Finn working with Roma in Romania does not expect flood of beggars in Helsinki

Few Roma in Transylvania travel even to nearest cities

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By Kimmo Oksanen
     
     A Roma woman carries a zinc bucket out of a run-down apartment building on the outskirts of the village of Tarnaven in the Transylvania region of Romania.
     Spalsh! She empties the bucket in a ditch that runs alongside the building.
     Then she pumps water from a well and disappears back into the building with the bucket.
     It seems to be cleaning day.
     "I've arranged for that pump and well", says Mauri Ojala, a Finn.
     Ojala has lived in Roma villages in Transylvania for about eight years, helping the villagers build houses, wells, outhouses ... The bricks of the outhouse in the back of this building were laid by Ojala.
     "They used to go in the cellar."
     
According to Ojala there is no need to fear a flood of beggars from Transylvania to Finland. "These people are truly poor. They do not travel anywhere."
     Few Roma in Transylvania have any desire to travel even to the nearest city, nor do they have money, or stamina to do so.
     "The ones who are begging in Helsinki have seen the metropolises of Europe. They take a risk and go further to see if they might do better there", Ojala says.
     "It's great drama and street theatre."
     
Ojala urges Finns not to give money to the beggars. The Roma should be helped where they live.
     Ojala also gives no credence to claims by the Roma themselves that they are in Finland to look for work.
     "If we think of the difficulties that the Ingrians have had in integrating into Finnish society, how can the Roma adapt?"
     
Houses built by Ojala in Transylvania are near the city of Targu Mures. Today he has agreed to serve as a guide in Tarnaven, as well as Cipau, Chinar, and Haranglab.
     Ojala does not want to go to every location. If the Roma see him with an outsider, they will think that he is getting some benefit, and want some of it for themselves.
     Different villages have different atmospheres. In Cipau, buildings put up five years ago have stayed in good shape. In Haranglab everything new is defaced immediately.
     "I built roofs and eaves. The Roma sold them to Hungarians in the village at a ridiculously low price to buy a little bit of alcohol."
     Ojala says that walking in some Roma villages in February is like carrying a flaming torch in a cellar full of gunpowder. There is no work, and poverty intensifies the threat of violence.
     "Alcohol is a problem especially for many Roma men. Child allowances arrived the day before yesterday, and this evening people in many Roma villages are drunk."
     
Ojala feels that it is wrong to put false hope into beggars' cups in Helsinki. Stories about collecting money for building a house back home are false in his opinion.
     "There's nothing wrong in giving help, if there is sense in it. We can bring Roma all around Europe to beg, and it won't help anyone", Ojala says.
     "It is much easier to help them in their own home villages."
     How does that happen?
     "We have an organisation for that - the European Union. We need to get it to work.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 13.2.2008

More on this subject:
 Many Romanians eager to escape rural poverty

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Majority of residents in Helsinki region want to ban begging (7.1.2008)
  Helsinki sends beggar mothers back to Romania on child welfare grounds (11.2.2008)
  Migrant Roma beggars in centre of Helsinki live in tents under bridge (5.2.2008)

KIMMO OKSANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
kimmo.oksanen@hs.fi