Nearly half of all Roma women in Croatia experience teenage pregnancy, with 17 percent giving birth aged 16 or under, state agency Hina said on Monday, reporting from a round table organited in Osijek by the Kali Sara association of Roma people in Croatia.

“Representatives of the Roma community underscored that 17 percent of young Roma women are illiterate, only one in five  finish high school, and almost 80 percent of them never join the labour market,” Hina said, without naming any of the Roma representatives.

“For 27 percent of young Roma women in Croatia, the reason they stop their education is marriage and pregnancy, and in 15 percent of cases it is because they become parents,” Suzana Kunac, the leader of a project which aims to empower Roma women, said. She assessed that these are devastating data when comparing the Roma community in Croatia with those in other European countries.

“In three educational cycles, we managed to educate 200 young Roma women in four counties, Osijek-Baranja, Sisak-Moslavina, Brod-Posavina and Medjimurje,” Kunac recalled and added that they focused on gender equality, reproductive health, sexual health, sexual prevention, puberty, motherhood, pregnancy and “everything that these girls have no knowledge of.”

MP Veljko Kajtazi, who represents the Roma ethnic community in Parliament, in particular underlined that this is the first time that a Roma association is the main organizer of such a project.

“Until now, they have been partners in certain projects and this is proof that the Roma community has a strong and powerful association and that the Roma in Croatia have organized themselves very well and can handle such projects,” Kajtazi said.

According to Kajtazi, when it comes to housing, education and employment, the Roma community is in a vicious circle. He said that they have increased school and student scholarships, but they question whether it is worth getting an education when they cannot find employment after that.

“We encourage children to finish primary school and of course, they need to, but when they need to enroll in secondary school, they cannot even get the most basic thing, which is an apprenticeship. Some private individuals are ready to pay a fine just so they do not have to accept a Roma student as an apprentice. How is it possible to get out of that vicious cycle of poverty?” Kajtazi asked.

He added that housing, education and employment have to go hand in hand. “It is not enough to be active in one area and not in another,” he added.