Roma community in Bulgaria and COVID 19


The COVID 19 crazies make evident and sharpens the social inequalities in all the fields. Roma minority that is the object of multiple discrimination and faces multiple inequalities is on the “First Line” in this regard throughout Europe.
Four main challenges form everyday reality for Bulgarian Roma in the crisis:
1. Extreme poverty leads to hunger problems not only among the poorest and marginalized families but also among many families who managed to overcome sharp poverty and hunger before the crisis. In almost all of the Roma, neighborhoods can be found now starving families and their number is increasing. Government institutions have taken steps to provide food packages. Due to bureaucratic problems, these measures cannot reach the most marginalized families. In any case, they are not a sustainable solution to the problem. In many places, the richer Roma help feed the poorest families or relatives abroad to do it by sending money to save them from hunger.