Continuing to publish success stories from Romani mediators. Today our interlocutor is Oleksiy Padchenko, a representative of the All-Ukrainian Roma Council and a representative of the Romani Youth Initiative in Zaporizhzhia.
For over four years, the mediators have been conducting extensive work in the city and region to provide assistance to the Romani community, and they have plenty to be proud of.
In Zaporizhzhia, there are no compact Romani settlements where they all live together, as the saying goes. There are districts with more Romani residents and others with fewer. Romani people live next to Ukrainians, Russians, Georgians, Armenians, and so on, and they get along quite well with all nationalities. Thankfully, in Zaporizhzhia, according to Oleksiy, there are no conflicts on interethnic grounds.
Assistance is provided to vulnerable and needy members of the Romani community in the city. It mainly involves helping with documentation and facilitating access to certain medical services.
Oleksiy shared a recent case:
“We have one family. It’s important to note that the level of education among less privileged Roma is unfortunately not very high. Due to this, they often take a rather careless approach to their documents. In this particular family, there are no documents at all. The head of the family, a 25-year-old man, came and asked for help in obtaining a passport. Because I have significant problems due to this – with the police, I can’t get a driver’s license, and I can’t process child payments and so on.
Seems like a common thing for many Roma – the lack of documents. But in this situation, things got worse because this young man is illiterate. He can neither read nor write. When he went to the passport office several times, they asked him to fill out forms. And the young man would lower his eyes and leave because he was embarrassed to admit that in the 21st century, he can’t fill out a simple form.”
The man came to the mediator almost in tears – please help.
The mediators went with him to the passport office of the relevant district. They had a good relationship with the staff. They had to explain to them that the young man was illiterate and couldn’t fill out the form himself. So the mediators were allowed to fill out the form on his behalf, they submitted the application, paid a fine for the late receipt of the passport – what can you do without it?
They had to visit the passport office several times. The young man first received a temporary document, and later a permanent passport.
When asked how typical this case is for the work of a mediator, Oleksiy Padchenko answered:
“I would say not very typical. In our time, it’s not very common to come across people, even from the poorest backgrounds, who can’t read or write. But the thing is, very often filling out various forms, obtaining documents or certificates – say, for receiving subsidies, etc. – becomes a big problem for ordinary people. After all, you have to visit several institutions, sometimes multiple times. For example, people face this kind of problem when applying for private entrepreneur status or a trading patent.”
According to Oleksiy, there are situations in the work of a mediator where people come, hand over a packet of documents, and say – we’re completely lost, help us with everything. For instance, elderly women seek help before receiving their pensions. It turns out that even Ukrainians who have gotten entangled in a sea of documents turn to intermediaries! Not to mention Roma, who don’t often visit various city services – social, medical, etc. Therefore, the mediators are doing important and useful work.
In closing, we would like to share a wish from Oleksiy Padchenko, the mediator from Zaporizhzhia:
“I wish the mediators never lose heart, as luck favors those who move forward. And to Ukrainians, I want to say: let’s live in peace and friendship, Ukraine is our common home. We want everyone to live in it harmoniously, and not slam the door in front of each other. Let’s be healthy and successful!”
