News
Czech Roma Social Event in Gloucester
In June a social event was held at St. Catharine's Church Hall, Gloucester for primarily Czech and Slovak families, many of whom are of Roma origin. We also welcomed some families from Poland and Hungary. The purpose of this event was for families to relax with each other, meet new friends and get to know some of the teachers and people from other organisations who work with their children.
Pupils from St. Paul's Primary and Oxstalls Secondary Schools were involved in planning the event. On the day they helped to shop, cook and prepare traditional dishes and sandwiches from Eastern European countries. We were guided by some Roma parents who volunteered to help.
Besides enjoying the food there were a variety of activities for the children to do, such as face painting, making hats, jewellery, candles and biscuit decorating. Otto Klempt brought along some juggling equipment and the children enjoyed learning circus skills. He also led a Czech/English sing-song on his guitar in which everyone joined in enthusiastically. We finished up with a huge Hokey Cokey - and all ages took part!
The Sheriff of Gloucester, Chris Witts, kindly agreed to attend and spoke a few words of welcome and support. It was great to see him still there at the end of the event happily conversing with many of the families. He commented later that it was a great opportunity to get to know this relatively new community to Gloucester.
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