Meet the Roma True North

SHOUTING IN OWN LANGUAGE

-NEWS REPORT:

-More than 100 Romanians living in South Belfast

have been forced to flee their homes

following a string of racist attacks.

The group of around 20 families, which includes a five-day-old baby,

spent the night in a local church in the city

after suffering a week of verbal and physical attacks.

I was told by the family, a man with a gun.

And they were waving the gun at them telling them to go away.

My name is Nicolae Nicola.

I'm from Romania. I'm Roma.

And I've been in Belfast 14 years.

We feel a part of this community.

We want to take care of Belfast, we want to keep Belfast safe.

I just love it!

I just love it!

And not only that...

Belfast is home.

Anybody telling me I'm a gypsy, I am gypsy.

We don't need to forget who we are because what is being gypsy?

I mean, Roma. What does it mean, Roma?

It means gypsy, and also, there's no difference.

I'm secretary of the Romanian Pentecostal church in Belfast.

This place means too much to me.

Holy lands.

Holy lands is a community and all the students around.

And it's all mixed altogether.

I see sometimes, you know, I go in the city.

People think about Roma, they're just out to steal.

You know, to causing trouble, you know and causing fights,

you know and other things.

From my point, I'm a Roma and I'll always look around me

to not affect someone else.

That is Roma culture.

-NEWSREEL:

-The family stayed here all night while the authorities

tried to find somewhere else to house them.

Will you stay in Belfast?

Maybe, maybe.

Some of the community, they get scared.

You know and mostly to Roma.

They go back home at the time.

Some of them, they come back.

Some of them, they decide not to come back.

I love to go to Romania, you know?

And I will go one week a year.

And after that week, you know, I cannot wait to come back.

Here, I know the city.

People know me in the street.

So, nothing could change me.

Come inside.

Grandma, she's cooking.

Yeah, cooking!

-Cooking!

-Andrea! Natalie, come on, please.

Myself, I do have three children.

In Belfast, I have my dad and my mum and my sister and my brother-in-law.

They're living together, you know, here in Belfast.

They speak in the house just half English, you know?

They speak more English to the school.

-I know!

-Give daddy a kiss, hi!

I remember back home back in Romania the community like today in Belfast

here, they're all close together.

And I remember, you know,

at least one member of the family was cooking

and everybody was coming to the house.

So you imagine, you know, maybe 20 in that family.

There had only three or four people with a job.

So, it was very, very poor life back home at that time.

At that time, you know, as a Romanian citizen,

you had no rights to come through Europe.

You know? You had no rights to come to England or Ireland 100%.

So you imagine, you know, coming through all Europe, you know,

without proof of ID.

And not a normal you just walk in the train, and then you take a seat.

We just come in the wee box in each of the train have for the tools.

Or hiding in the train somewhere, you know.

But it was not easy, you know, on that time.

Because I was just a child and my father, you know,

did his best to change my life and, you know, my family life.

I remember what happened in 1999.

I was hiding with my father and my mum and my other sister,

and you know, in the lorry. And then for at least six hours,

we didn't talk because other friends who passed and managed to pass,

they said if you speak or if you talk or to make a wee noise,

and then I heard they'll find you

and then they'll just throw you in the water and then you be dying

in the water and nobody will support you.

And that was not easy, especially for my dad at that time.

We didn't know much information about Belfast.

But Belfast was very open, you know, to supporting new communities

coming to Belfast.

And believe me, everywhere I go, when I come back to Belfast

I feel like... Not like home.

More than a home.

When we started the community centre,

we never imagined we are going to do this for the Roma.

Job. Munca.

Street. Strada.

Street, strada.

And a Roma culture, you know is happy to help others

or to welcome others.

But only if they know each other.

That is very important, you know, to the Roma community.

Because of if they know each other,

they can rely on other friends or families.

Day to day business, I'm a Roma-Romania support worker.

It's not easy.

I face each day you know about at least 20, 40 people.

Myself. That could be any situation they need support.

Example, housing advice, language issues

and we advise the Roma community, get a job.

The car wash for Roma, it is important.

And most of the families that work in it and Roma people

they work in car wash.

They come straightaway from Romania and they will ask the family in

the house, where do I go tomorrow to work

because that is the first dream,

you know, they come here. I say, yes, come with me to the carwash,

and you'll get a job in a carwash.

And it is easy to get a job in a car wash because

there's lots of carwashes in Belfast.

We're talking about over 60.

And it is good for our community, you know,

because they have a chance to get a job at carwash.

