The Government Does Not Remember Roma People Even Before Elections

Leninovka is the only village in eastern Georgia where Roma people live compactly. Currently, 18 Roma families live there. There are neither schools, nor kindergartens in the village. Among the 100 Roma residents of the village nobody is literate. Despite extreme poverty, 14 families cannot be involved in the state’s poverty reduction program. They do not have IDs and that is the reason. The government does not remember the Roma people even before the elections.

Only 10 out of 30 Roma children go to a public school in Dedoplistskaro district which is 10 kilometers away from the village. The rest of children spend the entire day at home; they help the elders in melting the iron and learn how to prepare hoes and spits.

The only shop in the village has not worked for many years. The Roma people walk to Dedoplistskaro district to buy products and other things. The only Roma person – Vera Denisneko gets a pension; the 84-year-old woman complains that the currier of the People’s Bank does not give her a complete pension.

Kakheti News Center