Best Practices
Cooperation with the Roma Community
[Municipal Library in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, Czech Republic]Municipal Library in Rožnov has been organizing events for the foster home club for over 25 years. Sometimes, it was necessary to slightly adapt the rules of competitions for Rožnov’s Roma children or the children from the foster home. Foster home children are visibly more educated and active than others, even compared to children from the majority society. However, adaptation of rules was not required every time: the Great Marbles Day saw children mixing in a completely natural way. The individuality of both groups was most visible in competitions organized as a part of the Witch Day (throwing the broom, cooking a healing potion, costume parade). Library used to grant special treatment to older Roma children aged 12-15. One hour a week, they had the right of way when using computers connected to the Internet. This opportunity was mostly seized by boys. The library also initiated a debate between the city authorities and Mr. Kumar Vishwanathan from India, who has great experience with working with the Roma community in Ostrava. He shared a lot of his experience with our librarians and provided motivation for our future work. Together with the citizens’ group Healthy Rožnov, we took Roma children on a number of trips to the nature, celebrating the solstice at the ruins of Hradisko or cleaning up tourist trails near our city.
Week of Roma culture in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm
A staff member of the Roma Society of Moravia, born in Rožnov and from her early childhood an avid reader and user of the library, approached us with the offer to take part in the Week of Roma Culture in Rožnov. The goal is to present various aspects of life of a minority in general and support culture and integration of the Roma community in particular. The event is a follow up to last year’s successful Week of Jewish Culture which we organized in cooperation with the Foundation for the Victims of the Holocaust. This year, the library provided a part of its premises to display an exhibition of children’s drawings and hosted an accompanying concert of Rožnov’s Roma choir. The Week of Roma Culture is a part of a project organized by Romane Dzhaja.
Source: Libraries for All (MKC Prague, 2005)
CONTACT Municipal Library in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm Bezručova 519, 756 61 Rožnov pod Radhoštěm Czech Republic
