Does it make sense? · Christian Roma Mission

To begin with

Almost everyone asks this.

About change

“Is anything changing at all?”

Yes, slowly. The number of working people from marginalised Roma communities rose from 24 thousand in 2010 to almost 50 thousand in 2019; poverty remained, and in 2020, 87 % of them lived below the poverty line. In the Roma settlement in Klenovec every healthy father has work; before, it was fewer than half. That is our experience, not a study. What the research says →

Inštitút finančnej politiky, 2022 · Úrad splnomocnenca, EU SILC MRK 2020 survey, p. 18

About help

“Isn't it like throwing peas at a wall?”

In some places, yes. Research in eight villages describes a playground by a Roma settlement that was quickly destroyed, and also a town where a community centre reduced truancy and more pupils from these communities started attending secondary schools. The Slovak Academy of Sciences study says what decides it: to stay a long time in one place and not to build on handing out gifts. That is why we deal with need through work and do not give out ready-made food. What the study advises →

Úrad splnomocnenca, 2022, pp. 82 and 87 · Ústav etnológie SAV, 2010, pp. 116 and 117

About fairness

“Why should I help them in particular? And who ever helped us?”

You don't have to. Research in the villages recorded the sentence “And who ever helped us?” as one of the most common objections. We chose the children: of the children in these communities, 91 % live below the poverty line, and of all children in Slovakia, 17 %. According to an OECD estimate, bringing the employment and labour productivity of people from these communities up to the Slovak average would raise GDP by more than 12 % by 2060. Children and school →

Úrad splnomocnenca, 2022, p. 85 · EU SILC MRK 2020, p. 18 · Ministerstvo financií SR, 2020, p. 40

What people write under the news reports

The ten sentences we hear most often.

They come from discussions and surveys, just as people write them. Anyone who asks this way is welcome here. We answer with numbers and with what we see ourselves.

About benefits

“They live on benefits and get everything for free.”

In Slovakia, 82 % of people think that the benefit system favours Roma people. The benefit for people in material need is now 89,70 € a month for an individual and 314,40 € for a couple with more than four children; entitlement depends on income, not origin, and anyone who refuses work they are offered has it cut. In 2018 fewer than a quarter of people from marginalised Roma communities lived in households receiving this help, and they made up fewer than half of its recipients. Through work, not handouts →

FOCUS for the Office of the Plenipotentiary, 2024, p. 104 · Ministry of Labour, as of 12. 10. 2026 · Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, 2020, p. 139

On crime

“They steal and nothing happens to them.”

72 % of people think Roma get away with breaking the law. There is no figure for crime by origin: the statistics are kept by type of offence and by district, not by ethnicity. What we do know is that recorded crime fell by more than 61 % between 2004 and 2021, and that a rising standard of living helps bring it down. We are with the children most at weekends and holidays; that is when most offences happen. What really happens to families →

FOCUS for the Office of the Plenipotentiary, 2024, p. 100 · Government Office of the Slovak Republic and the Ministry of Interior, 2025, pp. 6 to 8 · SITA in the daily SME, 2004

On work

“Let them go and work.”

Many do: from 2010 to 2019 the number of people working from these communities almost doubled. Still, only 23 % of people of working age have a job, against 76 % in Slovakia as a whole. In an experiment by the Institute for Financial Policy, applicants with a Roma name had less than half the chance of being invited to an interview, although their education was the same. Where we can, we look for work for a person and encourage them. What we do →

Institute for Financial Policy, 2022 · EU SILC MRK 2020, p. 17 · Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, 2020, p. 111

On children

“They have children for the benefits. Soon there will be more of them than of us.”

In segregated Roma settlements a woman has on average more than four children, in partly integrated localities 2,5 to 3. The birth allowance is 829,86 € for the first to the fourth birth and 151,37 € from the fifth; the benefit in material need is the same for a family with five children as for one with eight. According to the Ministry of Finance, a family with no income of its own falls deeper into poverty after a child is born. The number of Roma rose from just under 403 thousand in 2013 to 417 thousand in 2019. How many people and where →

Šprocha, INFOSTAT, 2014, p. 158 · Ministry of Labour, as of 12. 10. 2026 · Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, 2020, p. 148 · SME, 2020

On housing

“Dirt everywhere and illegal buildings.”

Part of that is true: a third of the people in Roma communities, almost 90 thousand, live in informal dwellings, mostly in houses that were never officially approved and in shacks. Two thirds live legally. About 100 thousand people have no waste bin of their own at the house, and almost 6 % of settlements have no access to waste collection. In the DOM.ov project, families first save and then build their own legal houses with their own hands. How people live in the Roma settlements →

Atlas rómskych komunít 2019, pp. 18, 40 and 68 · Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, 2020, p. 164 · projektdomov.sk

On willpower

“They live like that because they want to. Why don't they help themselves?”

