Conversations with Amoun: The Domari Society

Hello!

Welcome to the second installment from my conversations with Amoun Sleem from the Domari Society in Jerusalem. In today’s topic, we will hear about the Domari Society: the beginning, the programs offered, as well as some of Amoun’s hopes for the center. As with before, these clips are compiled from two separate conversations I had with Amoun on different days.

The Dom people, more often than not, must be their own advocates. Support from outside the community is rather limited, and Amoun noticed this. In her book, A Gypsy Dreaming in Jerusalem, Amoun mentioned that when she was starting the center and sharing her vision, people didn’t even know that there were Dom Gypsies in Jerusalem. Through various connections and volunteers from different places, Amoun was able to begin helping the Dom community even before having established the society. As Amoun stated in the video, when the nonprofit was started in 1999, the main focus was women and children. We saw in the last video that to this day that is still the focus even through the COVID-19 response.

As shown from the pictures in the video, the work started just out of Amoun’s home. The programs continued for four years out of Amoun’s home along with support from the DRC to close in the veranda and create an office and classroom space. Eventually they were able to move onto a bigger location and then now to their current location that functions well with their needs.

In the book Amoun wrote, “…I wanted a place that would be surrounded by positive thoughts about Gypsy culture…”. I really do believe that Amoun has achieved that through the Domari Society. Thank you for joining us for this video, I hope you learned something new! See you for the next video!

Jaya, DRC Summer Intern

Conversations with Amoun: COVID-19 and the Dom People

Hello and welcome to the first of a series of interviews with Amoun Sleem, director of the Domari Society in Jerusalem.

I am so glad I had the opportunity to speak with Amoun and learn more about Domari life there in Jerusalem and the work of the Domari Society. Amoun is a dear friend of the Dom Research Center and  I hope this interview series helps you to learn more and inspire you as it did for me! The videos are compiled from two separate interviews that I did with Amoun.

I am so glad I had the opportunity to speak with Amoun and learn more about Domari life there in Jerusalem and the work of the Domari Society. Amoun is a dear friend of the Dom Research Center. I hope this interview series helps you to learn more and inspire you as it did for me!

We are starting off the series by discussing the impact of COVID-19 on the Dom people. For people all over the world, COVID-19 and the resulting pandemic wreaked havoc on our lives. People have lost jobs, educational opportunities, homes, and people dear to them. This has also been the case for the Dom people. Amoun shared with me that many of the Dom people work as day laborers and rely on that work as their source of income. Jobs that may have been abundant before the pandemic became scarce. Families around the world were struggling to pay bills, put food on the table and just make ends meet. In an effort to provide some relief from the dire circumstances. Amoun and the Domari Society worked tirelessly around the clock. She reached out to other organizations to provide aid such as food to families in need.

Children were also impacted due to school shifting from in the classroom to online. With less access to technological tools such as WIFI or a computer, as well as losing the interaction and assistance often found in the school setting, many students fell behind. Also, many women lost their sources of income during this time so Amoun shared more about this.

With the recent changes and countries starting to open back up, there has been a lot of joy among people, a sense of returning to “normal”. But, as Amoun shared, there is still a lot of nervousness regarding health and safety with the changes in different countries. The Domari Society serves as a safe haven for the people of the Dom community. The Domari Society did not close, rather shifted focus to providing humanitarian aid.

Amoun shared her hopes in the coming times for acquiring funding to have other options of programs for women. As we saw during this time, many businesses and establishments had to close their doors in an effort to take safe precautions. Events and some work could still take place on a smaller scale with less people. Because of this, Amoun hopes to equip women with skills that they can do one-on-one as a service. Some classes such as hairdressing, catering, sewing, etc.

Thank you for checking out this first part of the interview. Please share your thoughts! Hope you join us for the next post in the series!

Jaya, DRC Summer Intern