Are you a person who considers themselves blessed in life? Have you been wondering how you can give back some of these blessings to those in need? Please have a look at this worthy collaborative effort that was inspired by the lovely Tara Sophia Mohr who helps all of us with wise living, and then consider how you may help with the Girl Effect campaign.   The following article has been written to support Tara’s Girl Effect campaign. “The Girl Effect” is a powerful idea: by investing in girls in the developing world, we make an incredibly effective investment in eradicating poverty, creating thriving communities and slowing the spread of AIDS.

I was lucky enough to spend 5 weeks in Portugal during the summer of 2009.  We stayed with my friend who was born and, for many years, raised in the Algarve.  We saw the inner workings of Portugal life through her family and friends.  We took a trip to a market one Sunday.  We were shopping and looking at the goods.  Many of the vendors are Gypsys.  My friend looked at a tablecloth but decided it wasn’t what she wanted.  When she indicated she wouldn’t be buying it the gypsy vendor began yelling, pointing her finger and cursing.  I couldn’t understand a word the woman was saying but my friend told me the lady was putting a curse on her.  We all laughed about it but it’s really not funny.

While we were eating at an outdoor restaurant in Olhao, a young gypsy girl who couldn’t have been more than 12 years old, came up to our table looking for a handout as she played a musical instrument for us.  There is nothing funny about this way of life.  The gypsy life is a harsh reality for young girls and women of all ages.

In a sad and disturbing documentary about Romanian Gypsies in Spain and Italy the footage follows their participation in criminal activities.  The children are sent out by their parents to beg and steal.  In other reports from Madrid, the targets were ATM machines where 2 or 3 gypsy children would aggressively try to grab the money from people at any time of the day.  As minors, they cannot be charged, only picked up, transferred to a “youth centre” and released shortly after. These children are often “supervised” by adults who take the stolen money from them.

In a report titled Four Corners, hidden cameras were used in several locations around Madrid to capture children stealing from locals and tourists.  A producer of this film tracked the children back to the slums that they call home.  He was shocked.  Gypsys often live in rat infested, filthy camps in the outskirts of big cities.  While the rest of Europe enjoys an expensive public education and welfare system, a majority of Gypsy children do not attend school. Many live in tin sheds next to rubbish dumps with no running water or official power sources.

The Four Corners report also informs us of the Gypsy practice of selling female children into marriage. Secret filming shows a 13-year-old girl’s wedding celebration underway. She has been sold for nearly $10,000.  In the first instance she is valuable because she is a virgin, but her major selling point is her ability to steal up to $600 a day. Her husband fully expects she will quickly provide him a return on his investment.  There are varied responses to the crimes. In some cases, right-wing political activists want the gypsys eliminated. Other groups want to socialize them by helping to educate children while encouraging the older Roma, as they are also called, to get jobs.

Whichever side the response comes from, so far it is evident that more needs to be done and if governments do not react in a positive way then citizens may take the law into their own hands and we know this may result in violence as well as deaths.

I don’t know what I can do to personally make a difference to gypsy children but Tara Sophia Mohr’s Girl Effect campaign has inspired me to dig deeper and to find a way to give back the many blessings I have had in life to help girls in need.

Tags: Girl Effect, Girl Effect Campaign, Gypsys