Zinaida is Roma, also called Romany, an ethnic group of traditionally itinerant people who originated in northern India but now live principally in Europe.
The word “Roma” means “man” and refers to different communities, including Kalderash in southeastern Europe, Romanichals in England, Sinti in Germany, Italy, and France, Kalé in Wales, Finland, Spain and Portugal, and Gitano from Spain, as well as many others around the world — Zinaida is one of an estimated 400,000 Roma people in Ukraine.
While in school, Zinaida often faced bullying and harassment due to the stereotypes around her ethnicity.
She says she encountered constant teasing and humiliation by people just because she belonged to the Roma community.
Sadly, her problems didn’t go away upon leaving school.
This time, deep-rooted cultural and social norms within her own community hindered her educational progress. Her father didn’t allow her to go to a university because he believed she needed to prepare to become a good housewife. It took Zinaida several years to convince her family and get enrolled in the faculty of journalism.
“When I became a teenager, I wanted to fight stigma against my community, defend it, break stereotypes, and tell the world that Roma community is as honest and decent as other communities in the society,” she says. “But since I was very young, I could only dream about it, I didn’t know how to do it.”
From mocked to TikTok
Thanks to the women’s leadership training organized by Winds of Change, a national NGO in Odessa, with the support of CARE, Zinaida has gained confidence and ideas to counter discrimination and stigma against her own Roma community in Ukraine.
