A Closer Walk: The Roma (Albania) Full Episode

for the past thousand years the Romani people have been without a country to call their own they have been forced to the edges of society unable and often unwilling to conform to the societal norms of the countries that host them I don't think there's any country that would not say the Roma are not the problem because of the incompatible traditions today they're an estimated 14 million Roma with the vast majority living in Central and Eastern Europe the conditions are quite bad some of them are so poor that the houses I mean you can't even consider them houses the places where they're living is they are about to fall if that breaks everyone within it will all die because the roof of fall on top of them so we've seen a lot of handicapped streets in North deaths infant mortality that's always very sad because we know it is 100% preventable so the real question is what do you do to effect change in long term is the community going to be better because of the seed that you've been able to plant putting your heart into it that's really the secret to success but in the midst of this incredible suffering there is still a spark of hope I think that's one of the big challenges that we face on this earth to recognize the other points the same of me as me and that's okay and maybe it's even good God's heart must be so unimaginably big that he has the ability to care about so many people so much suffering this world of ours is more beautiful more complicated and more inspiring than we could ever imagine my name is sunjai and this is a story of a journey with addre to serve a hurting world I spent the last six months seeing a side of our planet that not many people get to see witnessing the most incredible challenges and the most extraordinary hope together we've got a chance to impact the world in a whole new way this is a closer walk Albania is a small country in southeastern Europe that's it's just north of Greece along the Adriatic Sea there are long stretches of sparkling coastline and mountain ranges that rise up out of fertile farmland although it's less than 60 miles from the Italian coast its long history of communist rule and status as a closed state until the early 1990s has made it a very different country than its Western European neighbors among those that call Albania home are part of the ethnic group known as Roma a group which migrated to Europe from India over a thousand years ago the name Roma stems from their common language Romani but in many places they are still known by their derogatory misnomer gypsy because the majority of Roma live outside the system of government they are often undocumented and therefore uncounted the estimates on the number of Roma living in Albania vary wildly from 1,000 to 120,000 in the city of Fouch Korea an hour outside the capital city of Tirana there's a large community of Roma living in a makeshift slum along the banks of a polluted river they live crammed into crudely built shacks and unfinished structures alongside dogs and chickens surrounded by waste and filth but the problems faced by the Roma are not just the unfavorable conditions in which they live it's also the discrimination they face on a daily basis we are living actually in a society where we tend to discriminate these groups that are left left behind and are not really so progressed as we are Kristi has been working with the Roma and fish Korea for several years and has witnessed firsthand the discrimination they suffer you have the right to go into a public institution and ask for its service even though the law is saying that we see that this is not happening actually and Roma people are those who really get discriminated and they suffer from this social exclusion every day each day of their life resi works alongside Christian trying to help integrate the Roma community into Albanian society going every day here and seeing that the people are suffering and you can't do anything this is really very difficult while I was with them in the Roma community Christian resi got word that fifteen-year-old Adelina was in the hospital with her malnourished baby Letty Oh without money for proper food or medicine Adelina has been unable to care for her son we went to Adaline his mother-in-law's house to find out if there is anything we could do to help they've been feeding that baby on tap water and sugar for six months and so this six month old baby was not fed properly for six months because mother did not have breast milk because she was only 15 and children are malnourished they usually don't live up to the first year or so so we have a lot of sickness and disease both in the parents and in the babies themselves you thought your detail don't really smooth so today's opening let alone what you don't because then we can't support her anymore because we don't have enough money to support her so we have to come there go bagging take some money and then go back again via macaron why not even concentrate on the buckle cardigan we have no support from the government we are unemployed we don't know where to go so we're leaving these conditions and there is nothing that we can do so the baby is in great danger and we have to do something to help him with some simple supplies for now so we've seen a lot of handicaps we've seen a lot of deaths infant mortality and it's always very sad because we know it is 100% preventable when the baby born he was Ricky laws but now he is six month four kilos just one kilo ya increase in weight over six months six months yes yeah we're going now to a drug store because we will need to buy milk for the baby Christian rezzy have to visit three separate pharmacies to find one that accepts the payment vouchers used by the Roma don't have enough money to buy even the most basic of supplies I was surprised that we were buying medication to bring into the hospital but I was even more surprised when we finally arrived there was no one even there I didn't see any medical personnel I don't see any equipment it's it's like an abandoned building this is the capital city for crying out loud there's nothing resi Christi and I arrived at the hospital in the capital city of Tirana to bring some basic supplies to Adelina and her malnourished baby lady oh I was shocked at what we found there was no one even there there's nothing we second this is the biggest Hospital in Toronto let me go inside into this room all I see is this this I any baby in a bed there's paint chipping off the walls it's cramped there's no nurses coming in but these are the conditions that a child in such need is supposed to recover in the health care system here is basically non-existent especially for the Roma population who are being discriminated every step they go especially in hospitals where they are often turned away where babies do not receive proper care about our even Albanian citizens receive proper care it is just a liability to be born into this world sick it's immediately clear that Albania is failing