Almost every tomato in Lila Mitova's garden weighs at least half a kilo. Lila proudly shows us her seedlings and says that, one year ago, weed grew in place of the long neat aisles. She is the representative of one of the 25 Roma families that provided their families with seasonal jobs and food through a project of the NGO Optimist and the Bosilegrad Municipality, with the support of the European Union and the Government of Switzerland.
“They called us from the Social Work Centre one day and said that the Gardeners project had been launched. You can get potato, bean, beetroot, onion, zucchini, carrot seeds and tomato, cabbage, paprika and cucumber seedlings. My husband and I applied immediately. We have five daughters and life is not easy,” says Lila. “They let us plant a field for free, they gave us the machines and the fertilisers and here are the results,” Lila smiles, looking at her budding tomatoes.
During the eight-month project, 117 direct beneficiaries advanced their knowledge of farming, learned about sowing, irrigating, weeding, fertilising and protecting the plants. They have thus helped revitalise the village, while, on the other hand, the residents of Bosilegrad again recalled how difficult life is for the Roma and got the opportunity to demonstrate their solidarity. And, what is particularly important, most of the project implementers, 22 out of 25, were women.
„Nearly half of the plots designated for farming were overgrown because they had not been worked for years. We helped people who can hardly make ends meet and let them use 2.4 hectares of land. And we mediated between the land owners and the users. The organisation Optimist guaranteed the contracts,” says Kiri Kirilov, the Gardeners Project Manager.
Around 400 Roma live in Bosilegrad. Like elsewhere in Serbia, their status is unenviable. Poverty, rural life and lack of education exacerbate their suspicions and mistrust of the majority population. “When we were looking for unfarmed land on which vegetables could be grown, people told us that our efforts were in vain, that the Roma had enough, that they were lazy and did not want to work. Some even would not let the Roma work their land, saying that they would insult their ancestors if they did,” Kirilov says.
But the situation has been changing, step by step. A panel discussion rallying the representatives of the Municipality, Social Work Centre, schools, health institutions and media was held at the end of the Gardeners project and they agreed to start working on an Action Plan for Roma. The association Optimist had already secured funding for continuing the project, for buying the greenhouses and providing logistic support to the vegetable growers.
„This is one of the projects implemented through the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme – EU PROGRES Citizens Involvement Fund, which demonstrated how the joint efforts of the entire community can bring about changes and make life easier for those in dire straits. It promoted agriculture in an area where a lot of the fertile land is not farmed; it improved the income generating opportunities of the most vulnerable parts of the population; and, in the long term, it launched an initiative to address the Roma issue in Bosilegrad. Finally, the local organisation’s commitment to motivate a large number of stakeholders and genuinely contribute to the development of its municipality should serve as motivation for all of us,” said EU PROGRES Manager Graeme Tyndall.