My Gypsy childhood

Roxy Freeman never went to school. But at the age of 22, she decided to get a formal education, forcing her to face up to the prejudices that blight her Gypsy community – and to shackle her wandering spirit.

Roxy Freeman
The Guardian, Monday 7 September 2009

The receptionist looked at me with disdain when I walked into Suffolk College asking to enrol. Their access course for mature students didn't have any entry requirements as such, but the receptionist warned me it was an advanced, intensive course, and there seemed to be a blank space under "educational history" on my application form. When I explained that I wasn't a dropout, I just hadn't gone to school, she looked even more scornful.

I was 22 and had never spent a day in a classroom in my life; an alien concept for many people but common in Gypsy and Traveller families. There are more than 100,000 nomadic Travellers and Gypsies in the UK, and 200,000 who live in permanent housing. Many, like me, never attend school, while others are illiterate because formal education is not a priority in our culture.

My upbringing was unusual, but not unique. Until I was eight my family lived on the road, travelling around Ireland by horsedrawn wagon. I was one of six children, with three more half-sisters, and our family was considered small. Having 12 or 13 children was common among Travellers in Ireland.

Marrying first cousins is also common among Gypsies (and a potential genetic timebomb), my parents come from very different backgrounds. My mother was born into an upper-class American family. On her gap year she literally ran away with a Gypsy – my father, who bred horses. Both are extremely intelligent and open-minded people who wanted to bring us up in a stimulating, free and fulfilling environment.

Instead of going to school, my siblings and I, like many children from travelling families, were taught about the arts, music and dance. Our education was learning about wildlife and nature, how to cook and how to survive. I didn't know my times tables but I could milk a goat and ride a horse. I could identify ink caps, puff balls and field mushrooms and knew where to find wild watercress and sorrel. By the age of eight or nine I could light a fire, cook dinner for a family of 10 and knew how to bake bread on an open fire.

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On the market: Teenage Gypsy girls glam up for annual bride sale

By Caroline Graham
Last updated at 8:58 AM on 10th March 2009

Dressed in their finest clothes and gold jewellery, thousands of teenage Roma girls were paraded around by their parents this weekend - at an open-air brides market.

Wearing lots of make-up, the teenagers came to the traditional annual market in Bulgaria, hoping to find a husband - and preferably one willing to pay a large amount of money for his future spouse.

'We take our daughters to this gathering so they could get acquainted with boys, for we do not allow our children to go to discos,' explains Elena from Kapitan Andreevo.

At the market in the village of Mogila near Stara Zagora, the price of a beautiful young woman is said to be several thousand levs/euros.

Younger siblings came along too to play and eat sweets while one newly-wed couple bellydanced on top of an old car to show their happiness at finding a match.

Several wannabe-brides joined in, showing their eagerness to be married.

The event takes place on the first Saturday after the start of the orthodox Easter fast - the Day of Saint Todor, or Horse Easter.

This year the gathering attracted some 2,000 people who came from all over southern Bulgaria including Plovdiv, Pasardzhik, Sliven and Jambol.

Children to learn traveller songs in 'gypsy' village

Traveller songs will be taught to children in a village which is home to one of Britain's biggest gypsy camps.

Last Updated: 1:05AM GMT 12 Feb 2009

Youngsters in Cottenham, Cambs., will be taught Romany music by professional folk singers during a month of workshops - before performing in a concert in November.

The workshops are being funded by a £8,000 National Lottery 'Awards for All' grant, applied for by Cottenham's Fen Edge Community Association.

Cottenham became synonymous with conflict between travellers and villagers after the nearby Smithy Fen site mushroomed into one of the biggest camps in Britain in 2004.

Local residents have branded the idea for the concert insensitive, and said the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Jacqueline Smith, 49, a member of the settled community at Smithy Fen, who has campaigned against illegal traveller sites, said: "I find it strange there is going to be a concert in the village college when there are hardly any traveller students there at all.

"I am sure there are a lot of people around the village who would have appreciated that money for better causes.

"There are many more deserving people who could use £8,000."

Grandmother-of-four Joy Impey, who works in the village greengrocer's, said: "It is a bit insensitive considering everything that has gone on here.

"But I suppose they have to integrate and if you do not start with the children, where else would you start."

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive at the TaxPayers' Alliance said the concert was a waste of resources at a time when schools and communities should be prudent with their spending.

He said: "This money would be better spent on teachers and text books.

