Czech state agency expects to help Romanies in Cheb

The state agency against social exclusion will start working in Cheb as of June at the latest, Czech Minister in charge of human rights and minorities Dzamila Stehlikova (junior government Green Party SZ) told journalists today.

Its aim is to coordinate the efforts of local authorities, non-profit organisations and other groups aimed at solving the situation of Romanaies in the Cheb’s ghetto, Stehlikova said. The agency might also help obtain money from European funds to improve the living conditions of these people, she said.

The agency against social exclusion established by the government at the end of January will work in 12 localities across the country. It is expected to help improve the situation of people, mainly Romanies, living in ghettoes.

The agency will map specific problems in specific municipalities and will try to gradually solve them through social work, an improvement of education and employment of Romanies as well as through investment in better housing for Romanies.

"The agency should coordinate the activities of individual ministries. There are many very good plans but actual activity is lacking there. We must work directly in the concrete localities, learn the needs of individual towns and help bring money to them, both on the state level and the European one. If no one does this, the ghettoes will continue to degenerate," Stehlikova said.

According to agency director Marek Podlaha, tens or even hundreds of millions of crowns could come from the European Union for these purposes.

However, the aim is to ensure an appropriate development of these municipalities with the help of this money, Podlaha said.

Some 50 Romany families live in the Cheb’ ghetto in private houses. Most of the houses are in the state of great dilapidation and their basements are full of garbage.

According to Cheb Mayor Jan Svoboda, it will be necessary to find such a solution that would involve Romanies themselves.

"We cannot help them if they are not interested in our help," Svoboda said.

A non-profit organisation that would deal with Romany problems is lacking in Cheb. According to Podlaha, it is possible that the agency will initiate the establishment of a new organisation or will contact one of the already existing.

The agency in Cheb will be represented by one employee. The person in question has not been chosen yet but he or she should be from Cheb and should know local Romanies’s problems.