Favorite Projects: Roma building their own homes and getting skills in Slovakia

Roma home near legal homes

Stealing electricity

ETP in Slovakia is an amazing organization helping the Roma Community.  Normally the Roma have no permanent homes.  The squat in vacant lots or in abandoned buildings, stealing electricity from the neighbors  until they are chased out, then they move to somewhere else and  do it again.  

ETP is breaking that cycle.  They tell the Roma, “If you save a small amount each month in the bank, we will match that amount at the end of a year.  You can use that as a down payment on a home you will build.”  If they agree and save the money, then they are able to use that money as a down payment on a plot of land and materials to build a house.  ETP hires a contractor to go out every day with tools to teach five or six Roma families to build neighboring houses.  He says, “Today you will dig a trench from here to here for the foundation. “  Every day he provides the tools, materials, and instructions for that day’s work.  The Roma do the work.  When they are finished , they have their own home for the first time in the history of their family.  Because they own the house and land, they can connect to electricity, water and sewer.   

Rankovce does not have a public water supply. 30 % of homes in Rankovce have their own drinking water well and 70 % of homes use one central public pump and have to bring water to their homes in buckets.

575 of Rankovce Roma residence walk ½ mile to the one community open hand pump to get their water.  The water is carried in open buckets or other containers. This project will drill a well which will pump water into a bured cement reservoir.  From the reservoir the water will be brought directly into the homes which are being built by the Romas.  The homes are being constructed by the Romas under careful supervision and passing all inspection requirement to make the homes legal under Slovak regulations.

 We partnered with ETP to provide the water for these homes buying the tubing, pipes, and fittings. 

 Then the home owner helps teach a dozen more families in a nearby village to do the same thing the next year.  At the end of the second season,  he is given a certificate that makes him a licensed building contractor.  So now he has a home, skills, and the ability to make a living. He has become self-reliant. 

We were invited into one of these  homes and the proud young man and his wife were beaming as they showed us their indoor bathroom, with running water, the kitchen with a stove, a bedroom and a heater; a whole new lifestyle.

Roma home owner with cool stairway up

OK.  Compare BEFORE (at the top of the post) with AFTER (above): How cool is that!!!!

Elder and Sister Miller by finished Roma Homes.  Good Job!