We just want to work,

we don't apply for a national insurance number to get benefits

because you're not entitled if you have national insurance number,

you're entitled to benefits if you do have a job.

And to get a job you need the national insurance number.

Most of the population of the Roma in Belfast, they're employed.

If we're talking about in 2009,

self-employed, you know, black-market,

everywhere to make money, to live day by day but now,

most of the population Roma, they're employed.

Sometimes I go on the job seeker office and translating for someone

or supporting a Roma family and that four hours

we didn't see a Roma person to come to the doors.

So from my point in our survey we have in the Romania community centre

what we know is only about four families they have a job seeker

and we are talking about 250, 300 families living in Belfast.

Anybody here ever had an issue or a problem that they wanted to discuss

with the human rights commission, we'll see what we can do to help.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

It is a bit difficult for families that move into Belfast

about housing.

They don't find house and they go in and move with friends' families and

are loads in the house and it's not safe for them.

-NEWS REPORT:

-21 people living in one house with bare electrical wires

and evident health and safety problems.

It is difficult for Roma people to find because landlords

don't really like to give houses to Romanians, Roma.

So when we come to Belfast after a few weeks it was like home.

We move in the Holylands,

students shaking hands when you wake up in the morning and I said,

my father said it's like the village, everybody know each other,

so the students in the morning, hello.

And in Newton Bridge, were you the only people in your class

that was from Romania?

-The only girl.

-The only girl.

So there were boys in your class...

In general there are very few Romas working.

I associated them all with The Big Issue and it's very enlightening

to hear that there's a good working culture.

SPEAKING OWN LANGUAGE

Have you tried to learn English?

SHE TRANSLATES

-He tried, yeah.

-It's difficult?

It's difficult for older people.

Poverty and destitution. The Roma people are the poorest community

we've ever worked with.

The food bank has been increasingly used by Roma families and they're

referred through our county.

So there are literally families out there starving and need food banks

to feed their families but one thing worth remembering

is that the experience that Roma people face in present-day Romania

is ten times worse.

There's no paid work here, people say, so they travel abroad.

France, Italy, Northern Ireland.

Most of the Roma families back home is poor life, you know,

and they work on the farm,

the land and that is the only income they can get.

You want to work but you cannot get a job.

So that is the biggest problem back home.

People leaving because they cannot get job.

It's important that you say take families through

for each case I think.

Yeah, yeah. Like example, you know,

I had another family in Holylands,

and every weekend his daughter has been kicked out...

..was kicked out and his window has been broke

and then I just find out he's turning the music at night time

in the car, sitting in the car and turning to music

and then in the house the door is open every day

and the kids making noise outside.

I say to him, who was the problem, I think you was the problem, you know,

I told him. He say yes, but, you know,

how about the students are turning the music on and I said, look,

if you go to see, you know, who's causing the problem then

we cannot resolve your problems so, we resolve this problem.

People they are drinking in the streets,

they're kicking doors to the Roma screaming after them,

go back to your country, Romania and some of the family, you know,

they're not happy because they been here for a few years

so from our point I don't think the students

living in this area, are doing it,

I think the friends that come along with them to have a

party, I think that is causing the trouble.

It's Paddy's Day, let's kill it.

SPEAKING OWN LANGUAGE

-How are you?

-Big police presence.

-Yes, big thing.

SPEAKING OWN LANGUAGE

Which side is the worst? Which side?

HE TRANSLATES

-Next door. Next door.

-Next door?

-Yeah.

-Is it upstairs or downstairs or middle?

HE TRANSLATES

All the house, all the house, kicking the doors last night.

We'll find out who they are. We'll report them to the University,

the University will deal with them.

Anymore problems you tell Nicolae, he'll tell me.

HE TRANSLATES

-OK?

-I'll call back, I'll speak to them, I'll get their details.

No problem. Thank you.

OK. Thank you.

Hello, Sara.

Last night, you know, all night has been music and party

and he couldn't wake up to go to work this morning.

He couldn't wake up.

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

I have children.

It was like...

St Patrick, lots of people drinking...

like crazy people.

At one point, you know, we cannot forget our own language,

Roma language because Roma language you find it all over the world.

But, I go around houses to Roma people and I see

most of the children they speak in the house English

so these children they will grow here and they will have a job,

they will speak English now, how about when they grow up?

They will never speak Roma.

Maybe they will say they are not Roma

and they'll say they're not Romanian because they are born here,

it is OK.

