“I am proud of my work and happy to see that people like the objects I make,” said Vasile Anusca, a Roma wicker worker, while weaving a basket in his yard swarming with children.
At Mironeasa, in north-eastern Romania, wicker and wood-working skills have been handed down from generation to generation and all of Mr Anusca’s 13 children have had a go.
“We don’t make a lot of money but at least we can feed our families,” said Mr Anusca’s brother, Viorel.
The two brothers used to go from village to village, carrying a bag full of wooden spoons or a pile of baskets, hoping to trade them for potatoes or beans.
But now, a project called Romano Cher trains Roma craftsmen to make more sophisticated objects and helps them find buyers abroad, mostly via the internet www.mestesukar.ro.
Last winter, “snowman kits” including wooden eyes, noses, buttons and brooms made by Roma artisans from Peris, 30 kilometres north of Bucharest, made a hit at the Brussels Christmas fair.
And a stylish dress created by Roma metalsmiths will soon shine on catwalks in Paris and Bucharest – a model made from small, perforated aluminum plates.
After three months’ training, the Anusca brothers have gone from carving spoons to making wooden toys and wicker furniture, more adapted to current customers’ needs.
“Our favourite objects are those that sell best,” said Vasile Anusca, smiling.
Thirty more Roma of Mironeasa, a remote village nestled in the green hills of this poor region, have joined in this programme launched by a Romanian consulting firm, KCMC.
“I started weaving baskets when I was 16. We don’t own any land so this helped us earn some money,” said Cornel Petrechiuta, 34.
“Our aim is to ensure these people a steady income and to improve the life of the community as a whole, by setting up kindergartens, for instance,” Luis Turcitu, the local “facilitator”, said.
Romania’s Roma community is the biggest in Europe, officially put at 530,000 though local non-governmental organisations put it closer to two million as many hide their origins to try to escape persistent discrimination and suspicion.
The unemployment rate remains high among this minority, with barely 27 per cent of adults holding a steady job, and access to health care is also quite difficult. No steady job means no medical insurance and greater social exclusion in poor outlying districts where many Roma live, where there are sometimes no doctors or clinics.
Benefitting from a €5 million grant from the EU, “Romano Cher recreates the missing link between the Roma’s traditional skills and today’s market demands,” said Mircea Nanca, KCMC communication manager.
Unlike other social inclusion projects that undertake to teach the Roma new skills, “what we want is integrate them by helping them take to a higher level their ancient trades,” he stressed.
Among the Roma, there is a close link between occupation and cultural identity so that Roma musicians, wicker or wood workers, cauldron and iron makers rarely mingle.
The project also includes an itinerant workshop that will allow Romanians to see Roma artisans at work and to try out their own skill in the various trades.
“This workshop is quite useful because we can discover a side of the Roma that contrasts with the negative image they usually have in the media,” said Cristina, a mother in her forties, while her two daughters were busy weaving a basket in the tent set up at Vama Veche, a popular beach resort on the Black Sea coast.
Mr Nanca said some 30 “handicraft cooperatives” will be set up by February 2013 and training courses will be organised for more than a thousand Roma.
“If by the end of this programme, people we are working with feel their lives have improved and the Romanians’ perception of the Roma’s skills and culture changes, albeit a little, we will consider it a success,” remarked Mr Nanca.