"At a time when parents are feeling the pinch in credit crunch and the job market is ever more competitive, schools should be focusing on giving children the best possible formal education, not frittering away this funding on unnecessary extras."

Secondary school pupils from Cottenham Village College, and younger children from Cottenham, Waterbeach and Willingham Primary Schools will be taught for four half days each by two musicians from the East Anglian Music Trust.

The songs, which have not yet been selected, will contain heavy influence from Irish and Romany travelling communities who have both settled extensively across the Fens.

Amy Wornald, arts development manager for Fen Edge Community Association, said the folk songs were first brought to the area in 1915 by travellers seeking work in the fields.

She said: "The traveller community has been based in Cottenham for generations when they moved here to work.

"We are really keen to revive the songs that arrived here with travellers so they can be shared by the whole community.

"There has been a lot of tension over the years between the settled and travelling communities and I think it's really important that people share their heritage."

A spokesman for the National Lottery Awards for All fund said the Fen Edge Community Association has been awarded a grant of £8,010.

He said: "Groups can apply for grants between £300 and £10,000.

"If they meet the criteria and it is a good positive project they stand a very good chance of getting funding."

Gypsy site safety fears for young

Monday, February 02, 2009, 07:00

CHILDREN of gypsy and traveller families face serious health risks if they are to be housed on a former North Lincolnshire tip, protestors fear.

North Lincolnshire Council has proposed building a permanent gypsy and traveller site on land at Caistor Road, Barton-upon-Humber.
But the controversial scheme has met with stiff opposition from local residents, who maintain the site is unsuitable.

About 60 concerned townsfolk attended a consultation meeting at Barton's Assembly Rooms on Friday night.

And the speakers included Cleethorpes MP Shona McIsaac, whose constituency includes Barton.

Mrs McIsaac said: "This site has been a landfill site."

She said, because of its previous use, there could be hazardous materials in the ground and there was potentially a further danger from methane gas seeping through the soil.

"As far as I am aware, nobody has ever done any tests on that land to find out exactly what is in there. Nobody has done any proper chemical analysis," she said.

Bob Moore, one of organisers of the protest group and an industrial chemist, said there was evidence of methane gas permeating through the soil, which would still come to the surface even if the top was removed.

"It's explosive," he declared, adding exposure to the gas could also lead to brain damage.

Neither Coun Mick Grant, North Lincs Council cabinet member for housing and planning, nor any other members of the lead Labour group attended the meeting.

Coun Grant, however, later said: "The council is currently consulting on proposals for gypsy and traveller sites and I would urge people to have their say through the official channels.
"The council will consider all views before making any further decisions."

Child Maid Trafficking Spreads From Africa to U.S.

Child Slaves: Trafficking in Underage Maids Reaches U.S. From Africa, Where It Is Widespread

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI Associated Press Writer
IRVINE, Calif. December 28, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press

Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms.

To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair.

But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid.

Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off.

The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the U.S. is an extension of an illegal but common practice in Africa. Families in remote villages send their daughters to work in cities for extra money and the opportunity to escape a dead-end life. Some girls work for free on the understanding that they will at least be better fed in the home of their employer.

The custom has led to the spread of trafficking, as well-to-do Africans accustomed to employing children immigrate to the U.S. Around one-third of the estimated 10,000 forced laborers in the United States are servants trapped behind the curtains of suburban homes, according to a study by the National Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley and Free the Slaves, a nonprofit group. No one can say how many are children, especially since their work can so easily be masked as chores.

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Pupils discover the gipsy lifestyle

ROBYN GREENACRE
23 September 2008 06:20

It is a culture laced with a rich history which for hundreds of years has fought prejudice and preconceptions.

Now, in a bid to combat the stereotype and ensure future generations can face a more tolerant attitude, gypsies are opening their caravan doors to the public.

Primary school children from across the county will be visiting Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, near Dereham, to meet travellers and explore their way of life past and present.

The initiative called Home on the Road, kicked off yesterday and was organised by the workhouse and Norfolk Traveller Education Service.

Learning manager at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, Jan Pitman, said: “This sort of thing is absolutely vital. We have to accept there is a very negative attitude about travellers in the region.

“So any contact where people can see the different sides to the culture is going to have a very positive effect.

“The children are engaged and it's a very good response. You're going to have to start young people so they see the reality of it, which will stay with them for the rest of their lives.”

