R o m e – Italy’s Baptist Union has protested the exclusion of Romani and Sinti from Italian society. Leading Baptists, including the church’s President, Anna Maffei (Rome), used their “Camper of Friendship” to visit six Romani camps throughout Italy. Their intention was to become acquainted with the living conditions of Italy’s approximately 150.000 Sinti and Romani and to express support for them. For many Italians, Romani exist in a “forgotten world”, where they suffer from prejudice, violence, discrimination and racism. More contact with such persons is necessary if we are to help them improve their conditions of living. Rev. Maffei decried our forgetfulness regarding the fact that all people have been created equal in the eyes of God. Prejudice towards Romani has led to accusations, suspicion, separation, indifference, injustice and violence. “We must break this perverse spiral of marginalisation, beginning with ourselves,” she urged.

The Baptist delegation was shocked by a visit to the Romani camp“Via Salone”, opened near Rome by the city’s local government. The camp has no access to public transportation. It is surrounded by a two-metre-high metal fence and has guards at the gate. The group’s daily journal states they had to wait two hours at the gate before being granted entrance. Nevertheless, the camp with its 1.000 occupants is considered to be among the best sites. The camp’s inhabitants are seeking desperately to live normally within the context of their culture, yet they are forced to live in a ghetto labelled a “village”.

The Baptists were nevertheless impressed by the “Il Dado” community in Turin, which Romani had renovated with their own hands. The city government had given them a dilapidated building to use after an earlier camp with 250 inhabitants was destroyed by fire. Today, this community consists not only of Romani – it also includes Iranians, Somalis and Italians. The wall of the building is emblazoned with the slogan: “We defend our dreams, making them come true.”

As a sign of friendship, Christians from the Sinti congregation of Marghera near Venice presented the Baptist President with a leather-bound Bible. Further stops included Florence, Naples and Bari.

In Bari, the visiting Baptists participated in a seminar held by a local Pentecostal congregation. It was entitled: “Romani and Sinti in Italy; the Unknown and the Excluded”. Elena Levak (Venice), a jobless, Roma member of the Baptist delegation, reported on her own past experiences. If she mentions in a job interview that she is a “gypsy”, the interview is usually ended immediately. “I am condemned by others, I must hide my identity,” she concluded. Yet the situation is very different in her Christian faith - she understands that God has accepted her completely. She suggests that every person should be judged strictly as an individual and never because of his or her ethnicity.

The „Camper of Friendship“ was on the road in cooperation with the “Refugee and Migrant Services” of the “Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy“. One reason for the tour was the fact that 2010 has been designated "Year of European Churches Responding to Migration”.

Italy’s Baptist Union consists of 117 congregations with roughly 6.300 members.