Many do help themselves: 117 thousand Roma live among other residents, and in the DOM.ov project families save at least 120 € a month and then repay a loan on their own house for 18 years. The research also noted that whoever tries to break away from the settlement is often seen by their own people as “one who left”. A study by the Slovak Academy of Sciences says that change lasts best when the whole community goes through it. With us, six students, with the scholarship and with their father, repaired a shack, added a room or built a new house. Who is helping →

Atlas rómskych komunít 2019, p. 17 · projektdomov.sk · Office of the Plenipotentiary, 2022, p. 80 · Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 2010, p. 12

On school

“Children don't go to school and their parents don't care.”

Children from these communities miss more lessons than others. One reason is the road: every fourth settlement outside a village is more than two kilometres from the nearest village with a school. In two thirds of families with small children in these communities, Romani is spoken at home. Parents cannot simply not care: for truancy they lose the child allowance and can even face prison. What really happens to families → Why the beginnings are hard →

Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, 2020, p. 14 · EU SILC MRK 2020, p. 16 · Central Office of Labour, 2018

On state money

“Millions have already gone there. Where are they?”

You are right to ask. In 2025 the Supreme Audit Office wrote that money for supporting Roma communities is spent without anyone assessing what good it actually does; the Office of the Plenipotentiary alone manages almost 400 million euros from European sources. About our own money we can say this: in 2025 our costs were about 16 900 €, gifts about 3 000 €, and every gift can be seen on the transparent account. What has really helped in ten years →

Supreme Audit Office, 31. 1. 2025 · Transparent account, Fio banka

On experience

“I have had a bad experience with them.”

You are not alone in this. A mostly bad experience is reported by 33 % of people in Slovakia, both good and bad by 58 %, mostly good by 8 %. 24 % of those asked have at some time visited a Roma household. Fr. Martin lived for four months right in a Roma settlement, so that he would really know the people. What it looks like there →

FOCUS for the Office of the Plenipotentiary, 2024, pp. 39 and 47

On the Church

“Why is a church doing this? Do you just want to convert them?”

Not only that. We are a Christian mission: we want to help poor families in their situation and lead them to God and to sound morals; Fr. Martin is an Orthodox priest. A 2010 study by the Slovak Academy of Sciences found that among Roma who became members of a church, addictions, petty crime and debts decreased the most. The same study says that the church cannot replace the state, and that it did not measure hard numbers but how people themselves experienced the change. What the research says →

Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 2010, pp. 8 to 11 and 98

What really happens to families · our experience and the law

That nothing happens to them is not true.

We know parents who went to prison, families whose benefit was cut, and mothers who are afraid their child will be taken away. With each matter we write what we see and what the law says.

You can go to prison over school.We know several parents who ended up in prison because they did not send their children to primary school. The law: a parent who lets a child stay away from school can get up to two years, in more serious cases up to five. In 2020 the Supreme Court upheld a sentence of eight months, not suspended, for a mother whose two sons missed 727 and 947 hours in one year. Criminal Code, § 211 Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic, 2 Tdo 22/2020

The municipality gets the allowance, not the parent.Sometimes a family has to collect the benefit at the office, other times it gets docked. The law: when a child misses more than 15 hours a month, the allowance for that child is not paid to the parent but to the municipality as a special recipient. A family in material need then also loses the child contribution, €25.10 a month. Child Allowance Act, § 12a Act on Assistance in Material Need, § 13 and § 23

If you don't work for the municipality, your benefit is cut.Those who do not go to public works lose part of their benefit. The law: an adult in material need who has no job must work 32 hours a month for the municipality; otherwise the family's benefit is cut by €89.70 for each such adult (amount for 2026). Someone who works for the municipality up to 20 hours a week gets an activation allowance of €91.70 on top of the benefit. Act on Assistance in Material Need, § 10 Central Office of Labour, amounts from 1. 1. 2026

The fear that their child will be taken.In the Roma settlements people say that after three police records a child can be sent to a children's home, and that a teacher has to report even a child who comes without a snack. The law says it differently: a court decides whether a child is taken away, it knows no number of records and no snack, and the parents' poverty is not a reason for taking a child. But everyone, a teacher too, is obliged to alert the child protection office when they see that nobody is looking after a child. And when a warning and supervision do not help, the court may take the child away for a time and place them in a facility for up to six months. Family Act, § 37 and § 54 Act on Social and Legal Protection of Children, § 7

When one Roma attacks another.Many then get no help from anyone, because neither the police nor other people want to get involved among the Roma. This is our experience; we do not know of an official number for it. In 2025 the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary wrote that Roma rarely report wrongs, because they do not trust the authorities and are afraid of making things worse. Office of the Government Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities, 2025

What has helped over the last ten years

Five things you can see in the Roma settlements.

