In the Romani neighborhood in the city of Soard, many people lack adequate housing, health care, and basic sanitary facilities.
Romani people come from the Hindu Kush area of India, and eventually traveled offering various trades and skills to local people. Ever since their entry into Europe in the late 1200's, Europeans have viewed them with suspicion. They were persecuted during the Holocaust--it is estimated that about 1,500,000 were killed; and also considered an inferior race by most of Europe. In many European countries it was actually illegal to be born Romani. In Romania, Romani people were slaves for some 400 years, beginning with slaves brought to Vlad Dracul in 1445. The Nomadic way of life was made illegal during Communism and Romani were forced to settle on communal farms. Many Romani lost their skills of their trades since they were not an agricultural people and therefore their livelihood. Romani were not encouraged to go to school and in many cases were not allowed because of prejudice against them. They have been caught in a cycle of poverty, which denies them education, skills, health care, and many other privileges we consider basic. We are going in an effort to help make another small step towards and exit from this cycle.
Mana Church started as a church plant reaching out to Romani people in Sighisoara about 10 years ago. They have grown in numbers and in faith for other villages. Members from Mana work and serve in 5 other surrounding villages where they have also established church plants. One of these villages is Soard, where we will be sending a team from Gateway.