THE VISIT
Published by deviousdiva March 23rd, 2006 in Personal.A short walk from the spectacularly wasted complex at Gazi, a hop skip and a jump from the trendy bars down those back streets, is a place I can guarantee you have never been to and probably do not know it exists. It is a Roma settlement in the centre of Athens. After the trendy bars, you cross the train tracks (the wrong side of the tracks sprang to mind) Suddenly the road becomes dusty. There are no pavements. Dogs jump suddenly out of alleyways and bark at you until you make friends (which I did a couple of times and they became my faithful companion for about ten feet). Hidden behind a warehouse is a dirt track that leads to hell. This is the entrance to the settlement. I visited Soweto township in South Africa, many years ago and I can honestly say, this place is worse. I am ashamed and appalled that this Europe I live in allows this hell to exist within the shadow of the sparkling Olympic developments. At some point, in the near future, this wasteland is set to become a new sports complex and park but for now it is a rubbish dump that people are trying to live on. Once the evictions happen, they will be forced to move on. Probably to an equally disgusting place, somewhere as hidden and forgotten about as this one.
There are about 80 to 100 families living here (no-one knows for sure). As you enter the camp, there is a pile a old car tires and evidence of the recent fire that burned down several shacks. The smell of the burnt rubber and charred wood still hangs in the air. The small shacks are built from whatever planks and bits of wood, metal and plastic that the residents can find. Inside each one are neatly made beds and an improvised wood-burning stove like the one that sparked the fire a few weeks ago. Outside one such place a women was fruitlessly sweeping soot and dust away from the side of her home. As if she was attempting to make a small spot of hope in all this filth.
There is only one water tap for the entire settlement. The scores of children I saw were filthy, many of them barefoot, their feet so encrusted with mud it was almost as if they had shoes on. They were curious to see a stranger in their place. My guide Theo from the Human Rights organisation, the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), had taken some group photos of the kids on a previous visit. We came across one of the boys in the group and he pulled the pictures from his bag. A small crowd of children who had been playing in the dirt in the distance quickly gathered around, barely containing their excitement. They delighted at showing me themselves in the pictures. I wondered if any of them had been photographed before? Perhaps only for grim reportage coverage of their miserable living conditions? I do not know. I wish I had a digital camera. I would go and take pictures for them, just for them, to keep and treasure.
It’s the children who break your heart. They were curious and excited. They were playing games that you see all children playing. Chasing and mock fighting. Giggling and pointing, as any child would, at this odd woman who looked so out of place here. Several called out hello. Many just came up and stood listening. Probably wondering what the hell I was doing there. And I wondered myself. What was I doing, observing their degrading living conditions? Unable to comprehend how we can allow these children to grow up here but unable to help in any way at all. Another useless onlooker. I knew I would come home and write about what I saw but I cannot help but think what bloody good is that. They do not go to school. Theo believed that only one of the boys is registered. Their parents mistrust the authorities and believe their children will be shunned and mistreated at school. They have heard what happens when other Roma children try to go to school. I think they have every reason to believe that they will not be treated well. I asked if there had been any attempt to bring teachers to the community. Apparently there has been talk and plans and ideas for this kind of project but, as with everything else, they have remained just that: talk. Almost all the children had missing or decayed teeth. I can only imagine what other health risks are occurring from these filthy surroundings. I believe Hepatitis is common in the Roma community. The children are under-vaccinated against childhood diseases.
The authorities are getting ready to evict this community from the scrapheap of land they live on. Theo was trying to press home the importance of letting the GHM know when the paper was delivered so that legal help could be given. It has happened before that court dates have been set and because no-one has turned up the eviction has been upheld and the police and bulldozers move in. The community here has little time for papers and courts. I suspect that from their point of view they are treated so badly anyway, there is little faith put in procedures. Even well-intentioned ones.
