"People choose to stay in Ukraine." Roma activist Julian Kondur - about the life of the community in the conditions of war, patriotism and Russian propaganda

The prose coordinator of the International Charity Organization, the Roma Women's Fund Julian Kondur, tells how the Roma community in Ukraine lives after a full -scale invasion of Russia, which is why displaced persons choosing to return home and explains how the discrimination against ethnic and national minority. Video of the Day of the Great War on the eve of a full -scale war I left the office, before checking and closing everything. He came out in anticipation that was unclear and went home.

In the morning, he woke up from the explosions and from the calls that came from the whole family. For the next few hours we gathered, left home and did not return there for more than a month. During the first week they were near Kiev, and later left for the west of Ukraine. Having left, we, first of all, thought what we would do next as an organization, whether we are able to do something. The first week, apparently, did not carry out any activity at all, tried to organize themselves.

Then we came to understand what we can work. With the help of our partners and friends already in the west of Ukraine began to organize humanitarian support. In Chernivtsi, for example, they created a small warehouse where they purchased food and sent to support local migrants. There were not only Roma families, but also people from the Greek community, also from Donetsk region. Almost every day it was something new.

Many partners from Europe, friends offered help - we could not give up, because there was a request from people to receive this help. We also provided direct financial support to people who were evacuated from temporarily occupied territories or from active fighting zones. In the first days it was active information support: we tried to find safe ways of departure, gave objective information at the crossing of the border.

Families were accompanied, mostly many children, on their difficult road, when they were forced to leave homes and went to another life. Every day, the hot lunch initiative, which we organized together with the Krishnaite community, also worked, for which they are very grateful for them - boys and girls feed people every day. Every day it is about a thousand servings only in Kharkiv. Odessa is also every day, but slightly smaller.

In Chernihiv region, it is also smaller, but nevertheless, this is an extremely important initiative. Also in Kiev, in the city center, in different locations of fifty, or even more portions almost daily. Among those areas of humanitarian work, which are now there are hot dinners - they are provided not only to Roma, but to everyone who needs it. These are also product and hygienic kits that are sent to the communities.

We try to establish a connection with local representatives of the Roma community, and we agree on the organization of volunteer groups. Usually, someone from our team accompanies such goods, organizes distribution. We do this either in the places of compact settlement, or in conjunction with social centers and services. Mostly the beneficiaries of this humanitarian aid are women and children. Men are much smaller.

Forced displaced persons to talk about the amount of assistance provided from the beginning of a full -scale war, it is more than 20,000 people in general. These are those who have received either hot lunch or information assistance, counseling, or temporary shelter with our help. It is also the people we helped with evacuation - these are about 600 families who have left the eastern regions.

It was either the organization of buses, or direct financial assistance to cover fuel expenses, payment to carriers. We are constantly trying to assess the situation on the situation of Roma, and according to our recent studies we have seen that 75% of internally displaced Roma from all of us, which are more than a thousand people, want to stay in the country. About 100,000 Roma in Ukraine, according to our estimates, have left their homes.

About 50,000 have gone abroad, but in the last few months we have been fixing the trend of returning people. People come back because they cannot find adequate shelter in Eastern Europe, faced with a biased attitude. Take, for example, Kharkiv region. Almost all Roma families came from the city of Merefa Kharkiv region. We know that, unfortunately, many Roma left Donetsk region, but in the Luhansk region most families still remained.

Many came from Kherson region - men stayed at home, and women with their children were sent. In general, everyone who was able to leave tried to do it. People without passports are the problem of lack of documents among Roma is very acute. Earlier, we have already said that there are about 30,000 Roma in Ukraine without documents, in the status of possible statelessness. Now this has also greatly affected the ability to move, to receive humanitarian aid.

We have recorded many cases where people had difficulty in moving even domestically, in particular through additional checks. With the intersection of the border, the situation was also quite complicated: for example, there was an ambiguous understanding of whether it was possible to leave without a foreign passport or not. We now know that there are people who left absolutely without documents in Poland. Among them are Roma.

Of course, the departure procedure was complicated and many people were denied if they did not have foreign passports. There were different practice at different checkpoints. At some points, a person could leave without documents, on others - no. Unfortunately, this practice has met, and this dichotomy did not contribute to the adequate crossing of the border.

Of course, discrimination among those who went abroad were people who were faced with a biased attitude to themselves as Roma, not Ukrainians. This was especially true of those who were in the Czech Republic, Hungary - apparently, they are anti -lenders with a not very tolerant attitude towards Roma, to put it mildly. There have been cases where even women with children just gave temporary housing in prisons - in premises previously used to keep people who serve their sentences.

These women then returned to Ukraine because they simply could not endure such attitude to themselves. It is difficult for people to adapt - many of our Roma partners from neighboring countries say that local Roma are differently attitude than migrants from Ukraine. Because this general stereotype of Roma is, and maybe people are already used to their own. And here are others, and sometimes people have no understanding of the situation with Roma in Ukraine.

One of the initiatives we have introduced is the Road Map for institutions that work with displaced persons, asylum seekers, including Roma. We gave general information about the situation of Roma, about their features - linguistic, cultural. They received many positive reviews that this information was useful. It is translated into five languages: French, Czech, German, English and Hungarian. As we heard from those who have already used it, such materials are useful.

All this time, during which we have a full -scale war, we face some speculation on the subject of biased attitude towards Roma in Ukraine. For example, in March 2022, there was a case where Roma girls were publicly punished for probable theft. This was done by persons who represent the organization with the history of persecution of people on ethnicity, namely Roma, which is in principle problematic.

The Russian propaganda media immediately picked up this information and used it in a very distorted context - allegedly Ukrainians are mocking the Russian -speaking ones. Another context of the same news: see, Ukrainian Nazis allegedly bullied Roma that have not touched anyone. Our law enforcement agencies respond to such cases, and this example is illustrative: during this period, we began to communicate and exchange information about various incidents that occur.

Our goal is to provide objective information about such incidents. It is very difficult to keep in touch with the victims and with witnesses, because people do not believe that when talking about such cases, you can change something. Warriors in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other formations are now fighting many Roma. We, to be honest, did not expect many volunteers who went to defend the country. Also important is the situation in which families of people who protect the country are.

These two questions are related: we try to support women of servicemen with product kits or through a network of Roma mediators. It is also assistance in obtaining personal documents, consultations, etc. , and thanks to coordinated work with free assistance centers - legal assistance for IDP families. Roma in the Armed Forces today is an opportunity for us to show our solidarity with the whole society and to demonstrate who are true patriots.

From the beginning of the war in 2014 until February 24 this year, the concept of "patriotism" has been rethinking many times. Unfortunately, over these eight years, certain groups in society have to some extent monopolized narrative on patriotism. Today we see Roma, Armenians, Crimean Tatars, Jews and other nationalities that protect our country. It really shows the real context of this war. It's a resistance, a desire to protect yourself.