According to 2/3 of the respondents in Seslav, the most significant development in their community was the construction of the present-day Roma quarter. In the beginning, this quarter was situated in a ravine, two kilometres away from the village. The Roma lived here until the fifties of the last century, until a teacher named Ramadan wanted to build a new house close to the other inhabitants of the village. Civil servants at the town hall wanted to give him a site in the Roma quarter but there was no water supply. He refused and decided to find another solution. This man wanted to have running water and to live in the village and not outside it. He decided to buy a plot from a Bulgarian, who was selling out his vineyards around the village. The Roma teacher built his home and in the following year, five other families bought plots of land next to his. Within ten years, all the Roma from the ravine moved into the village, abandoning even newly built houses in the old quarter. They built themselves nice dwellings by manufacturing the bricks, roof tiles and lime by themselves. They planted greenery around their yards and streets and they even went to the town hall to ask to regulate the streets and a site for a square. They were also active when electricity and running water were built. Today their quarter is neat and clean.

In Senovo, there are no clear memories about a common community action, except two old men who remembered that in 1950 some men gathered in the mahala to discuss whether to become members of the state-owned cooperative farm. Eight Roma met with the Chairman of the established state-owned cooperative farm and told him that they wanted to become members of the new structure. As they didn’t have any property to invest in the cooperative, they agreed to repay the bank loans with their labour. The two representatives of the Roma community who were directly involved in this event shared with certain pride that they had taken part in the establishment of something nobel but simultaneously also felt disappointment because after the disintegration of the state-owned cooperative farm after 1989, they didn’t get any share capital because they couldn’t prove that they had made their instalments when they joined the cooperative.

Both examples show community initiatives dating back from the mid-20th century but the results were somewhat contradicting.,The initiative in Seslav albeit originating from a single person, involved and benefited the entire community, while in Senovo, despite initiated at a common meeting in the quarter, only eight persons were involved. The others somehow didn’t commit to the idea to become cooperative members.

During later years, there were more community initiatives in the Seslav Roma community. Examples are the refurbishment of the local school, which was on the brink of being closed down. Also, the health care unit and the mosque were refurbished and a small church was built for the small Christian community (mainly aged Bulgarians). These activities were initiated by the village mayor during that period, who was a Roma. He organised a meeting of the people in the quarter, all of them decided that they, the Roma, do the work to show that they were capable of taking care not only of their quarter but of the whole village as well.

In Senovo, even in later years, have no examples of community initiatives originating from the community itself. There were a few initiatives but were implemented at the influence of Association Integro, within the framework of a community development project. Supported by a community worker, the people were encouraged to identify a priority issue – an unregulated garbage depot close to the Roma dwellings. Although everyone identified this issue and a large part of the community took part in the decision-making to clean it, many people didn’t participate in the cleaning and the very few who were involved didn’t feel satisfied because the ones who didn’t participate mocked at them telling them that they were “fools”.

 

As far as income generation activities are concerned, most Roma from the Seslav community show a greater drive to create permanent, sustainable occupations. Almost 2/3 of the families keep some kind of livestock, as 25% have been breeding livestock for more than five years and six of them told that they were saving to buy more animals. 60 families have been farming each since 2002; another ten families have been traditionally engaged in lime production. Two families have bought new farming equipment, another two are permanently engaged with trade. One family has a food store.

In Senovo, 50 families breed livestock but it is characteristic that they are constantly changing the type of animals being bred to maximise profit. Only two families have been breeding livestock for more than five years. Eleven families have land, one of which has bought it with their own savings and the others have received it from the government land fund. Most of them use the land to grow fodder for the animals. One person is registered as a farmer (agricultural producer); another one has a small food store. Two families produce lime but irregularly.

In Senovo, with the exception of two or three families, targeted investment in income generation activities is absent. The aim is to engage in activities that give immediate income. Some of the families sold their animals to buy old cars which they disassembled and sold the parts as waste materials. Others sold their animals to go abroad where they hoped to find better paid jobs with quicker profits. After the old cars were sold and the people came back from abroad, these families bought animals again, mainly goats and calves, to make a living.

In Seslav there are also many young families who have left their homes and work abroad but usually their parents, apart from looking after their children, take care of their farms. Some 30 families show the stable tendency to engage in farming or another income generating activity and seek ways to expand their activity, which indicates that there are people in this community who are thinking in a longer-term perspective.

In Seslav, more people explain that they save for new investments in agricultural activities to have a stable source of income. In Senovo, the people also want to have income generating businesses and are inclined this business to be in the sphere of agriculture but indicate that it is not enough to ensure a family income and that is why they are seeking new activities to supplement the family budget. Most prefer to invest in activities which will immediately bring them good profit.

