Job for gypsy women.

A small but resolute group in Treviso, 30 miles north of Venice, has set up a cooperative which helps gypsies--the most marginalized ethnic group in Italy.

The gypsy population in Italy is quite small. They used to be welcomed in towns and villages because of the entertainment and skill in metal work they brought with them. They were also competent horse traders. Now practically all their trades and crafts have died out and if they vacate a camping site, they find it almost impossible to find a new one. So they have become the poorest of the poor and often make a living by begging and petty thieving.

The gypsies, especially women, have come to realize that the only way out of their present situation is to integrate. This imperils their great cultural traditions, which have been enriching Europe through the centuries.

Integration is easier said than done. Prospective employers have to face the initial cost of training itinerant people in the basic ethics of settled work. However, the hardest thing to overcome is prejudice, the conviction that they will never be any good.

The project in Treviso provides jobs for gypsies who work alongside three pensioners who have volunteered to help with supervision and bookkeeping. The work is contracted out by industrial firms in the area. I met Giancarlo Vettori, president of the cooperative at the gypsies' workshop. He devotes most of his free time to the cooperative and works in shifts at an animal feed firm.

The project started when two teachers, one of them Vettori's wife, became involved in encouraging gypsy children to attend school. As a result they made friends with the mothers of children from the two gypsy camps in Treviso, which belong to the mutually antagonistic ethnic groups of Sinti and Rom. Now the women from both groups work happily side by side.

In 1996 they started working in the spare rooms of a parish house hoping that, with the help of local industrialists or of the city itself, they would move to one of the many unused industrial sheds around. But everybody, including the mayor, turned their backs. So they decided to take the risk of renting one of these sheds without any financial aid. Luckily, in 1998 Caritas set up a fund to support gypsies and a grant from them helped to make the shed more habitable.

In their first year they had a loss of 40 million lire ([pounds sterling] 13,000), which a local bank underwrote. Then more work came in and they were able to break even, but at a sacrifice to the women, who have to be laid off for some two months a year without being paid. They accept because they feel responsible for the cooperative. If there were enough orders they would be happy to work more hours, and many relatives would join in. But most firms prefer to break the law for a marginal difference in costs, by turning to housewives and pensioners who work at home and do not pay taxes or social insurance contributions.

The gypsy women have proved to be motivated, responsible and efficient workers, which makes one wonder who needs rehabilitation, the gypsies or the leaders of this prosperous area?