Apata. A village where 3000 romanian, hungarian and rroma ethnics live, in the middle of Romania, just 40 km from Brasov, one of the largest cities in the country. Just as in hundreds other places, the rroma community is isolated and stigmatized. Here, they live on a hill, in the outskirts of the village. The children abandon school early, becoming adults living on social income, stealing and, sometimes, temporary jobs, just like their parents. The authorities make no real effort to understand their needs and prefer to look aside, year after year, failing to provide real opportunities to these children.
Apata. A village where 3000 romanian, hungarian and rroma ethnics live, in the middle of Romania, just 40 km from Brasov, one of the largest cities in the country. Just as in hundreds other places, the rroma community is isolated and stigmatized. Here, they live on a hill, in the outskirts of the village. The children abandon school early, becoming unprepared adults, living on social income, stealing and, sometimes, having temporary jobs, just like their parents. They suffer from neglect and they learn their own rules, the hard way. With no one to teach them with love and compassion about how society works, they play violent games, trying to gain power over weaker children and establish the hierarchies early in the game. They work just as adults do. The younger ones are collecting fruits from the wild forests nearby, helping their parents to survive. The girls are responsible for taking care of the babies and become young mothers themselves. The boys drive the carts and feed the animals, replacing their fathers when they are away. As these children grow, their world becomes different from the rest of the village and the chances to change their future decrease drastically. The authorities make no real effort to understand their needs and prefer to look aside, year after year, failing to provide real opportunities to these children. The majority of the population also dismiss this problem, labelling them as thieves and rough-necks.