Yulian Kondur: «Examples of efficient leadership within communities are the key to great changes»

Society

The idealistic attitude of his mother and her commitment to NGOs, the role of the woman in a traditional Romani family, and the usefulness of Roma to the Ukrainian economy — these and other issues are presented in «Ai Tu Jianes. Did you know that?» by Yulian Kondur, co-ordinator of CHIRIKLI International Charity.

Mr. Kondur is a representative of a large family of Romani activists. Today, he will tell us more about his family’s cause, life, and activity of his brothers and sisters: Zemfira, Volodymyr, Fedir, Lina, and Kapitolina.

You can listen to the first part of this podcast by clicking HERE.

As Yulian has told us, the impetus to creating the «CHIRIKLI» foundation (the word chirikli means a bird in Romani) came from Yuliia Kondur, his mother, and his sister Zemfira who teamed up with her Mum. The Foundation’s activity started with the activity of its two founders who were members of the Women’s Council at the Romani Association in the city of Izmail. The Council tended to social security issues faced by ethnic Roma inhabiting the region.

«Our Mum had a long-term perspective; she was thinking more strategically than other people. It was her idea: to create a women’s NGO, to team up with international partners. <My father was more of a ‘man within the system’: he saw possibilities but shied away from taking risks. Mum, on the other hand, was a person thinking outside the box; she knew that there were always more possibilities one could seek».

And thus, «CHIRIKLI» became the first Ukrainian NGO ever that raised the issue of Romani women in Ukraine, both nationwide and internationally.

«Roma women were a voice of their community; they were able to say what the existing problems of immediate importance were. In traditional families, a woman is usually the one putting in most effort: she has both a job and a household and children to tend to. The man, on the other hand, is able to oversee all of that. This is the gist of conservatism. They [his Mum and his sister — ed.] saw this structure from the inside of our community and therefore strove to provide our girls with more opportunities», — says Yulian Kondur.

Our interlocutor also stressed that Romani women and the Romani community in general are a very promising population group able to contribute to the development of Ukrainian economy—particularly due to the fact that a substantial chunk of the community are children and young people.

«I think that if our community features more educated people, not just our attitude towards each other will change but the perception of our community in society, by and large», — says Yulian Kondur, Co-ordinator of CHIRIKLI Roma Women’s Foundation, an international charity.

Listen to the full conversation by opening the audio file attached.