infrastructure and practice of discrimination can be a deadly combination for any of the Roma who are sick or in need of help to get a little more detail about Albanian history and some insight on how the Roma have been treated I met with ear D who works with the Roma and fish Korea and since I'm American he took me to the obvious choice the George Bush Cafe a small coffee shop that memorializes the American presidents 2007 trip to this small town after the Second World War the Albania turned into a communist country and for 50 years we were completely locked same like today's North Korea being locked for 50 years they have not been able to be open-minded and to see enough and as such we're not mingled and mixed up with other societies other cultures other races and when they see someone who's even a bit different from them in mindset in a livestock in color they think oh that's wrong we write as such there was not much investment in the rural communities was no support in the Roma community they were left to deal themselves with their own problems at this point they're all closed within their own community and some of us especially some of the woman of the community they cannot even get out of their own community he really wanted to show me where many of the programs take place so we headed accross Bush Korea to the Adric Community Center it's right outside of the community which encourages the Roma and the women in particular to venture out after getting to know them after working for a while with them we got the other facility just outside their own area but later on with different projects we managed to get them out of the community because earlier on they would never never ever come out on the community mosa is one of the women who has taken advantage of the courses being offered and uses it as an opportunity to get out of the community if only for a few hours you one of those projects is an adult literacy course that teaches women reading writing and other basic life skills at the same time we're building the social skills like punctuality like reliability concept of time and date the project sounds much easier than they actually are because we really have to start from from ground zero from probably where there's nothing so screw I make it the leader the month will depend upon your poon portion oh yeah me after the mid birth after learning all the skills the way to integrate them within the society they are been Society it's through teaching them some professions and then find it in some jobs as such this this saloon hair saloon here is where we provide some of the courses the hairdressing course for some of the girls we often think of people in poverty and we think we've got to do everything for them but in reality they're intelligent people they're resourceful people often more resourceful than us but what they lack is the actual resources and at the same time the tailoring course while we provided all the sewing machines and all the tools needed for the girls to learn a certain profession which they can use for their own selves or the community will have them mix up with society because if you have to work with the people of this society you'll have to have friends within the society you will integrate little by little that's why this vocational project is important vocational training is a key step in giving Roma a chance at joining the rest of society so if we can give them the resources they can create their own solutions and create their own dignity along the way because part of lifting yourself out of poverty is actually rediscovering your own meaning and your own purpose and taking control of your life again their mindset will change their life style will change as well they'll add up for the way their society works as well but even with their proven success the vocational programs are still outside of what many Roma consider important for the young Roma in particular there's a lot of pressure to leave the vocational program and pursue what is seen as the most important thing a teenager can do get married all the hormones start as well of course they like the boys they like hanging out with each other and of course like every other teenager in the world they have romantic relationships it's just in this culture those romantic relationships are not just on and off the first love but they end up definitely in marriage there are no real statistics on the number of Roma teenagers who are married because they are not registered in any official capacity but what is very clear as soon as you enter the roma community is that there is almost no one who is 15 years old and is not married because as soon as the ball is seen the girl in public that's it they are stuck with each other there are a lot of traditions that set the rome apart from the cultural norms of the countries they live in but none are quite as controversial as their tradition of teenage marriage it's just in this culture those romantic relationships are not just on and off the first love but they end up definitely in marriage because as soon as the boy is seen with a girl in public that's it when you think about the 12 or 11 year old child getting married getting pregnant having children raising children getting married to another boy I was also 1314 years old so so we think these are children me it is not possible it sounds shocking at first for us we would say it's child abuse etc etc but of course we can't just go in the culture and say and then judge it because we have to take it is what it is it's tradition this is a rich culture it's a culture which has its own value system so in social norms and social behaviors in learning to live together you don't have to have uniformity to have unity and I think that's one of the big challenges that we face on this earth to recognize that not everyone's the same of me as me and that's okay and maybe it's even good etoy pizza cuz oh but they've been more hard to get to me along Polly we have to integrate the population with their traditions but to make them acceptable to society as well one of the best ways to begin integrating the Roma into the rest of society is by giving them the opportunity to do things that other people regularly get to do today Cristy and resi are taking a bus full of young Roma teens to spend the day at change in a beach town on the Adriatic Sea that is a popular destination for Albanian beach goers like many Albanian beaches sangeun is a mix of high-rise hotels colorful umbrellas and waterfront vendors peddling treats to throngs of tourists who flock to the seaside during the summer months most of the Roma boys have only been to the beach a handful of times in their whole life so this in many ways is a very new experience they live day-to-day so they don't really worry about next week because it's not a concept for them so they don't think about the future at all which means I can enjoy today because I just never think of tomorrow but even during a fun day at the beach these teens are never far from