Members of the gypsy and travelling community have set up a selection of mobile homes from the traditional Vardo to the modern caravan.

And for three days volunteer gypsy and travellers are holding a series of workshops introducing pupils to aspects of Romany life, including cooking, horse grooming, washing, and flower arranging.

Yesterday pupils from Scole primary school from Diss picked vegetables from the fields, made stew over an open fire, learnt how to plait horses' manes and tails, hand washed clothes and hung them out with gypsy pegs and on bushes, and saw how mobile homes had developed over the years.

Gypsy Mary Price said: “This is just a little taster for children. It would be nice if we could bring something out to educate everyone.

“I'm very keen on the idea of educating people. I'm from a large family and I'm aware of the problems children have when they go into mainstream schools.

“Everyday my children come home and have had something happen to them because of their heritage. Young children don't come across the words 'dirty pikey or gyppo' by themselves. They've learnt it from adults.

“Thieving, dirty, scoundrels is how we're seen. There's bad in everyone and if you look for the bad apples you'll find them. But we're not all like that, and there are bad apples in every culture.

“Years ago we were accepted because everyone was used to seeing caravans being pulled by horses along the road.

“Now because there are less and less places we can go, people don't see us.”

And at the end of the trip pupils opinions were transformed.

Scole pupil Jessica King-Fisher, nine, said: “It's interesting. I've had a fun day. I didn't know much about gypsies before and I thought they were horrible.

“But now I think they are very nice.”

Rules May Limit Health Program Aiding Children

From NY Times

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: August 21, 2007

The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.

Administration officials outlined the new standards in a letter sent to state health officials on Friday evening, in the middle of a monthlong Congressional recess. In interviews, they said the changes were intended to return the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage.

After learning of the new policy, some state officials said yesterday that it could cripple their efforts to cover more children and would impose standards that could not be met.

“We are horrified at the new federal policy,” said Ann Clemency Kohler, deputy commissioner of human services in New Jersey. “It will cause havoc with our program and could jeopardize coverage for thousands of children.”

Stan Rosenstein, the Medicaid director in California, said the new policy was “highly restrictive, much more restrictive than what we want to do.”

The poverty level for a family of four is set by the federal government at $20,650 in annual income. Many states have received federal permission to cover children with family incomes exceeding twice the poverty level — $41,300 for a family of four. In New York, which covers children up to 250 percent of the poverty level, the Legislature has passed a bill that would raise the limit to 400 percent— $82,600 for a family of four — but the change is subject to federal approval.

California wants to increase its income limit to 300 percent of the poverty level, from 250 percent. Pennsylvania recently raised its limit to 300 percent, from 200 percent. New Jersey has had a limit of 350 percent for more than five years.

As with issues like immigration, the White House is taking action on its own to advance policies that have not been embraced by Congress.

In his budget in February, President Bush proposed strict limits on family income for the child health program. Both houses of Congress voted this month to renew the program for five years, but neither chamber accepted that proposal. Legal authority for the program expires on Sept. 30.

The administration’s new policy is explained in a letter that was sent about 7:30 p.m. on Friday to state health officials from Dennis G. Smith, the director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations. The policy would continue indefinitely, though Democrats in Congress could try to override it.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program has strong support from governors of both parties, including Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Sonny Perdue of Georgia. When the Senate passed a bill to expand the program this month, 18 Republican senators voted for it, in defiance of a veto threat from Mr. Bush. The House passed a more expansive bill and will try to work out differences with the Senate when Congress reconvenes next month.

In his letter, Mr. Smith set a high standard for states that want to raise eligibility for the child health program above 250 percent of the poverty level.

Before making such a change, Mr. Smith wrote, states must demonstrate that they have “enrolled at least 95 percent of children in the state below 200 percent of the federal poverty level” who are eligible for either Medicaid or the child health program.

Deborah S. Bachrach, a deputy commissioner in the New York State Health Department, said, “No state in the nation has a participation rate of 95 percent.”

And Cindy Mann, a research professor at the Health Policy Institute of Georgetown University, said, “No state would ever achieve that level of participation under the president’s budget proposals.”

The Congressional Budget Office has said that the president’s budget, which seeks $30 billion for the program from 2008 to 2012, is not enough to pay for current levels of enrollment, much less to cover children who are eligible but not enrolled.

When Congress created the Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997, it said the purpose was to cover “uninsured low-income children.” Under the law, states are supposed to make sure public coverage “does not substitute for coverage under group health plans.”