One image stands out in my mind. Everywhere I looked in this squalid, miserable place were hanging spotlessly clean, freshly washed clothes in all the brightest colours you could imagine. They were hanging from washing lines stretched between shacks. They were laid out along the walls at the edges of the camp. Every hanging space was used to dry hundreds of items of clothing. To me, it was like a symbol of the survival instinct of this forgotten community.
So I left their camp and headed home. I decided I needed to walk so I did for a long time before finally reaching home. My house with electricity and running water and bedrooms and oven and washing machine and a room full of toys and our computers and my garden. And I felt bloody guilty. I don’t know really know how to explain all the feelings I felt during my short visit. Shock, disgust, shame, helplessness, anger. But now I am writing this all I feel is guilt. Why? Because I am not going to do anything other than sit at my computer and write this. And that even this paltry attempt at trying to explain what the place is like is nothing like what it is really like. This is a brief description of what I saw. I cannot say what it must be like to grow up in such squalor, a short distance from the swanky bars and cafes of Psyrri. A stones throw from the heart of Athens. I know that I cannot look into the eyes of those children and say I will do something, I will make things better for you. Because they know and I know that I can’t. So does it end there? I am trying to get my head around what I could possibly do. The people at GHM work tirelessly with this community trying to defend their rights and attempting to force the government to live up to it’s obligations in housing the Roma. What could I do? What could we do? That I don’t know…
More on this another time.
zardoz says:
seems you were in my neighborhood today
i work up a ways from there.
did yoy meet the motorcycle rom
with the triple wheels,,?
nice to have ya.
theres always children of rom descent
trying to find a way to rip you off,
usually i give them the choice to come
up a ways from IERA ODOS to the fast food
joints and feed them ,
never give them any money.
thats about as much
as i can do . many coversations about
learning sometimes come about
and a couple of years back ,
went and bought some books with pictures
and large writing, and handed them
their not really into owning anything.
but what i could do ,, i did.
and if you think thats hell
you should see , NATO avenue
at the beggining of aspropyrgos
at the end of ano liosia. stalag
=Z=
Great observations Diva! Don’t be so hard on yourself…you’re bringing the plight of the Roma to people who otherwise, wouldn’t even know about them let alone their living conditions. The fact that you took the time out of your day to visit their neighbourhood and then write about what you saw is a rare thing. Other than paid news sites, I don’t know of anyone else who has even bothered to give them a passing glance let alone devote an entire day to the hardships they endure. Never understimate the power of raising awareness. Without people like you and Human Rights NGOs, the Roma, human trafficking, the Rwandan genocide and Sudan’s horrors would slip into oblivion without so much as a raised eyebrow from anyone.
That’s so very sad. I go to Gazi/Votanikos all the time and I had no idea this place existed.
I understand your guilt. It’s the guilt of being lucky enough to not have been born into that, and a strange feeling that we should not have the things we have if they don’t. It’s the guilt of the entire burden of Western civilization bearing down on us - guilt for things we did not cause and are not responsible for, but feel we have inherited from our forefathers.
But just cause the majority of people don’t give a damn and have never given a damn doesn’t mean we can shoulder all the responsibility for them. All we can do is what you are doing - our small part, whatever we can.
Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
On behalf of the Roma concerned, I express gratitude to Cassi for the wonderful text which will be distributed internationally, in this international week against racism. I do not know if pictures can be inseretd here but there are plenty from that place.
In http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/ind.....mp;cid=968 you may find the appeal of several Greek and international NGOs on the plight of and the eviction threats against these Roma.
Also the UN Rapporteur on the sale of children etc. visited the plcae and said (his full text inlcuding references to the 502 missing street children - also Roma - is at http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/ind.....p;cid=1357):
“The situation of Roma and Roma children is a concern. I visited a Roma settlement in which housing conditions and sanitation are just not acceptable. Access to health and education is limited or lacking and social programmes are not providing assistance to the community. The State should take specific measures to improve the living conditions and the possibilities of development of Roma communities to give to Roma children alternatives other than street work or prostitution as survival strategies for them and their families.”
