(Vatican Radio) Hungary is hosting the world's first Fresco Village painted by Gypsy,
or Roma, painters in an attempt to help overcome poverty in a region where people
live on less than $2 a day.
The project, supported by the churches comes
amid mounting concerns about rising extremism against Roma and growing poverty within
that minority.
Listen to Stefan Bos' report from the village of Bodvalenke
in northeastern Hungary...
Local women
sing Christian and traditional songs as they welcome reporters visiting this heavily
Roma village plastered with mural paintings.
The Roma briefly forget hardship
in the forgotten corner of this European Union country, three-hours-drive from Budapest,
where politicians decide their fate in a beautifully decorated luxurious parliament
building.
Here, most residents have no running water or regular heating this
winter. Roma stand in line near three wells after several others were closed because
of austerity measures. Garbage collection has stopped; Women carry the garbage to
a nearby field.
Budapest-based interpreter Eszter Pásztor wants to improve
Roma fortunes as manager of the 'Bódvalenke Fresco Village' project, with support
from Hungary's Reformed Church and private donors.
Every week she races, Formula
One-style, in a seven-year-old French car to this town of roughly 200 deeply impoverished
residents.
"My heart breaks when I see this hardship in Hungary," the 60-year-old
mother of two tells Vatican Radio, standing in front of a fresco on an autumn afternoon.
"Through what we call the 'Fresco Village' we want to help end poverty and prejudices"
that contributed to the killings of Hungarian Roma by Neo-Nazis in recent years, she
explains.
"People live here on less than $2 a day. We hope frescos can turn
this village into a touristic destination that could bring more income and hope to
the local population."
Additionally, Pásztor has private reasons to visit Bódvalenke.
"I want to learn happiness. Amid this misery, Roma remain so happy while non-Roma
Hungarians are very pessimistic," she notes.
An enthusiastic Roma child triggered
her one winter day to launch the fresco initiative. "I brought a group of Roma children
to the Africa House in Budapest when suddenly a child looked at huts and said: 'that's
how we live!'," Pásztor recalls.
"Those words reminded me to a settlement I
saw in the desert of Egypt where primitive mural paintings are shown to tourists.
Suddenly I thought: 'What if we could have more sophisticated frescos made by Roma
artists?'."
Her Christmas season idea in 2008 eventually prompted Roma painters
from Hungary and other European countries to brighten-up Bódvalenke homes. "This was
something new for the villagers and we had to teach them art," Pásztor explains.
"That's
why these paintings tell stories. About the village, about Roma history. There are
often references to Christ. Roma are very religious, faith is important to them. A
painter said: 'Roma have a very special, direct and intimate relationship to God,
and it shows on their paintings as well'."
Seventeen Roma artists and two student
groups painted the 33 murals, some wedged between Reformed and Catholic churches.
Art historians say several paintings are "absolutely world standard" that any museum
would happily exhibit.
"Bódvalenke is important because through it Roma art,
invisible through centuries, has become and is becoming visible to the world," adds
Zoran Tairovic, a famed Serbian Roma painter and film director.
His name is
linked to five remarkable paintings in Bódvalenke such as 'The Metamorphoses of Horsepower',
featuring horse-like-creatures turning into a 21th century racing machine.
"To
be honest, we were hoping to use this painting to get some funding for the Bódvalenke
Fresco Village project from the the annual Formula One races in Hungary. Organizers
liked it, but no money has arrived so far," complaints the chain-smoking Pásztor.
Despite
the center-right government's "Roma Strategy" pledges, authorities refuse to finance
the frescos or related jobs-creating activities through the 'Fresco Village Social
Cooperative'.
"An example of the prejudice-ridden environment was the refusal
of our application for funding a small animal breeding project under the Goverment's
StartWork program, saying that 'the Gypsies would just eat the animals anyway'," Pásztor
claims.
The government has denied wrongdoing and even Bódvalenke's non-Roma
mayor has his doubts. "These frescos don't change anything," says János Tóth, 33,
who combines his mayoral duties with being a small farmer, ambulance driver and nurse.
"We
see very few tourists and the additional projects are only for a few months."
The
mayor didn't even bother to welcome a high-level delegation that included European
Commissioner László Andor and other government officials arriving at the village on
International Romani Day, earlier this year. "Why would I?", Tóth wonders after briefly
interrupting feeding his noisy chickens.
"Look Eszter is employing very few
people. A small tailoring plant launched in 2012, for instance, lasted only a few
months."
The mayor would prefer re-opening the communist-era cooperatives where
everyone was employed. That's not likely to happen. Lands around the village are said
to be in the hands of two former communists-turned-big-farmers and Budapest speculators.
Pásztor
admits the tailoring plant closed after just five months of operation. "It successfully
delivered the first order, protective clothing for welders, which had to comply with
three European standards. Unfortunately the other promised orders didn't materialize."
Other
programs linked to her Fresco Village project are more successful, ranging from an
annual Dragon Festival involving Roma musicians and poets performing in front of the
frecos, to the Bódvalenke Women's Choir who recently produced their first CD and sang
in the European Parliament.
Pásztor also supervised the re-establishment of
a fishing pond and supported locals to improve gardens and produce cord dolls, wicker
baskets or embroidery for visiting tourists.
Eleven Roma men were hired for
waste wood collection. "We turn this into bio-briquette which we than sell as an energy
source for power stations," explains János Csonka, who leads Hungarian green energy
company Innova-Eco Kft.
And nearly 20 Roma have been moved from ruinous hovels
into somewhat better housing with bathrooms, though most of them without running water.
These
families are the happy few within Hungary's troubled Roma minority, comprising roughly
800,000 people on a 10-million population. Since the collapse of communism in 1989,
most Roma lost their jobs.
The Fresco Village project has been adopted by the
Hungarian Reformed Church Aid Foundation. "The church has to be where people are in
need," believes Foundation President Sándor Pál. "This isn't a project for just some
weeks. Maybe these frescos and related activities will help people to have a better
future."
His church, Hungary's main Protestant denomination, also provides
humanitarian aid. Yet, "It's important that we bring not only fish, but also show
them how to fish with education," Pál cautions.
The Hungarian Reformed Church
has been involved in a college for Roma. In Bódvalenke children are supported too.
In 2009 some 23 of primary school children failed to finish their studies. Last year
only one in 35 children failed to reach the education finish line, according to organizers.
Spiritual
support is also crucial, claims Pál. "We hope the Roma will not only receive food
and other aid but also the love of God. They need Christ in their lives. Our pastor
is here to help them."
Pál wants "the Fresco Village" to help overcome ill-feelings
towards Roma even within the churches.
"All the churches have to open their
doors for Roma. We have to make bridges between Roma and non-Roma Hungarians, and
Christians and non-Christians," he says.
Yet locals say they still struggle
with the daily burden of transition, including malnourished villager Henrietta Horváth.
"I
am 20 years old and I just got Ádám, my second child," she says while showing him
to a Vatican Radio reporter.
He was born too early but survived, she says.
"Life isn't easy, but the mural painting in my garden makes me smile."