Tento projekt bol realizovaný vďaka podpore z Európskej Únie
v rámci programu
Európa pre občanov.
MY A NAŠA HISTÓRIA
WE AND OUR HISTORY!
This project focuses on historical milestones that defined the development of the European society in the 20th century. These are the end of the World War II. and the era of communism. The project encourages the youth generation from Czech and Slovak Republic to research on the above mentioned historical milestones from the perspective of Roma minority. As both organizations, the applicant and the partner, are involved in social services for socially disadvantaged people from segregated localities, the main goal of the project is to map mainly social situation of people from Roma minority during 20th century. Young researchers focus on oral history, though memories from their relatives and neighbours to learn about their past. The chosen events and special focus on Roma minority provide a unique opportunity to raise awareness of the difficulties and struggles faced by large minority that is often excluded from the talks about the history. It is important to remember the historical development and building of the status of Roma minority in the society as it is interlinked with the development of fundamental rights and freedoms, as well as notion of equality and human dignity.
Nongovernmental organizations People in Need Slovakia and DROM, the Romany centre from Czech Republic cooperate on this project since August 2015. We have managed to create three groups, one in Brno, Czech Republic, one in Plavecký Štvrtok and one in Spišské Podhradie. Each group has from 8 to 15 members. Since August we have arranged regular meetings with youth, educational sessions dedicated to history of our countries. Young people had to learn more about World War II., holocaust and about time of communism. They also studied oral history research techniques during the lessons organized by professionals from Milan Šimečka Foundation.
All youngsters could train the interviews and focus on information they were given. After the trainings, they chose two or three members from the group who actually did the interviews with respondents. All members of group where looking for people who agreed to be interviewed and had memories about the milestones from our history. We have experienced the lack of people from Roma community who remembered events from World War II., thou most of our findings are from second hand, told by children of survivors.
The project implementation can be divided into three phases:
1st phase – Assessment and preparation of groups
During this phase we have created 3 groups in each centre from 8 to 15 members who were interested into topic of the project. Following activities were assessment of the cohesion of the group and relevant knowledge. All members of groups went through educational trainings and workshops dedicated to history and research methods. Each centre has its own way how to work with its group due to specific needs of young people in it. They also learned how to use video camera and the facts about human memory.
2nd phase – Collecting data
In this phase each group looked for respondents from their localities who could fit into our mission. They interviewed them and saved the data. Each centre provided 2 or more videos from their area and 6 and more audio interviews which were rewritten. Some videos are in Romani language so it was necessary to translate them into Slovak language. In this phase we also cut the videos and created short version of it for future presentation. In March 2016, children from each group met in Trnava in sharing meeting, where they discussed the information and experience they gained during the project. They also visited the Museum if Holocaust in Sered.
3rd phase – Processing data and dissemination
In the last phase, each locality processed the data and sent the short report to be analysed by coordinator in Slovakia. The data contains findings from research, video and audio interviews and historical facts from the region. The data has to be processed all together and the final stage will be the comparative report with DVD attached to it. The dissemination will be realized by young people in the community centre, schools and on the final event in the end of November beginning of December 2016.
We finished interviewing people from mentioned localities in June 2016. After that we compared the reports based on interview findings in the Czech republic and in Slovakia. Youth from all three localities had a working meeting in Trnava Slovakia where they shared their experience from research and visited the Museum of Holocaust in Sereď. We have interviewed more than 24 people and have around 8 videos which were prepared for DVDs. The rest of interviews was rewritten in the comparative final report attachment.
All the youth groups presented their research with the short video film with the testimonies and commentaries on the International day of Piece - 21st of September 2016 in their home localities in the community centres. They also presented their findings in their schools in November/December 2016. As the last part of the dissemination 2 public events took place. All three community centres can come together and share their experience and findings with public in both countries.
