Czech city and the nonprofits it pays oppose community organizing by local and regional Romani politician - he says he's following the Government's Strategy for Roma Equality, Inclusion and Participation

Karika says he is working in the spirit of the Czech Government’s own Romani inclusion strategy and that the city and the nonprofits it subsidizes are trying to thwart him. The dispute was paradoxically unleashed after the situation at the housing estate began to improve in terms of public order following Karika’s community work, which he undertakes as an ambassador of the Czech Government Commissioner for Romani Minority Affairs and as chair of the Czechoslovak Romani Union.

Karika asserts that his aim is to aid people who cannot afford groceries as well as to motivate them to maintain the neatness of their neighborhood’s public spaces. He established a Facebook page called “Pro lepší Mojžíř” (“For a Better Mojžíř”) where he publishes photographs from events where locals have been given groceries in exchange for picking up trash or assisting with the maintenance of greenery.

Vice-Mayor Tomáš Vlach: Karika is not upholding the principles of social work

Vice-Mayor Tomáš Vlach (Association of Dissatisfied Citizens – ANO), who is in charge of social services, said the city has called for food aid to be used in accordance with the principles of social services, which he characterizes as presuming there will be targeted assistance to specific clients who cannot afford groceries. “Naturally, the city is also counting on the social service client’s active involvement in their related programs for improving their situation. Representatives of social services working at the Mojžíř housing estate have warned that the uncoordinated distribution of groceries worsens their own options for working with their clients and reduces clients’ motivation to collaborate with them on solving the state of their affairs,” Vlach was quoted as saying by Ústecký deník.

Neither the Czechoslovak Romani Union nor Karika are providing social services at the Mojžíř housing estate, however, according to Karika himself. “I absolutely do not comprehend this hysteria, it has been provoked by something that I myself do not know how to identify. I am not serving at the Mojžíř housing estate as a provider of social services and I do not have a plan to become one. My main aim is to solve the disorder there and to support the activation of local residents in the context of the Government strategy to 2030 on the integration and participation of Roma in decision-making processes,” he told news server Romea.cz.

“I have been distributing food in excluded localities for years, but now, when I am doing my best to activate people, that is really bothering somebody. I’m not angry with the nonprofit organizations because they’re just fulfilling the orders of City Hall, which is where they get subsidies for their activity. Naively, I believed we were all after the same aim, for there to be calm and order at Mojžíř. Unfortunately, it appears that somebody is better served by disorder and disruption. Speaking as an ambassador for the Commissioner for Romani Affairs and as chair of the Czechoslovak Romani Union, we will continue this pilot project with the members of our union,” Karika said.

Vlach e-mailed Karika’s employer with a threat to cut them off from local money

Vlach is said to have even sent an e-mail to the employer of Karika, another nonprofit called Romano Jasnica, even though Karika’s civic activities at the Mojžíř housing estate have nothing to do with that organization. Some activists have called the e-mail a threat similar to the practices of the Czechoslovak secret police forces before the transition to democracy in 1989.

In his e-mail, Vlach is said to have warned the director of the organization that Karika’s activities and the situation at the Mojžíř housing estate will impact the city’s future collaboration with the Romano Jasnica organization. The author of the article in the Ústecký deník has reported that the following nonprofit organizations are allegedly opposed to Karika’s work there: The branch of the Catholic charity Caritas (Charita) in Ústí nad Labem, the Kleja organization in Ústí nad Labem, the Drug-out organization, the Poradna pro občanství/Občanská a lidská práva [Counseling Center for Citizenship/Civil and Human Rights] and Člověk v tísni [People in Need].

Helena Dvořáková, head of a drop-in center for children and youth called the House of Saint Maternus (Dům sv. Materny), run by Charita Ústí nad Labem, explained to the Ústecký deník that through their other services they are doing their best to activate the housing estate, which means supporting the locals with looking for work, solving their burdensome housing situations and other problems related to living in the excluded locality. “Karel Karika started providing food aid in Mojžíř in September and he has conditioned the distribution of groceries on the recipients doing cleanup work. However, the distribution of food in exchange for cleanup work has brought the locality problems that must be acknowledged and to which there should be a response. He received the feedback from us that we do not consider what he is doing to be a fortuitous turn of events. Maybe he will adapt his strategy in future, that would certainly be a welcome step,” she is quoted as saying.

People in Need: Conflicts over aid to families at the housing estate – and their publicity – lead nowhere

Vít Kučera, director of People in Need’s branch in Ústí nad Labem, told Romea.cz that the organization is bothered by such publicity and that conflicts in the media lead nowhere. “We have been communicating with Karel Karika for years, he is an Ústecký Regional assembly member and used to be Vice-Mayor of the central municipal department here in Ústí nad Labem, currently he is a local assembly member. If we have different perspectives from others on the coordination of activities at Mojžíř, then we address them first and foremost among ourselves or at the working meetings convened for that purpose. We did not initiate any communication with the media, different perspectives are part of life and of work,” he told Romea.cz.

“The families at the housing estate have multi-level problems and we concentrate on several of them. What I see as being behind this publicizing of what was just a regular working meeting is more the clash between Karel Karika as an opposition politician at City Hall and the politicians in power there. Conflicts in the media will not advance our collaborations to benefit the families on the housing estate,” Kučera said.

According to Kučera, People in Need has been working with the Mojžíř housing estate inhabitants for 12 years. “The backbone of our work with families is our Educational Support and Aid with Debt programs. Educational Support involves a Club for Preschool in collaboration with a nursery school, an in-family program for tutoring, online tutoring, e-inclusion and digital skills support. Our fieldwork program and the Aid with Debt program are oriented toward stabilizing clients’ financial situations, prevention, and resolving overindebtedness,” he explained.

Kučera said that at the Mojžíř housing estate, People in Need organizes Public Services and, in collaboration with the Probation and Mediation Services, offers residents Community Service Jobs through which they can work off whatever the courts have ordered them to do. “Six people at Mojžíř attend the Public Services program and seven attend the Community Service Jobs program,” he said.

Miroslav Brož: Karika has revealed that the nonprofits do not work well at the housing estate, which is why they consider him dangerous

Miroslav Brož, a longtime activist, says that thanks to Karika’s community organizing of the housing estate residents, the neighborhood has started changing for the better. “However, Karel’s activities at Mojžíř have unmasked the fact that the different organizations which have been working there for years and which have been drawing subsidies to work at Mojžíř for years are not doing a good job there, their services do not work and are not contributing any progress or transformation. By doing this, Karel has become a danger to those organizations, a thorn in their sides, and now they are attacking him,” he told news server Romea.cz.