Article: Galactic Prospects

Our friend and colleague Pavol at the Roma school here in Kosice, alerted us (via facebook) to this recent article.  It was written by Slovak writer Kristina Forbat and posted on her blog, the Kosice City Chronicler.  The article itself is in Slovak – if you’d like to get the concept, try letting Google translate it for you.  But here are the highlights for me:

• The title – “Galactic Prospects” or “Galactic Outlook,” is a play on words.  The school is located in a small neighborhood on “Galactic Street.”
• Peter Gazi, a graduate of the school, went on to university and his Masters’ thesis is a translation of the Gospel of Matthew into the Romani language.  He is one a handful of Slovak Roma who have gone to college.
• As many as 85% of Roma in Slovak schools are classified by the system as “disabled,” which allows them to be segregated into separate schools.
• Most of the students at this Roma school live in Lunik IX, a Kosice ghetto for Roma.  The neighborhood was built for 2,500 residents.  Current estimates put its population between 7,000-8,000.  Currently the entire complex is without running water and electricity.
• There are a couple of really good pictures, too (see above right).

We don’t want to bore you with a language you probably can’t read, but it was wonderful and encouraging to us to see the school recognized.  It doesn’t get much (positive) attention, so we’re glad to see it!

Read the article at the following link:  http://www.mestsky-kronikar-kosice.blogspot.sk/2013/05/galakticke-vyhliadky.html