How are Roma women effecting social change while also coping with traditional Roma taboos?
For hundreds of years, Roma women and men have been discriminated against in many countries. In Slovakia, Roma children are sent to schools for the mentally disabled. As adults, ill-educated and unqualified for jobs, they often live in extreme poverty. I visited three groups of Roma women who are determined to change that. One runs a nursery school for Roma children (whose families typically cannot afford preschool education). Another runs an adoption service that places Roma children with Roma—and non-Roma—families who can give them a good start in life. And a third runs a summer camp, as well as an adult art program that kindles communication and understanding between Roma and non-Roma women. You tell the stories of women and girls and dance in Cuba. What was your impression of life there? I studied photography in Cuba in 2001; since then, access to that country has become even more difficult. As a Communist country, everyone lives at about the same economic level: food is rationed,