 

In respect to investing in their children’s education, at the time of the research, only two out of 75 Roma children in Seslav didn’t attend school because of family reasons. Among the seven Roma children who have finished the 8th grade (essential school), four continued their studies in a secondary school. The total number of children who regularly go to secondary schools is eight, and one community member who is older than 18 years is a long-distance secondary school pupil. Another community member is a regular university student. 28 children go to kindergarten.

In Senovo, from 81 Roma children of obligatory school age, nine dropped out. To date, four children study in secondary schools and one is university student. 20 Roma children are enrolled at the kindergarten.

All eighteen interviewed parents in Seslav answered that they were sending their children regularly to school because they insist on their literacy and education. Twelve replied that they were interested how their children do at school. Fourteen of the respondent parents in Senovo send their children regularly to school because they have to go to school both to become literate and not to stop their social allowance, nine are interested how their children do at school.

From our general impressions and discussions with the children we found out that the majority of the Roma children in Seslav have a higher self-esteem, they feel the school as their own and share that their parents ask them how they do at school. The majority of Senovo children show lower self-esteem, alienation from the school and very few, predominantly the youngest ones from the primary grades share that their parents are interested in their achievements at school.

In summary, we have to emphasise that mentality is the characteristic feature that is hardest to influence. The way of thinking defines our attitude towards the others, towards ourselves and towards the institutions in society and this attitude predetermines our actions and behaviour.

 

A source of strength may be not only what you know but whom you know as well. In Seslav, where the Roma community has elected the village mayor and has activists and leaders as well as educated representatives working in various spheres of society, the establishment of links with authorities, institutions and business is relatively easy.

Quite a few Roma encounter difficulties in their individual contacts with various services outside the village, only because they are Roma. A group of women explained us how the employment office and other departments accept them during their individual visits to resolve particular problems. “We dress well; we behave quietly and speak Turkish so if they don’t know that we are Roma, we don’t have any problems with the civil servants. But in these offices they already know that we are Roma and their attitude always shows that they think that we are not on their level and they treat us as second-grade people.”

From interviews with the active community members we understood that most of them easily establish contacts with any kind of people inside or outside the community and maintain good relationships with many non-Roma. For years now in the community there are many families, who exchange visits with non-Roma families, help each other; mutually respect their holidays.

According to Seslav leaders, municipal authorities attempted to mislead them during negotiations on various community occasions but they take them seriously nowadays and respect their opinion in making decisions concerning not only the Roma but the whole village as well.

It seems that in Seslav there are a few leaders who succeed to establish very important strategic alliances with outsiders and organisations. One of them, for example, maintains relationships with local and regional authorities’ representatives as well as with Bulgarian and foreign businessmen. In the course of his personal relationships with these important persons he also establishes relationships concerning various community problems. He also used his business relationships to contact an organisation abroad, which was interested to implement a project in the municipality for the improvement of the Roma housing conditions. Another leader, who has business contacts with certain municipal services, used these relationships to create employment for people from the community in the forestry.

There are much fewer people who are capable of building equal links with non-Roma, either with authorities or institutions, or even with their own neighbours.

Half of the enquired Roma answered that they have daily contacts with non-Roma. They meet them at the store, town hall, school or in the neighbourhood of their homes. According to most of them, these relationships do not satisfy them. The number of families who exchange visits with non-Roma families on the basis of friendly relationships is limited. From 45 interviewed persons, only three families shared that they have non-Roma friends with whom they exchange visits. At holidays, more Roma and non-Roma families communicate. Most often, non-Roma attend Roma weddings. A large percentage of the people shared that they experience a negative attitude from the non-Roma. Asked how they respond, most of them replied: “We try not to care, we laugh. But sometimes we quarrel with them, especially when they offend us”. There are quite a few men who maintain work-related links with non-Roma. Many of them told us that they don’t have any problems with individual non-Roma who give them work but when we asked them in a group how they feel, they shared that as a group they feel unappreciated.

Most Roma seem to prefer to keep their contacts inside the mahala. Communicating with non-Roma is done because of necessity: these are relationships within the structures of the society and the state, inevitable to escape from.

The relationships of the active Roma with authorities and institutions in Senovo are undergoing changes as a result from the community mobilisation project. While three years ago it was difficult for activists to arrange meetings with the village and municipal mayors, now this is possible without many obstacles. The presence of a local Roma NGO has an impact on such relationships. When visiting authorities and institutions on behalf of the NGO, the Roma get more attention from the civil servants or the mayors than if they go there individually. Although the village and municipal mayors are more open and accept the Roma representatives without negligence, still many employees at the municipality accept them with profound reticence.

Agreements between Roma activists from Senovo and the mayors during the past few years have been reached mainly with the NGOs’ lobby efforts. The activists from the mahala said that the mayors observe the engagements assumed for the community. In discussions with the village and municipal mayors they shared that they look very seriously at their commitments to the Roma community, especially the ones formulated within the framework of reached agreements with them, but often representatives of the community do not perform the agreed engagements.