Vitamin C in Crpja!!

Belgrade, Serbia: Today we tasted a tiny bit of Food is Elementary in Serbia! I visited a Roma village where the community development non-profit Bread of Life provides a woman's interests/resources group each week. Today a doctor (volunteer, retired) did medical consultations with moms and kids. This is important because many Romas do not speak much Serbian, which makes it difficult for them to navigate the medical system. Also, the insurance system is really out of whack here and many people are confused as to where they can get medical care. One mother most likely has a tumor in her breast which has not been at all tested. Both her mother and grandmother died of cancer. (See more on the health situation below.)

Meanwhile another relief worker, Jasmina, and I hung out with about a dozen of these womens' children in a separate room, to give the moms a chance to speak with the doctor quitely. Frist, we sang and shouted our names to each other. They are a livey bunch! Then, I showed them THIS BLOG and explained to them what I do with Local Matters. Jasmina, translated!

Next we talked about Vitamin C: what our immune system is like in our bodies, how it fights bad germs, and how it needs Vitamint C to work, etc. All the same stuff we've been teaching our kids in Columbus!

Finally we all drew pictures of fruits and veggies. We then paraded our pictures for the mothers and taped them on the meeting room wall! How colorful and wonderful!

Many Roma, or gypsy, children leave school around age 10 or 11. Gypsies have full rights now in Serbia (as was not always the case) but many cannot access social welfare unless they have completed the 8th grade. Bread of Life run adult education for completion of basic elementay and middle school in several Roma villages near Belgrade. The children I worked with today are brilliant. While I have respect for Roma cultural traditions, I hope these children are able to complete higher levels of education. See http://www.breadoflife.org.rs/projects.php?prgid=2&sid=3&l=en for more info on Bread of Life's programming objectives.


Poor diets also contribute to many health crises in Roma populations, said the doctor. They rely on the ever more globalized, processed foodsstuffs at grocery stores, just as many people in Columbus. "We don't have any yards, no places to grow our own food," said one mother. It is true, their houses are extremely close together; there were several flowerpots in window sills and one peach tree that i saw, but not one tomato plant or lettuce head in sight. One grandmother showed us her peach tree and flower bed. She seemed to love growing things, but said this was the first year (that she lived there, I'm not sure!). I asked her if she grows tomatoes--I think of Serbia as the land of tomatoes!--but she said, "maybe next year."