This is from Romania, this is Jesus.

God gives me the world, God gives me...

English, Romania, clothes.

Today we do PE to the school.

I running, we jogged, we play like exercise video

and then we have to line up and then we go to the classes.

You see Roma culture it is so poor on school and education.

All these small children I helped them to get in the school

and I work a lot with the parents and it's good.

How they say it, change is good sometimes.

My dad's going to work,

I'm going to the school with my sister and my mum stays home.

The school is very good because the school is give us to learn English.

I'm going to do an... Argh, sticky!

Picture for my cousin for his birthday.

I live in this house. Me and my cousins.

This is my cousin.

This is two of my sisters and this too, my cousin.

To the school, some people is Chinese, some people is...

Spanish, Chinese.

Yeah, Spanish and English people and Romania and our friends

tell me how they say stop or count five.

In Romania. And then I tell him.

Thank you, bye-bye. Thank you.

Nicolae is come around, here, he's very, very respected.

I know he likes to do good, good things to the people.

He finds us houses, he respect us, like he's coming around.

Do you want to come upstairs?

I came here when I was eight and then now I'm in school

and then I went and worked since I was 16.

-Where you from?

-Romania.

Romania.

I was doing volunteering for about eight months in the Roma Centre

and then I got employed and after last year I got married.

The women always stay home, cook, cleaning

and then also be with the kids.

For myself it was very different.

I'm not used to their tradition, you know?

I'm more of in here.

But as myself, I have to stay home now.

The baby shoes.

I love it. When she moves, I feel her and it was amazing,

it's an amazing thing when you feel her,

like the way she's moving and all.

It's a good thing when you're having your baby.

I'm very happy when I hear and see people, see the women,

that they're having a better life.

Because I know when, for women,

when they came first I see them and they didn't have work,

they have to stay home with the kids,

they didn't have money but now I see them speaking English,

have their own doctors, go and treat themselves,

I'm so happy when I see that.

Can't wait to see her with those clothes like on her.

Didn't want to have the life that my mum had.

She made a very good decision for us because her dad died

when she was very young and then after she got married,

she had us and she was having a hard life.

And then when I find out because I'm pregnant

and I didn't want that my children get that feeling.

She's very happy and she's proud of me.

I want to go back and work after I finish maternity.

It's a future, I'm just 20 so it's still good for me,

it's a good opportunity to be someone in my life.

So I have a better life,

a better life for my kids so when they need something

so I can offer them everything they want.

Roma community and BBC.

PREACHES IN OWN LANGUAGE

Church, it is very important to the Roma communities.

Not only in Belfast, all over the world.

When we do church events, some of the kids come again to the front

and say, I feel sorry what I did.

You know, you know, I will never do it again.

And these things and... And I'm glad to see that, you know.

Because the only person or the only thing they can change sometimes,

family or a person, is a religion.

CHANTING IN OWN LANGUAGE

Sunday, we had service.

We baptised and the church service.

We had about 30 or 25 candidates getting baptised.

It was a big thing for ourselves, for the community.

And you see all the Roma community come from around

and meeting together.

And it's good to see that community that was not supported

in our country to be united, you know?

My family always said we are never going to stay here.

We're never going to live here all of our life, you know?

A similar situation with the Roma community saying to the children.

So I am telling them, stop saying this to the children.

Because the kids, they will remember this in the next five years,

ten years. And then, you're still here?

And then the children, they will have plans

if you tell them they will stay here. And they will...

You know, never go back to Romania.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A nurse. The nurses helping the sick people.

And at they're helping to give them some...

To give them, like, medicines and to help them to not be sick.

It's very good.

-I like it. I love it, I love it.

-I love it.

-I just love it!

I just love it!

If she has a good education, she'll have a good future.

And after she can do whatever she wants.

Like, to be maybe, probably a doctor!

To find a job for her, you know?

And not...

Don't do bad things, not to be a cheeky girl like my sister.

I love my sister, but she's very cheeky.

So I want her to be someone in her life.

My dream is 100 years' time, we will be seeing, like,

Roma working doctors.

They have their own businesses.

They're supporting the school and they'll be in education

and, you know, they will be in university.

You know, and these things.

And I'm looking to see maybe a police officer

or maybe to work in the government, you know? Maybe to see a Roma

work in the City Hall,

Belfast City Hall or somewhere where we never imagined

we would have a chance, you know?

So that is a big dream for me to see a Roma person,

you know, to see...

you know, he's doing well in Northern Ireland.