the difficult realities of their life we talked with Ibrahim a young man from the Roma community that shared with us his experience of being married when he was still a child he shot the shitty - Martin Elliot sits above it no camper no SS AME vote he had three wives and the first one was when he was 12 years old and the wife of him was 11 years old and in that time her mother decided for him the mother of him liked very much this disease girl and said to Ibrahim look she is a very beautiful she was a very nice girl she's helping her mother in housework so we think that this is the one for you the integration programs are starting the shift the way the Roma teens are thinking although it is too late for Ibrahim to have any real chance at having back his childhood you can at least envision a very different future for his children don't ah've itani the data do Tina Mora nettabi smooth you purchase a new coat MMF immediately MELAS I get Mary really young and I don't want that my children have the same and because when I get married I had I suffered a lot for this and now I wanted my children to be integrated at school and then they can continue the school and then after the after the day when they finish school they can get married and breaking that cycle will be no easy task after the beach we got a chance to go with Ibrahim to the home he shares with his parents and it started to become clear how ingrained the tradition of teenage marriage is for Roma families your mother on your father they sleep here uh-huh okay so you sleep here mm-hmm they put a mattress and he and his wife they sleep here the ground Wow so all in this space right here yeah no they're not yeah yeah I met Ibrahim parents who themselves were married as teenagers and see teenage marriage as an important part of the Roma culture there in that picture is my brother and he's the one that get married it's ten years old yeah and his wife was nine years old this is the reason that I could not say no to my parents because my brother was ten years old and he get married so I was 12 is that and I had to get married part of getting married early includes an increase in responsibility and many families see the birth of a child or the addition of a daughter-in-law as an extra set of hands to help the family survive it's very common for children who are married to take on the full responsibilities of the family as Ibrahim parents watched him build a gate for the back of their home it was obvious that even at his young age he was taking on much of the load of caring for the whole family children who are forced to take on these difficult tasks combined with extreme poverty and a lack of resources can put Roma kids in all kinds of dangerous situations I got a call that three children had been burned by a fire in their home and the fire came from a gas that they were trying to make once so there was a gas explosion mmm yeah yeah I really Christi we have to go to visit them maybe we can help them in the short amount of time I've spent with the Roma I've witnessed the extreme poverty they live in and the discrimination they face when trying to get even the most basic medical help Christian resi told me that one of the young Roma boys have been badly burned when a gas cooking stove exploded I couldn't imagine the conditions he must be in you know we were walking up and I knew we were gonna go visit this this boy who's been in this explosion but I I really wasn't prepared for it Muhsin do I know personally oh yeah anything you just kind of see his family there and you see his dad I just I'm sure inside of him he's just like what what can I do I think about now this is one of the medicines that we need to buy yes Russia seemed very damn there's just nothing there to help them through this and that's what I felt like when something happens there's no safety net there's just a sense of helplessness so after you go to the hospital get treated and then after that that's it they're on their own to have to go through the healing process and medications and all of that the doctor said to him you can have your child back home just buy some education and here in fashion we can't do anything down and they would have to buy the medications themselves there's no emergency fund rainy day fund that the family can tap into and take them to a specialist you look at his face and you know that he's in pain imagine the suffering that kid has to go through or it doesn't have medicine where it doesn't have help where it doesn't have anything to really help him cope with the rest of his life so I wish not and I pray that God helps him but I never be surprised if the worst would happen to this kid but fortunately for Alessio christian resi will be able to buy the medications that he needs to stay healthy Christi and resi and air d bo young people who could be doing so many other things so many other things this is not a job for them this is a calling and when you see the way that they interact with these kids it's not just a show it's not just at arm's length they are in with the kids they love the kids this is the most beautiful thing that I can have the interesting experience to work with a Roma children to see the beautiful work that we are doing with them and they are really thankful that we did this for them God's heart must be so unimaginably big that he has the ability to care about so many people so much suffering I was just kind of overwhelmed because for me I can only take so much but he cares about every single one of those Roma kids every single one of those Roma parents that's how big his heart is this one heart is broken by the things that break God's heart that in his rebuilding your rebuild will be stronger and he will rebuild me into a closer walk with him that helps me to feel more complete within my own spirituality we cannot go to God and say look thanks for blessing me thanks for providing education for me and this is what I give to you the only way for us to thank God it's to serve his own people the integration of the Roma doesn't mean that only their life conditions will be improved ours as well because in a society we all live together we should contribute abilities culture and everything that we can give our potential it's really day after day one person at a time one day at a time one life at a time we cannot stop the job we cannot quit until the job is done and if that means we're going to be here for the next decade and so being this is what it has to be one more time there it is alright men thanks a lot of it you

Channel: ADRA

Views: 287,736

Rating: 4.4269075 out of 5

Keywords: Romani People (Ethnicity), Albania (Country), Season Episode, Full, Watch, Series, Adventist (Religion), Adventist Development And Relief Agency (Nonprofit Organization), Human Rights (Quotation Subject), Child Marriage, Premiere, Episodes, A Closer Walk, Documentary (TV Genre), Television Documentary (TV Genre)

Id: r3IXhi4Exjs

Length: 26min 42sec (1602 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2015