In a Tetovo Roma neighborhood, in the center of the city, there are about 150 people living there, of which 90 are children. Forgotten by the institutions and the state, they live in substandard conditions, without water, sewage, electricity…CIVIL’s team visited the residents of that settlement on the third day of Herdelezi, when there was a festive atmosphere in the neighborhood.

Most of the residents in that neighborhood live in improvised houses, without elementary living conditions. There is garbage thrown around everywhere, mud, water from the streams…in just several meters from the house in which they live, there is a stable where the horse lives, from which, as they say, they earn for bread!

However, despite the difficult life, they find a way how to survive and have fun. While we were in the neighborhood, there was music playing the whole time with a cheerful atmosphere, in the part where some of the men had set up tables with food and drinks. Although they don’t have money, they did, however, have a lamb for Herdelezi, in order to carry on the tradition of their ancestors…

The surreal sight (for our perception), dirty walls of houses, even more dirty people as a result of the lack of basic hygiene conditions, children’s noise, some voices of women and a festive table surrounded by men, who were disturbed by our presence.

Medija Krasnici, who has 5 children and only one goes to kindergarten, welcomed us in the neighborhood. The others are a little bit older, but do not go to school. She says they feed themselves by collecting plastic bottles and adds that there is no electric stove, no washing machine, no bathroom, no sewage…She says that in the winter they burn shoes and plastic in order to stay warm.

Medija suffers from asthma, but even though she has a health card, she says that she pays for private health services.

“My health card is useless, just recently I visited a doctor and paid 1500 denars for one infusion therapy, I couldn’t breathe because I have asthma. Nobody helps me, neither the social welfare nor the municipality help us, even when there was a flood, nobody came to help us. I don’t even have money to buy pills, because the social assistance is late 2-3 months”, she says, adding that politicians visit them only when they take them to go to vote, and after that they are forgotten.

Emine Mustafova says they have children who go to sleep hungry, and that no one thinks about that!

“People here eat food from wastebaskets and trash cans. If they go to beg they will have something to eat, if not, they will stay at home without bread and food. We have no sewage, the communal enterprise doesn’t come to collect the garbage, it stays here for one month. Nobody from the state comes to ask us how we live, they visit us only when they need us to vote and that’s all. Someone from the state or the municipality should come here to help these people who live here. The hygiene is poor, children catch diseases and infections”, says Mustafova.

During the flood, due to the moisture and smell, a little girl died in one of the houses.

“My little girl died in my house because of the flood. Now I live at my brother-in-law’s house where I pay rent of 2000 denars per month for two rooms. Even in that house there is water dripping when it rains”, says the mother of little girl Naza Berati.

Naza receives around 2300 denars social assistance, but says she hasn’t received this assistance for several months, adding “I don’t have money to buy them even diapers for the children, for the

grandchildren”. She also says that they make a living and feed themselves from collecting iron and plastic bottles. They find clothes for the children from the Red Cross bins. Her husband, who was born and lives in Tetovo, does not have an ID card, since he has no citizenship.

Will any of the competent institutions visit them and offer assistance to the residents of this neighborhood? Will the Roma political representatives really advocate for a better life of the Roma? There are still many “will”, but the question is will the Roma people continue to be just a voting machinery that will continue to live on the margins of society…

Journalist: Diana Tahiri

Text editing and camera: Dehran Muratov

Editing: Ermin Klimenta