Romana

A group of 34 boys from various boys clubs—the Amura Club (Madrid), Txindoki (San Sebastian), Alaiz (Pamplona), and the Tiber Club (Rome)—joined forces this past August in a project to help the Gypsy people of Esztergom, a city in northern Hungary on the banks of the Danube. Esztergom is the seat of the Primatial Cathedral of Hungary.

The program arose thanks to the help of Most Rev. János Székely, Auxiliary Bishop of Esztergom-Budapest and director of pastoral work with Gypsies for the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference. Today Gypsies make up 10% of the Hungarian population, and for various cultural, historical and social reasons, they are often discriminated against by the rest of the population.

The work of the young people involved improving the living conditions of the shanties of a Gypsy settlement on the outskirts of the city, and helping put cement floors in some of the houses. They also cleared away debris and garbage from an empty lot nearby and readied it for recreational use.