Czech Republic: Romani activist holds benefit tennis tournament for visually impaired youth

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On 9 December 2011 the SPRINT tennis court at the Bobycentrum in Brno witnessed the first annual Christmas Charity Celebrity Tennis Tournament – Avindo 2011. The event raised CZK 200 000 to aid visually impaired youth and was organized by the civic associations SPOLEČNÁ BUDOUCNOST – JEKHETANE AVINDO (“Shared Future) and VIDEOR. Many celebrities participated in the tournament, including the Mayor of Brno, Roman Onderka, who also gave his auspices to the event.

“The mission of our association is to improve interpersonal relationships among all people throughout society. This event is our response to the current social situation. We want to show there are Romani people living here who are businesslike and willing to give something,” said Milan Ščuka, chair of the administrative board of the SPOLEČNÁ BUDOUCNOST – JEKHETANE AVINDO association, who initiated the event.

For the organizers, the benefit was a continuation of their traditional collaboration with the Nursery School, Elementary School and High School for Visually Impaired Youth at Kamenomlýnská 2 in Brno. The main aim was to aid visually impaired youth by raising money to outfit the school’s computer lab with a printer that can produce both Braille and Czech translation.

Mayor Onderka provided auspices to the tournament as part of his support for the philosophy of a shared future. The mayor sees the charity as a possible path toward a shared future and one of many possible ways in which the media image of members of the Romani minority living in the Czech Republic can be changed.

“Businesspeople, people from show business, and politicians joined forces – people who otherwise have nothing in common. Their only shared goal is to help those who really need it. I must say that despite the fact that we are living in hard times, many people and a lot of aid managed to coalesce here. It’s a beautiful feeling,” Mayor Onderka said.

Onderka was also one of the guests invited to hand out Christmas presents to the visually impaired pupils together with the director of the facility for visually impaired youth, Dagmara Sýsová, and the chair of the VIDEOR civic association. Other celebrities who donated gifts included enthusiastic athlete and folk song doyen Jožka Černý, who donated several keyboards and CDs of his own arrangements of Moravian folk songs to the school. Michal Kočař donated CZK 20 000 worth of free entrance to the swimming pool and other sports activities at the indoor pool on Družstevní street.

The Czech and Romani celebrities – businesspeople and representatives of cultural and political life – who participated in the tournament raised CZK 186 188 together. At the end of the tournament, Mayor Onderka rounded up the amount on the symbolic check to an even CZK 200 000 and made a personal donation to director Sýsová of CZK 15 000, which significantly aided the acquisition of the printer, which costs CZK 200 000 and must be purchased from far-away Canada.

“The printer transforms ordinary printing into Braille. The pupils naturally learn very often through the computers, but some still prefer reading by touch, so we prepare all instruction materials in Braille,” director Sýsová said.