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Roma Internet Center Breaks Prejudices

By Adrijana Ametovic in Nis

07 12 2007  Community sets up Roma internet center to boost minority’s education level.

In the Belgrade Mahala, the largest Roma neighbourhood in the southern Serbian city of Nis, an Internet centre now occupies a former kindergarten.

In a building where rusting see-saws and swings still remind Roma children of their preparatory school days, Dobrivoje Vasic, a 17-year old Roma inhabitant of Belgrade Mahala, has had his first encounter with a computer.

"First we learned what PC components are and then we did some work," he said.

One of the main reasons a Roma Internet centre has been established is that a staggering 80 percent of this ethnic group is functionally illiterate.

In the city's municipality of Crveni Krst, a single Roma has progressed beyond secondary school education.

The Internet Centre opened on October 5, 2007 at the initiative of Ferhat Saiti, the managing director of the Nisava TV and the Nis Philip Morris tobacco industry. The project was completed in cooperation with the Crveni Krst municipality.

Teenagers from 10 to 19 attend the computer course in the Internet Centre twice a week and they will get a certificate after six months.

"I had to leave school because there was no one to look after my mother and brothers after my dad died but this course will help me get back on the track," Vasic said.

The Roma are believed to be the most needing national minority in Serbia.

According to the latest census in 2001 there are 108,000 Roma in Serbia but the real figure has been estimated at around 450,000 or even 800,000.

The reasons are many. Many Roma, mainly families that fled the southern province of Kosovo after the 1999 conflict there have never acquired a birth certificate. According to some estimates from 2005, almost 300,000 Roma have no identification documents at all.

Others identify themselves as Serbs or Bosniaks or ethnic Muslims.

Most of them are unemployed and illiterate and many live in dehumanizing poverty.

While other ethnic groups have a life expectancy of about 75, the average life expectancy for Roma men is 55 and for women, 48.

After toppling former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, the Serbian authorities sought to improve living conditions for the Roma and integrate them into the country's society.

In February 2005, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica signed the “Decade of Roma Inclusion” declaration binding Serbia to start resolving the Roma issue along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia and Montenegro.

Many Roma have not even heard of the declaration, and those who did have no idea how they might benefit from it.

"To tell you the truth, I know it's something to do with us but I have no clue what it's about," said Enver Bajramovic, a pensioner.

"I am afraid little progress will be made before the Roma take their future into their own hands," said Vida Nedelkovski, a Serbian woman from Nis.

Saiti said the Roma Decade for 2005-15 "hasn't achieved much over the first two years" even though a budget has been allocated this year to improve education, health care, housing and employment for Roma citizens.

The fact that non-governmental organizations and the Roma themselves are now involved in tackling these problems is often cited as one of the most notable achievements of the initiative.

Late in 2003, the Serbian government passed a declaration called The Strategy for Improving Roma Education with the objective of halving the number of illiterate Roma by 2010.

"The idea is to improve the general education level among Roma with projects, such as the Roma Decade," Saiti said.

He stressed that apart from educating them, getting Roma children off the streets was another motive for opening the Internet Centre.  Besides, very few Roma families have a PC at home.

"It is common knowledge that Roma children start making a living and therefore leave school very early," Saiti said.

According to a population census in the Crveni Krst municipality, 83 percent of its Roma population live in poverty while 62 percent are undereducated.

Vladimir Petrovic, the head of the Crveni Krst municipality, told Balkan Insight that the initiative to allocate financial means to aid the Roma minority in Serbia was launched in 2005, adding it was a prerequisite to open an Internet Centre.

"The activities take place in an area where the children feel free and safe, a stone's throw from their homes and with no language barrier," Petrovic said.

"All I have to do is cross the street and there I am in the Internet Centre," Vasic said and added his younger brother now relied on him for help in learning computer basics.

The Nis Philip Morris tobacco industry aided the project with 10,000 euros and 10 computers.

"I hope this will motivate Roma children and their parents to learn and get an education," said Miodrag Stojadinovic, a representative of the Nis Philip Morris branch.

"Roma children attending the course will learn to use Windows, MS Office and the Internet," said Momcilo Randjelovic, one of the teachers.

The course is also designed to make it easier for Roma children to get a job in the future, as the mother of one the boys attending it stressed.

"I would really like to learn something here so that I can get a job in the future. Computer education is essential these days and it could help me get a job in computer games," a participant said.

He refused to identify himself "as I would be ashamed do tell everyone I am computer illiterate."

The leaders of Roma non-government organisations say the Roma Internet Centre is the first step in improving education conditions for their ethnic group and believe projects such as this one are feasible elsewhere in Serbia too.

Alija Sacipovic, a local coordinator for Roma issues, praised the project "as a model for other non-governmental organisations rallying Roma in their bid to improve education conditions and integrate this ethnic group into Serbian society."

Saiti said opening more Roma Internet Centres depended on donations.

Meanwhile, in Belgrade, the Open Heart Roma association and the People's University Bozidar Adzija have signed another agreement on setting up a free computer training facility for the minority. Up to 700 Roma should undergo training over the next two years.

Computer trainers in Nis say the children attending the course are learning quickly.

"They come in droves and ask a lot of questions, they are very well behaved and there are no problems at all in spite of the fact that their age varies," Randjelovic said.

"I can't complain because the teachers are always willing to talk to us. I know I am poorly educated but my heart is filled with joy when I see my son typing on that keyboard," said 10 year-old Fejza Ahmetovic's mother.

A group of pupils are having a lively debate on the day's lessons while their teacher is writing something down and one of the new arrivals keeps asking what the word "basic" means in computer language.

Adrijana Ametovic is a journalist with the Nisava TV from Nis. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.

This article was published with the support of the British embassy in Belgrade and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, mission in Serbia, as part of BIRN's Minority Media Training and Reporting Project.