LUNÍK IX V ČASE PANDEMIE

The events of the rapid onset of health threats, which resulted in a global pandemic and an officially confirmed state of emergency in the Slovak Republic in a few days, affected the inhabitants of the Luník IX housing estate in Košice in many ways. For a long time, Luník IX avoided the pandemic. The first cases of disease appear until the second wave of disease in autumn 2020. While in the spring, some Roma marginalized localities were closed in the district of Spišská Nová Ves, the inhabitants of Luník IX more or less enjoyed freedom. This study maps the almost annual pandemic situation in the largest concentrated Roma settlement in Slovakia. The aim of the article is to point out the situation in Luník IX from the onset of the pandemic until the beginning of 2021, when the settlement found itself in partial isolation, due to the growing number of people with positive results for the disease. How was the year 2020 different for the inhabitants of Luník IX? What restrictions were the inhabitants exposed to? To what extent could the activities of the non-profit organization ETP Slovakia – Centre for Sustainable Development (further ETP Slovakia), which has been operating in Luník IX for many years, be implemented in the Roma community? The research used oral-historical interviews conducted with employees of the non-profit organization ETP Slovakia, as well as other types of written materials (mainly decrees, laws or articles in the media). The authors worked mainly with historical and ethnographic methods. Based on the above materials, they compiled a picture of life in a segregated part of the city at the time of the pandemic.