CZECH REPUBLIKА, PRAGUE
Campaign aims to eliminate prejudices in employing Roma
Prague, July 31 (CTK) - "Roma work and they want to work" is the name of a new campaign aimed against prejudices people have about Roma that was launched by the IQ Roma NGO Tuesday.
"The attitude of employers is very similar to the attitude of the public - mistrust, suspicion, xenophobia, prejudices," IQ Roma Servis director Katarina Klamkova said about the campaign that aims to alert to the problems which many decent Roma face when seeking jobs.
Klamkova, whose organisation helps Roma seek work in south Moravia, said even time-tested and industrious Roma are perceived as people who do not want to work or are not able to work and who only live on welfare benefits.
That is why www.mypracujeme.cz portal will be launched in August. It will offer the stories of concrete Roma who have a job.
The Czech name of the portal means "we work" in English.
The portal is to develop into a sort of labour exchange at which employers could choose Roma workers who have proved themselves.
Posters toying with stereotype opinions of Roma, banners on the Internet and various events, competitions and other events will be part of the project.
It is estimated that about 250,000 Roma live in the Czech Republic.
About one third of them live in ghetto-like environments, where most adults are jobless, the families depend on welfare benefits and children attend practical schools.
A CVVM public opinion poll conducted in April showed, however, that Roma have the same or even better living conditions than the others.
Some 60 percent of the polled said, however, the Roma' position in seeking jobs is worse.