As one of the most endangered groups in Serbia, Roma are subject of numerous projects and activities of national and international organizations, especially in the area of education. Are these projects really suitable are adequate for Roma, how useful and sustainable they are - the article gives a critical point if view on that, taking as example the Roma slum in Belgrade.

(InfoNet - Katarina Popovic) Belgrade is a lovely, modern city - with big university, museums, exhibitions and concert halls (would you go for José Carreras, Iron Maiden or Joan Miró?), numerous, trendy shops (Zara or Benetton?), huge shopping malls, good restaurants, thousands lovely clubs to go out and have fun. Oh, yes - and 50.000 Roma. Or 70.000. Or 100.000, according to some estimations. They also live in this in this nice, modern city. Well, in the settlements that are not legally registered, and not really... well, hygienic, but they are here - somewhere around. There are more than 100 such settlements and some of them have interesting names: Venice, Hyatt, Musical colony, Politics, Gypsy´s hole, Wild canal...

Many of them are poverty stricken, characterized by housing units made of bad material, with many shacks in them, with no lots around them; the infrastructure of public utilities mostly does not exist at all or is dissatisfactory... Slums and unsanitary settlements are very numerous - without water and electric power supply network. One of the most famous one is Gazelle settlement (called also "cardboard shack - city") - under Gazelle, the most important bridge in Belgrade, across the Sava river. It lies on European route E75, on the highway passing through the wider city centre, connecting South and North Serbia, the chief connection line between city centre and New Belgrad, but this is also the very same road that leads to the south and east of Europe.

No water, no power, no sewerage, but well chosen place for inhabit - strategic important, one of the central points if the city! Adequate for the two main occupations - go begging and collecting scrap iron and paper (occupations still not recognized in the Serbian NQF, although the later is the only activity in Serbia that support actively the idea of recycling, which is still in a far future). This might be the reason for the repeated tries to remove the Roma people living there to some remote area - unsuccessfully. The authorities of the city obviously do not believe that the guests of the nearby hotel "Hyatt" are fans of Emir Kusturica and that they might enjoy the view from their windows - almost pulled down houses of bog and cartons with Kusturica's heroes around.

Something should have been done and something is done: The Government of Serbia signed the Roma Decade declaration, has taken over the Decade presidency, prepared and adopted four sectoral plans - Action plans for Roma (where education is one of the priorities), Poverty reduction Strategy that deals mostly with Roma population... But in the country exhausted and bushed as Serbia, this is obviously not enough. Roma or not - the state cannot help many people living in the bad conditions, earning far less than they really need, having bad or no education at all. But therefore the civil society is there, projects, donors, humanitarian organizations! Therefore - hundreds of Roma NGOs are there - registered by Roma, run by Roma, oriented to Roma, working for Roma, helping Roma... And education is always recognized as one of the main means, ways, instruments, cures for social integration and inclusion of Roma, increasing of their income, sustainable improvement of their employability, living conditions... For helping them to realize some of the very basic human rights, among them - education. "Its been told that we don´t wont to learn and to send our children to school", said one of the Gazelle inhabitants, "but this is not true. It is just that first we need water to have bath and electricity to be able to read and learn..."

Yes, there were numerous projects. Many of them visited the Gazelle slum, made touching photos, made great plans and drafted projects to change it, even helped them for a moment. A few years ago, one of the very popular projects brought a group artist under the bridge for one day. Long preparations (both physical and mental) culminated in a kind of performance, crowned with a Thai-soup, prepared by one artist, the soup and hot tea that were shared among Roma and artist. A real encounter. Deep experience, touching, sometimes confusing moments. Fruits were brought as well - 15kgs of bananas, with a whole bag of leeks, but the idea of creating a picture of them was disturbed by the fact them some exhibits were eaten. Interesting shoes made of colourful plastic bags were made, interviews taped, and the music was great. Everyone was playing an instrument, and Roma in the huts under the Sava Bridge are good in music, Roma are famous for it. Artists were deeply affected by this encounter and challenges that it brought. Just the Carton-city remained unchanged...

Some other projects concerned preschool education of Roma children, which would help them to have better access to basic education and lower drop-out rate. There were 80 children from "Carton city", in 3 groups, in four-month program. The first results were very good, for whole Roma families: Children have been teaching their own parents! For example - when they came back from the kindergarten, they asked their parents to wash hands before the meal. According to the statement of parents participating in the program, they have realized how important education is in the fight against the poverty... The program was about to be broadened, but first step for the sustainability was to build new houses for the Roma families, combined with the measures for schooling and employment for Roma in new community. The money was found in European resources, the detailed plan was made, the location was found - but the local citizens refuse to allow constructions. After some time, the new, alternative location was found - but again, the local community, in such issues very united, organized protests against the plan of the city authorities and the building cannot start. Carton-city is still there...

Last year, the big 7th "Roma conference" was held, and the Network of Roma NGOs was strengthen with new partners, the new statute was approved, and the aim underlined - Roma Decade has to be implemented, especial in the fields: housing, education, employment, health care. And not just that: The National council of Roma was established, with the outstanding Roma personalities on the headship, promising, among others, new activities to decrease the level of literacy among Roma (more than 40% completely illiterate. Or was it 60%? Or 80%, according to some statistics...?). The people in the Carton-city did not hear about any of this news...

Another big event last year: Brussels hosted the first ever EU Roma Summit. One of the messages was: „Providing equal chances for Roma requires political commitment and institutions and approaches that work for Roma. We believe that real change will only materialise once the issue of their exclusion moves from the margins of social debate to the centre of policy-making. But how can Roma take a greater part in Europe's growing prosperity?" The Carton city does not think of Europe´s prosperity - decent life, minimum of education and realization of basic human rights would do... Soon - at least when the time comes to use the expensive territory in the city centre and to build further new, exclusive hotels on the bank of Sava...