Travelers’ School Charity Newsletter Spring 2004

Computer Classroom

Phase 2 report is now available. The hard copies cost £15 each. If you are interested in how computers can be used in education, how renewable energy can work as a viable power source and how this project is benefitting travelling children and adults alike then please order a copy now.

There is sufficient funding for seven training events in the next twelve months, please contact us as soon as possible if you would like to receive training in Renewable Energy for computers, have hardware, peripherals or software to donate to the project.or would like to offer some help. The third and final phase is beginning now and extra staff will be needed throughout the coming months. We are still aiming to secure mobile Internet access before the project comes to a close in March 2006 when the final report will be written.

TSC Website

If you are a Traveller and have any ideas for the TSC website i.e things on the site you would like to see, information, Travellers stories then in a month or so we intend to re-evaluate the site and this would be a good time to include any new features people want to see. One idea we have had is to include more information on Renewable energy, how it works and how to set up systems, where to get equipment. A downloadable leaflet is also planned so people can down load the info and print it out from cyber cafes and libraries.

Software

The TSC Computer engineer Piet has just found some excellent software for making Windows applications. On the next mission of the CCP we will include this software so any kids who want to learn how to write programmes for Windows can do so. The software comes with an extensive Help file. The language is similar to Basic and is available as a free download from www.pyxia.com

The free version has the option to make .EXE files removed but £20 gets you the full version which makes .EXE files (programs that work on windows) like any other program. Piet has written a programme which is available as a free download at;

http://www.travellersschool.plus.com/freesoftware.html

This is a small programme that reminds you of things you need to do.

Gypsy sites evicted

The Annual round of evictions have begun,at least 2 Gypsies sites have been evicted. These sites are unusual as the Gypsies own the land. Some people decided that in order to prevent being evicted and in an attempt to live their lifestyle without coming into conflict with the law that they would buy caravan sites to live on. The sites were already caravan sites and have always had caravans parked on them. Having been encouraged to do this by the Government they felt that this might be a way of avoiding the constant threat of eviction and the trauma that accompanies it. Unfortunately they were wrong! The situation seems to be the same for them even though they own their own land.

We would like to raise an awareness of what these people face when evicted. The word eviction does nothing to explain the process.

The process of eviction is not carried out by the Police it is done by private companies the police are only present to prevent breach of the peace and make sure that the eviction is done in a legal manner.

At an eviction last year a child had crawled under a trailer and refused to come out. Instead of standing back and assessing the situation the first thing the Bailiffs did was to lower the legs of the trailer thus lowering the trailer onto the child underneath. This picture shows the retracted legs of the trailer. At this point the Bailiff attempts to grab the child in order to drag him out! He is totally unaware of the danger to himself as he places his head underneath the steel chassis of the trailer which if the trailer had tipped forward would have crushed his head. The people doing the evictions have very little training. According to their Website they get a 5 day training course. They appear to have no defined protocols about duty of care, the Police who are meant to monitor such incidents and make sure they are carried out safely, routinely turn there backs, many eyewitnesses have reported this. In the situation with the child under the trailer the child was not dragged out as the Bailiff became aware of the camera watching him and negotiations began. In other evictions where this level of observation wasn't present children have been dragged out and have been injured. Many cases of excess violence have been reported. The people doing these evictions should receive much more training which should include training on how to treat children and observe Health and Safety procedures. (Pictures taken from the video of the Woodside eviction, November 2003)

Andalucia

Recently Travellers at Cigharonis near Orgiva , Spain which is a dry river-bed park up and owned plot community combined have been served eviction papers. The Dragon Festival held there for a few years previously has caused some contentious issues to be raised amongst the local communities. People who have bought land have also been served with papers and it seems that the local Authorities are intent on making sure that people are dispersed. The Festival went ahead last year amongst a persistent Guardia presence on the main road,vehicle documents were the order of the day and the inconvenience put a flavour on the whole event. The intention to stop the Festival happening this year seems more resolved than ever, by the first week in March nearly sixty living vehicles had moved off to try and comply with the legal requirements. Unfortunately this means that some of the most creative projects planned for the event had to be cancelled as the people were not able to plan and organise their contributions thoroughly.

Disruption to daily life is increased due to the quarrying operation at the head of the valley beyond the areawhere people are living. After two weeks of lobbying and peaceful demonstrations by both local Spanish and Cigharonis residents the local

Environment Agency finally put a stop to the quarrying operation, stating it to be illegal.

As ever those who lose out most are the vulnerable people, there are approximately eighty young people in the area of ex-pat status. Many of them attend the local school and are doing well in their studies in Spanish. Many of these young people are falling behind in their own language literacy levels. One teenager expressed her frustration at being unable to read written English when she visits relatives in the UK, it is a daunting prospect for her to think of going to College in England. The TSC intends to investigate the European Social Risk Fund to see if there is a possibility of helping some of the young people with their literacy skills. It would be planned to involve people who live there and have a knowledge of the issues affecting those who have chosen to live abroad where they receive substantially less harassment than in the UK and occasionally, are able to buy a piece of land and live on it.

Small Grants for Travellers

The next deadline for applications for the Travellers Aid Trust is the 4th of June. Upto £250 can be awarded for small projects that benefit any kind of Traveller. Application forms from FFT or TSC

Africa on vegetable oil!

Kaye and her chidren have just returned from their trip to Africa running a Nissan Patrol on Vegetable Oil. A total of 6972 miles were completed on the trip which included working with women and children in the Sahara.

To find out more see the web site; http://www.oilmatters.co.uk