HERO: Housing and Empowerment for Roma

My name is Pavlína Žigová. I’ve had a lot of troubles in life. My settlement home is falling apart, and my neighbours have been insulting and threatening me. So I started saving money in a savings account for what I wanted (a house).
I’ve been through a lot – my husband passed away, so I’m alone. I didn’t really know what to do, but I was still firmly determined that as long as I lived, I must improve my life, by building my own little house elsewhere. When my husband was alive, we applied for a loan [via HERO] for materials for the house. After he died, I was afraid that they wouldn’t give me the loan, but fortunately, that was not the case. I’m glad they are helping me – they have just brought me bricks, and Jaro (a construction teacher) is helping me to build the house because I have no one else to rely on.
I wouldn’t have been able to build my little house alone, because I don’t know how it’s done, so I would like to thank Jaro, Julo, and Rado. I’m glad I’ll be able to live here and no one will torment me – no one will hurt me in the house that I’m building, thanks to you. I will happily live in my new house in health and happiness until old age.

We don’t want to live with our parents – we want to be independent. It wasn’t difficult to get
started – we saved the money, and you (projekt DOM.ov) helped us to arrange the rest.

We want to live with our family in better conditions than before, in a legal house. The children are looking forward to their own rooms. In order to obtain a loan, I had to pay off my smaller debts.

I planned to build a house as soon as I started a family. I saved money because I didn’t want to depend on my parents. I was raised in a way that my father took care of us, and I feel obligated to take care of my family.

Projekt DOM.ov helped me the most with handling documents, papers, building permits, and other paperwork. I am employed and work in a three-shift operation, so I might have been able to handle the paperwork for building the house myself, but it definitely wouldn’t have been as quick as with the help of the Projekt DOM.ov. I didn’t have to take vacations; I didn’t always have to be personally present at the various offices – the employees of the Projek DOM.ov took care of everything. Within 3-4 months, I had a building permit, whereas it might have taken me a year and cost a lot more money. They also helped me with the land, especially in communicating with the former mayor, and they handled it very quickly. Thanks to being a client in the HERO project, I obtained land, a building permit, and a loan for building the house, for which I am very grateful.

We want to have our own home. There are many of us, and we don’t have water here.

I want to get out of the apartment building as soon as possible. I want a new life. There’s a stench and mess everywhere. We are afraid to let our children out into the hallway.

We want to live independently, especially from our grandchildren. There is also a problem with the noise in the apartment building; sometimes you can’t sleep, and there’s a problem with mess and garbage everywhere. No one mows the loan and there are rubbish piles everywhere.

I don’t have the means to build a house on my own. We want to try it. We want to become independent. We live in a flat with eight people.

We want thighs to be better for us, especially for the children. We don’t have running water here, only a well.

I must improve my life. I wouldn’t have been able to build my little house alone, because I don’t know how it’s done. I took out a loan so I would have something to build with. I will happily live in the new house until my old age.

We don’t want to live with our parents – we want to be independent. Getting started wasn’t challenging – we saved up the money, and with the assistance of Projekt DOM.ov, we sorted out the rest.

Within 3-4 months, I obtained a building permit, a process that could have otherwise stretched over a year and spent cost a lot more money. […] Thanks to my participation in the HERO project, I secured land, a building permit, and a construction loan for my house, for which I’m very grateful.