Prague college prep students send 53 pizzas to children at the Mojžíř housing estate. The hateful social media attacks against their gesture shocked them.
Students attending Gymnázium Na Zatlance, a college preparatory school in Prague, decided last week that they would express their solidarity with children living in the excluded locality of Mojžíř in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic. A local pizzeria had announced through its Facebook profile that it would no longer deliver to the locality after two incidents in which local residents allegedly assaulted their drivers.
The college prep students started a collection to deliver pizza to children attending the Mojžíř Primary School. They raised a total of CZK 20 363 [EUR 833], which made it possible to buy 53 pizzas.
The rest of the money was sent to the People in Need organization, which has worked at the Mojžíř housing estate for several years. The event was held on Monday, 3 October at the school.
“We’re quite satisfied with the event. We had no problem taking delivery of the pizzas and then, with the aid of the ninth-graders, we delivered them to all classes. We also sent a brief message to the children to explain why we were delivering pizza to their school,” students from Gymnázium Na Zatlance told news server Romea.cz, adding that each child received one-eighth of a pizza.
The students believe they have achieved what they set out to do. “We raised much more money than we expected. The pizzas themselves cost CZK 10 366 [EUR 425] and we will send the rest of the funds to the Mojžíř branch of People in Need,” they explained.
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The students first informed news server Romea.cz of their planned activity last weekend and the information spread quite rapidly on social media. Some people criticized the Prague students for involving themselves with the matter, alleging they were just interested in self-promotion.
“Stupid Praguers! They have no idea what kind of parasites those are!” posted a Facebook profile using the name Tomáš Nosek under information about the event.
“The gymnázium students in Prague are posing, they have no idea about reality,” posted a social media profile under the name Lenka Kašková. Another using the name Mirka Benešová posted: “Once you start working and making money, and part of your taxes goes to welfare for those freeloaders and ineducable people, you’ll really see things differently.”
“Our action had more of a reach than we expected, and the opinions posted beneath our message were as diverse as possible. We comprehend the reactions of those who wrote about us being from Prague, being idealists, or being self-promoters. We do grasp that somebody could see it that way, but the comments attacking us or the inhabitants of Mojžíř startled us,” the students told Romea.cz.
“We have reflected on the constructive criticism and we will draw on it in the future. At the same time, many people expressed their support for us, which was motivating,” the students said, adding that those around them also support them.
One figure who liked the students’ action was Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková. “Enormous thanks for this gesture. A brilliant deed,” she posted to social media with a little heart.
Czech Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková also praised the action. “To me, this symbolic support to Romani children represents the hope that the values of humanity, empathy and a desire for justice still survive in our society. I also bought the children in Mojžíř more than one pizza and I wish them ‘Bon appetit’,” she posted, expressing thanks to the students.
The students are planning to continue some form of support to the children living at Mojžíř. “We don’t want to just hold a ‘happening’, we’d like to continue our activities. Of course, we first have to properly plan our next action as a team,” the students told news server Romea.cz.
According to Juraj Makula, a college student of criminology and forensics who grew up on the Mojžíř housing estate and who still lives there, the situation is not good in the locality. He points out that the demographics of the inhabitants have changed.
“It was absolutely different there, earlier. When I was growing up there, we had climbing structures, slides, it was clean, there were benches to sit on, people got together, they laughed together, everybody knew everybody else and it was genuinely super,” Makula previously told ROMEA TV.
According to Makula, serious felonies are not being committed at the housing estate, just mischief. “This is about, for example, disturbing nighttime quiet, children who make a mess, throwing trash cans around,” he described.
In addition to People in Need, the Regional Romani Ambassador Karel Karika has begun working at the housing estate now. Several cleanup campaigns have been organized there.