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Smith said, “The program was always meant for children in lower-income families.” As a state increases its income limits, he said, “it’s more likely to substitute for private coverage.”

To minimize the risk of such substitution, Mr. Smith said in his letter, states should charge co-payments or premiums that approximate the cost of private coverage and should impose “waiting periods” to make sure middle-income children do not go directly from a private health plan to a public program.

If a state wants to set its income limit above 250 percent of the poverty level — $51,625 for a family of four — Mr. Smith said, “the state must establish a minimum of a one-year period of uninsurance for individuals” before they can receive public coverage.

That is considerably stricter than past requirements. In February, for example, the Bush administration allowed Pennsylvania to increase its income limit to 300 percent of the poverty level after the state agreed to a six-month waiting period for children who were 2 and older with family incomes exceeding 200 percent of the poverty level.

As another precaution, Mr. Smith said, states that want to cover children above 250 percent of the poverty level must show that “the number of children in the target population insured through private employers has not decreased by more than two percentage points over the prior five-year period.”

In New Jersey, which has a three-month waiting period, Ms. Kohler said, “we have no evidence of a decline in employer-sponsored coverage resulting from the Children’s Health Insurance Program.”

In the Senate debate this month, several Republicans offered a proposal similar to the new Bush administration policy. They wanted to require states to cover 95 percent of low-income children before allowing states to expand eligibility.

Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the Finance Committee, argued against the proposal, saying: “No state can meet 95 percent. No state currently meets 95 percent.”

In his letter, Mr. Smith said the new standards would apply to states that previously received federal approval to cover children with family incomes over 250 percent of the poverty level. Such states should amend their state plans to meet federal expectations within 12 months, or the Bush administration “may pursue corrective action,” Mr. Smith said.

Two Republican senators, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Pat Roberts of Kansas, urged the Bush administration last week to deny New York’s request to cover children with family incomes up to four times the poverty level. The proposal, they said, violates the original intent of Congress.

But Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York said that, “contrary to the senators’ objections,” federal law allows states to set higher income limits. “Granting this expansion,” Mr. Spitzer said, “is essential to the health and well-being of New York’s children.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/washington/21health.html?pagewanted=all

Student helps children in Romania

Posted: Monday, Feb 19, 2007 - 11:31:32 am CST
By Hillary Wundrow
Daily News staff writer

One Beloit woman was so touched by the children of Romania, she has visited them five times.

Melany Williams, the daughter of Stephen and Joyce Williams, enjoys traveling to Romania to share her faith and warm scarves with the impoverished children.

A Beloit College sophomore studying education and international relations, Williams first traveled to Romania at age 17 for a short-term mission trip. She was supposed to go to South Korea, but the trip was canceled because of the SARS outbreak.

“It was kind of a fluke,” Williams said. “I got there (to Romania) and fell in love with the country that I had hardly heard of before.”

During the first trip she traveled with Word of Life, an international Christian organization. Once in Romania, she spent her time in orphanages, doing evangelism on the streets and joining in drama and choir performances.

“It was something that took me out of my comfort zone, but I enjoyed it,” Williams said.

Although it took a while to warm up Romanians, the people were hospitable. When she got to know them better, they opened their hearts and took her in.

“They aren't as open as Americans on the first meeting, but once you have a connection, they are very warm and loving people and very committed to family, friends and relationships,” Williams said.

What really struck her was the many children in orphanages and on the streets.

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Rome police crack down on pedophilia ring preying on Gypsy children

(the Associated Press on www.iht.com)

Rome police on Monday broke up a pedophilia ring preying on children in Gypsy camps in the city, authorities said.

Twenty-eight suspects were arrested on charges of sexually abusing minors and four others were being sought on warrants, police told a news conference in the capital.

Police said social workers informed them that expensive gifts were circulating in the Gypsy camps, which are little more than shanty towns on Rome's outskirts, and that respectable-looking, professional, middle-aged men were visiting the camps in unusually large numbers.
Among those arrested were lawyers, doctors, teachers and an athletic coach, as well as parents of some of the children who allegedly allowed their offspring to be abused in return for the gifts, authorities said.

Family Policy Minister Rosy Bindi said the anti-pedophilia investigation "revealed that the crime is frequently interwoven in two worlds — on one side perpetrators without records, the so-called 'above suspicion' people with excellent social positions — on the other side very young victims" from extreme poverty impressed by the economic power of those who violate them.