compared to the income of the Serbs and the Albanians living in Kosovo. Most of the employees of these communities seem to be employed mainly in sectors with lower salaries and in positions which do not require professional training.
Besarta Breznica
