Manuela Federl

Manuela Federl has over 15 years of experience as a journalist. She studied languages, economics, and cultural studies with a concentration in Romance studies.
Following her studies, Manuela spent five years working as a journalist for a private broadcaster. Since then, she has pursued a career as an independent documentary filmmaker and journalist, collaborating with various television networks and producing content for cinema. In 2016, she received the Short Plus Award for her feature film, 100 Hours of Lesbos.

For the past two years, Manuela has been traveling to various countries, capturing social issues through photography and written narratives.

THE ROMA PRINCESSES

“Once upon a time there was a princess in the Roma ghetto. Society's racism and discrimination trapped her in the slum. Nevertheless, a brave prince tried to free her from the clutches of poverty and place the world at her feet.”
A dream that many girls in the Roma settlements probably have..

The girl from this fairy tale lives in Trebišov, one of the largest Roma ghettos in Slovakia. Around 7,000 people live here under precarious conditions in cobbled-together barracks or run-down tenements. Most apartments have no sewage system, no showers, no toilets and no kitchen. There is one single well for all residents. Trebišov, in eastern Slovakia, is one of around 800 settlements that exist, according to the 2019 Atlas of Roma Communities.

Approximately 450,000 Roma live in Slovakia, making up about ten percent of the population and forming the country’s largest minority. However, from an early age, many Roma children face significant educational challenges. According to a 2022 European Union study, two-thirds of Roma children attend schools exclusively for Roma students.

One such child, the girl from the fairy tale, goes to an all-Roma school in her settlement. At home, many of these children speak Romani, their native language, with their families. Due to a lack of preschools in these communities, they often start school with limited knowledge of Slovak, the country's primary language. Consequently, many are placed in specialized schools exclusively for Roma students, where the curriculum over nine years covers content typically taught to Slovak children in just four. This gap in education makes advancing to secondary school an enormous challenge, if not impossible, for most Roma students.

Discrimination and limited access to education prevent young Roma from escaping the cycle of poverty. According to Slovakia's Ministry of the Interior, nearly half of the Roma population—48 percent—are unemployed, with most relying on day labor for income. This lack of stable work leaves many without a regular routine or hope for a better future, creating a heavy psychological burden. The resulting sense of hopelessness has led many young people to struggle with addiction to alcohol or drugs.
No other population group in Europe faces such challenging living conditions. As a result, the average life expectancy for Roma is ten years shorter than that of other Slovaks.

The harsh reality for girls in the Trebišov Roma ghetto is that most will never earn a high school diploma, many will have their first child before reaching adulthood, and few will ever leave the settlement, spending their lives in a constant struggle for survival.