GHM is based largely on volunteer work. People like Cassi are welcomed to give a hand. We can be contacted at office@greekhelsinki.gr.
I think you’ve described this place and the people you’ve met there very well. I’ll be honest along with everyone else and say I didn’t have a clue this place existed until today.
I think you’ve done a lot by highlighting your visit and perhaps you should email this post to the Athens News and see if they’d print it? I also wish the Greek Helsinki monitor all the best in their efforts.
Well done for bringing the plight of the Roma people in Athens to public attention, Diva. I’ve been to Athens several times, and I would never have known about this. Hugs.
This is a very important and astutely written post. So, here is something not a lot of people know about.
Thanks.
Thank you all for your wonderful comments. I will be back with more after the weekend.
The photograph “project” with the kids at the settlement looks as if it will happen.
I also want to post more about what we can do. I am in contact with the Greek Helsinki Monitor so I will try and put together some ideas with them as soon as we can. They are overwhelmed with outstanding legal battles as always so bear with me until I have something more concrete.
Thank you to everyone for the suggestions and offers of help. More soon, DD
The horrid conditions you describe are violence. Going there, seeing that, has the same effect on you as witnessing a terribly violent event. But there are things that can be done. In other corners of the world, individuals and groups have responded creatively to help improve conditions for people living in such circumstances. One example is Carolina For Kibera, a program started by a college student who visited the Kibera slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. You mentioned picture taking, one of the offshoots of Carolina for Kibera is a program called Binti Pamoja (Daughters United). One project of Binti Pamoja provides disposable cameras to young girls living in the slum. They then take pictures, documenting their lives, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Some of the photos can be viewed here.
One of the lessons of Carolina for Kibera is that one person can make an amazing difference.
Just curious if you can help me out here.
you stated on the about thing, about
War if you can’t come we can’t go I’m afraid planes flying tickets practical but fear
Speak out way out way off down smells that comes to me bandages from the hospital that make me sick now
Music in my ears to my ears my ears that sometimes don’t hear block it out listen to that beauty
I’m wondering i’m from a block roma court in Aust Jsut wondering you seem to talk alot about things that ring bells. I’m worried bout the hospital thing they want to force me into the hospital and put me under anasthetic and possibly insert something curator? I wanna leave, this is unfair I been bleeding 4 yrs strait and been ignored and now they wanna get the law behind them to operate. this is not even legal I don’t think. Hoping I might one day find my exit.
anyways If I sound insane nevermind.
Thank you for writing to me, Tempy. I do not know how to answer you because I do not know the law, but it seems (from reading your blog too) that someone has got a court order to make you go in hospital, to find out what is wrong with you or perhaps, because you are in danger or possibly suicidal
I don’t know because I don’t have all the facts. If you are in danger, for any reasons it may not be illegal or maybe you are under 18 and a parent or guardian has signed consent ?That I do not know from your comment.
The curator you talk about is probably a curette. This is used in a very common procedure called a D&C.
Dilatation and Curettage (D&C) is a procedure in which the uterine lining is sampled with a metal device called a curette in order to determine if there is an abnormality with the cells that line the uterus (endometrium). Most commonly, this is done in order to help determine the cause of abnormal uterine bleeding.
It would seem from what you say, that this is what they want to do so that they can find out what is wrong. I would urge you to have the test done, to find out why you have been bleeding for four years. It is fairly routine. It may be that you are afraid ? Is there anyone who you can talk to about this ? A friend who can support you while you go through it ?
Is there any medical person you can talk to who can explain this procedure to you? Someone you can ask all the questions you need answered ? If you have all the facts you may feel better about it as opposed to now, when you only have hazy details. That can be very scary. It might help to write down all the questions you need to ask and find someone to sit down and go through them with you.
Please contact me again if you need more help or to let me know how it is going. I will do whatever I can answer your questions. Take care of yourself and do get back to me.