These are not our doing. They are rules of the state and of municipalities that, from what we see, have helped a great deal.

Gambling

The machines are gone from the pubs

Since 2018 they may stand only in gaming halls and casinos, and a municipality can ban gaming halls on its territory. Since 2019 nobody from a household that receives help in material need may play.

Gambling Act, § 34 and § 79 Gambling Regulatory Authority

Toluene

Not everyone can get it

Under a European restriction from 2007, glues and sprays with toluene may not be sold to the public. Since 2017, at the suggestion of the mayor of Fiľakovo, the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary has reminded sellers: toluene only for those who need it for their work.

Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic, press release Directive 2005/59/EC

Special schools

Pressure not to put Roma children there

Since 2015 the European Commission has been conducting proceedings against Slovakia over the separation of Roma children in schools, and in 2023 it decided to bring a lawsuit. In our villages we see that children are no longer sent to special classes as easily as before; we do not know of a nationwide figure that would confirm it.

Public Defender of Rights, 2023

Transport

Free train to school

Pupils and students up to 26 years old have travelled free by train since 17 November 2014. Where a village has no school, the school pays parents back for the bus every month. So a child can get to school even when there is no money at home.

Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko Act No. 322/2025 Z. z., § 15

Lunches

A child eats enough at school

The state contributes to lunch for every primary school pupil whose parent asks for it: €2.10 in the lower grades and €2.30 in the upper grades for every day the child was at school. This applied from September 2019 to July 2021 and applies again since May 2023.

Subsidies Act, § 4

And what no law will fix

Beginnings are not easy

A child has no pen, paper or table at home and sees no reason to learn. That is where we come in. →

Encouragement

He was afraid too. And he stayed.

Fr. Martin writes about this in his book without dressing anything up. About the book →

“I was always afraid of the Roma. In Brno I had friends who were attacked or robbed. And I did not like them at all, yet I felt sorry for them when I saw them in the Roma settlement and knew that they too need to get to know Christ.”
Martin Halík: Pravoslávna misia medzi Rómami na strednom Slovensku, 2023, p. 44

“One day I understood that if I do not start to love them, I can hardly speak to them about Christ.”
ibid., p. 44

“It was not easy. More than once Roma people damaged the club room, stole my firewood, a guitar, food and much else. Later they broke into my house, once I was hit on the head with a stone, another time I was threatened with an axe.”
ibid., p. 8

“But it is not only about the bad and unpleasant; I also experience a lot of good. Never have so many people kissed me, sober or drunk, never have so many people welcomed me, embraced me and helped me, as during the Roma mission.”
ibid., p. 8

Klenovec → Praha

Does it make sense? Yes. Slowly, and where someone stays.

Almost everyone asks this.

“Is anything changing at all?”

“Isn't it like throwing peas at a wall?”

“Why should I help them in particular? And who ever helped us?”

The ten sentences we hear most often.

“They live on benefits and get everything for free.”

“They steal and nothing happens to them.”

“Let them go and work.”

“They have children for the benefits. Soon there will be more of them than of us.”

“Dirt everywhere and illegal buildings.”

“They live like that because they want to. Why don't they help themselves?”

“Children don't go to school and their parents don't care.”

“Millions have already gone there. Where are they?”

“I have had a bad experience with them.”

“Why is a church doing this? Do you just want to convert them?”

That nothing happens to them is not true.

Five things you can see in the Roma settlements.

The machines are gone from the pubs

Not everyone can get it

Pressure not to put Roma children there

Free train to school

A child eats enough at school

Beginnings are not easy

He was afraid too. And he stayed.

Ján Deme, eye doctor

Dávid, community worker

A housing estate that is changing

We would like to be in every Roma settlement in Slovakia.

Who you are and what you do.

Who are you?

Where do you work?

What exactly do you do?

Are you the only ones who do this?

How many Roma settlements are there in Slovakia?

Where the money goes.

Where does the money go?

Can I check this?

Can I give 2 % of my tax?

Can I donate things?

We are a company or a foundation. What will we get from you?

How do I give?

I want to come and help.

Do I have to be a believer?

How do I start?

What happens to my number?

What will I do?

Can I come for a week?

Where will I stay?

I am not a teacher. Can I help?

I am not 18 yet. Can I?

We are a parish. How do we join?

What is Operation Christmas Child?

Where I can see it.

Where can I see what it looks like?

When will there be a new report?

Write or call. We will answer you ourselves.

Fr. Martin Halík

Míša

Teach and play with the children.

Figures for 2025.

All the pages of the guide.