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Nadeshda - the Romani ghetto
The Bulgarian city of Sliven has 95.000 inhabitants. Over a quarter of them are Romani. Most of them live in a ghetto called Nadeshda situated on the edge of the city. There is hardly any living space and most families have many children with the majority of the parents being unemployed.
Having endured living like this for decades without hope of improvement, certain confining traditions and cultural values have become more deeply entrenched in the daily life of the ghetto. The lack of perspectives often culminating in resignation is what most people in Nadeshda experience and outside the ghetto walls the discrimination against the Romani people is still very prevalent in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria, City of Sliven
Size of Nadeshda: 400x550m - 20.000 inhabitants
Being born in Nadeshda, the chances of receiving a good education are very slim. Most young people drop out of school and have either no or only very limited qualifications which makes it very hard for them to find employment. The only support as regards schooling which is open to children in Nadeshda comes from either private or church initiatives and is limited in numbers. The two public state schools outside Nadeshda are attended exculsively by Romani children. The Bulgarian parents from this neighbourhood have taken their children out of these schools.
Wall of Nadeshda
Inside Nadeshda
There is hardly any communication or interaction between the Romani from Nadeshda and the Bulgarian people in Sliven. Most Romani only leave the ghetto to collect garbish, beg in the streets or work in the nearby factories. Most Bulgarians from the city never enter the ghetto. As a result of the discrimation they have been subjected to for so long, the Romani are usually suspicious and cautious of strangers and foreigners who come to Nadeshda. After the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the increasing poverty in Nadeshda, the Romani people have experienced much corruption and disappointment from aid organizations and politicians who were supposedly meant to help their situation. One of the few projects that is accepted and appreciated by the Romani people is Georgi Kalaidjiev's “Music instead of the Street” as he himself was born in Nadeshda and has succeeded in becoming an internationally renowned violinst.
Nadeshda at night
The ghetto itself is divided into different social and geographical sections. 'The Turkish Romani' tend to be the wealthiest and represent the 'upper class' followed by the 'Musicians' consisting of a group of Romani who used to earn their living by playing traditional music. The group with the lowest social status in the ghetto is called 'The Naked Gypsies' and live in the southern part of Nadeshda. This section is extremely poor, up to eight family members sleep in one tiny room and the crime rate is also higher than in the rest of the ghetto. The different social status within the ghetto leads to discrimination among the Romani.
Politicians have been promising for years to improve the sanitary conditions in the southern part by supplying canalisation in return for people's votes but until now nothing has been completed. The city of Sliven has granted Nadeshda the right to have a mayor but his jurisdiction is limited.
One of the biggest difficulties in Nadeshda is the problem of early marriages which is deeply rooted in traditional and cultural values. It is not uncommon for young girls from the age of thirteen onwards to get married, especially in the poorer parts of Nadeshda. It still happens that young girls are kidnapped by their potential bridgegroom and his family with the ensuing loss of virginity in order to force the girl and her family into marriage. This tradition which is still tolerated, is also severely critized by a growing number of Romani within the ghetto. Many parents who try to protect their daughters from this fate take them out of school when they reach puberty and don't allow them out on the streets on their own. This lowers the educational opportunities for girls.
In the Bulgarian language “Nadeshda” means hope.
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