Czech students stand up to hate through "Send a pizza to Mojžíř!" campaign, plan a symbolic banquet for children in the excluded locality
Recently residents of the Mojžíř municipal department in the city of Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic learned that the Zebra Pizzeria would no longer be delivering there. Students from Gymnázium na Zatlance in Prague responded by deciding to express their support for children in the excluded locality.
The students announced a collection to send pizzas to Mojžíř and hold a symbolic banquet there. By doing so, they want to draw attention to the problems people on the housing estate are grappling with and offer them aid and understanding.
The pizzeria stopped delivering to the housing estate because of two incidents in which their drivers were allegedly threatened and minor damage was done to their car. The business informed its customers about the incidents on Facebook, sparking a wave of hate and prejudice against Mojžíř residents, in particular local Roma.
“Unfortunately, that vandalism committed by individuals can further widen the gulf between the entire excluded locality and the rest of Ústí as a result of the subsequent media coverage and hateful comments about the incident. The hate and prejudice that impoverished people encounter, especially Romani people at Mojžíř, have flared up once again,” the students explain on the official Facebook profile of Gymnázium Na Zatlance.
How can you help?
If you want to support this initiative and send a pizza to children at Mojžíř, send your donation to bank account: 107 – 3191490287/0100. The collection will end Sunday. Funds sent after that will be donated to People in Need for their social integration programs.
The college prep students are not accepting the situation and have decided to demonstrate that they are not indifferent to the fate of people in Mojžíř. As part of a volunteer project, students from the school’s class T previously spent a week at the housing estate with the People in Need organization meeting local children and hearing what their dreams are.
The students discovered that the children there are not so different from them and that they deserve the same chance as they have for a better life. For that reason they have decided to send pizzas to Mojžíř as a gesture of friendship and solidarity.
“As an act of solidarity, we decided to send local children pizza ourselves. The symbolic banquet will be on Friday afternoon. We need your financial support until then!” the students write.
The students want to send the message that they don’t care what color people’s skin is or how they live because everybody is human. They also want to draw attention to the fact that the problems at the Mojžíř housing estate are not just problems for local residents, but for all of society, which should seek solutions to them instead of passing judgment.
“All children deserve to have their dreams come true irrespective of where they are born and what color their skin is. Little Adam said he wants to develop his muscles and his dream is for everybody to be healthy. Monika said she wants to become a firefighter, Kristýna said she wants to be a famous author and Saskie said she wants to fly to Istanbul,” the college prep students say in their message.
“Society, hand in hand with the media, has long supported well-worn stereotypes and sees the situation through the perspective of ‘Us versus Them’, pointing the finger at the bad culprits. It’s not so black-and-white, though,” the students’ social media post reads.
How can you help?
If you want to support this initiative and send some pizza to children at Mojžíř, you can donate to bank account 107 – 3191490287/0100. “The collection is until Sunday, they will deliver the pizza to children on Monday at school,” the students told news server Romea.cz.
“If you would like to send a donation after Sunday, the money will be given to People in Need for their social integration programs,” say the Gymnázium Na Zatlance students.
