Slovakia preps isolated Roma for switch to euro (AFP)

SACA-KOSICE, Slovakia (AFP) - Slovakia, which adopts the euro in six months, is putting its money where its mouth is with a drive to help its long-neglected gypsy minority with the switch to the official EU currency. The Slovak Central Bank teamed up with a Roma theatre troupe to devise an upbeat show that took to the stage this week in Saca-Kosice, a suburb of Slovakia's far-flung second city in the country's east. At 400,000, Slovakia's gypsies or Roma represent seven percent of the population with many living in isolated ghettos, often without roads, running water, sewerage or electricity and where poverty is rampant. "Most of those of working age are jobless and have a very limited education," said Central Bank spokeswoman Jana Kovacova. They require "special attention because they are at one and the same time a minority... [read full story]