SOFIA, 29 May 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The Romany women from Varshets, a spa town in western Bulgaria, are some of the 200 project participants from various parts of the country and from different ethnic backgrounds. Despite some improvement in the living conditions of Roma during communism, their circumstances in present-day Bulgaria are not much different from that of their brethren in Hungary, Romania, or Slovakia: high unemployment, crippling poverty and a biased society that largely shuns them as outcasts.
The Streets We Live In
Diana Ivanova, who is a moderator for EU&me project in Bulgaria, said the obvious inequality between the Romany minority and “regular” Bulgarians became an inspiration for the project's theme -- the streets we live in.
“The street gives an equal start both to Roma and to participants of other ethnicities," Ivanova said. "This was our idea -- each participant to have an equal start. We realized that it was a far shot to gather together Roma and Bulgarians and to expect them to have an equal communication because it is not equal. It is not equal by default.”
Ivanova says they chose to talk about the streets we live in because they believe that if we look at streets carefully, we can learn a lot about ourselves and about our expectations for change. Talking about our streets is a way of talking about the EU in an everyday language, she says.
“The [idea of the] EU has turned into a civilization project that is unusual to talk about in Bulgaria," she said. "The EU is talked about either in abstract language or it is talked about only by politicians, journalists, experts, intellectuals. At the same time many individuals’ personal point of view is missing. People feel uncomfortable expressing what they really feel about the EU accession.”
Give Them A Camera
Varshets is not a big town, but it has an entirely Romany enclave, the so-called Gypsy Quarter. Project participant Snezhana Vladimirova is a 29-year-old mother who lives there with her five children.
Vladimirova said she initially was not interested in the project, but after meeting with the organizers and being given a simple Chinese-made camera, she took the idea to the heart.
“We are Roma," she said. "We are not so well-informed. When people are talking about the EU, that we are going to join, we don't have a clue what all this means. After we met with the EU&me organizers, we began step-by-step to get an understanding, to be aware what all this means. That’s why we got interested in the project and decided to participate.”
Curiosities emerged during the project. For example, it turned out that Romany women knew the streets of Varshets much better than the local Bulgarians. Some attributed it to the fact that all the street cleaners in town are Roma.
But even for the few low-skill and low-paying jobs available to them, the Romany women say they have often to fight tooth and nail. Recently, a factory announced 30 job vacancies and some of the Varshets Roma decided to apply. Ivanka Atanassova, an EU&me project participant and an unemployed mother of two, was one of them.
“We hope that if we enter the EU, things will improve," Ralitsa Naydenova said. "There will be jobs. We will be able to provide a better life for our children, because our children do not have all the things any normal child needs. We think, we hope, we really hope, that the EU will give us a better future.”
“I’ve been looking for work at both plants that are here, in Varshets, any work -- janitor, toilet cleaner -- just to get a job," Atanassova said. "When I got to the gates of the spare-parts plant, I was told that 'gypsies' were not welcome. I asked the guy at the gates: 'Well, so what if I am a gypsy? Is there anything wrong with me? Do I look not right?' The guy said: 'There is nothing to explain here. I think you understood me. For gypsies, there is no work here.'”
'Human And Appreciated'
The Romany women from Varshets say that when the EU&me team first approached them, it seemed hard to believe that someone would take an interest in them as creative beings capable of producing images and words that are now part of an exhibition in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia. It made them feel, they say, human and appreciated.
A Varshets street as photographed by project participant Ivanka Atanassova (BC/Sofia)
Ralitsa Naydenova, another project participant and an unemployed mother of three, says Bulgaria’s possible accession to the EU gives her hope for a better future.
“We hope that if we enter the EU, things will improve," Naydenova said. "There will be jobs. We will be able to provide a better life for our children, because our children do not have all the things any normal child needs. We think, we hope, we really hope, that the EU will give us a better future.”
After completing their assignments, the participants from Varshets gathered at a local school gymnasium and each read aloud her street story. Their film was developed, scanned and the best shots were selected for the exhibit, which runs through May 28 at the British Council’s office in Sofia.