08/28/2002

"I only want a house," Jovan, 42, Roma minority currently displaced in Serbia.

Serbia- Jovan, his wife Maria, and their five children live in a one-room mud home in Southern Serbia. They gave away a sixth child as a gift to family members who were unable to bear children. Jovan and his family are Roma but choose to be referred to as Serbs in order to avoid discrimination. Living in Kosovo throughout the duration of the conflict, Jovan, Maria, and the two eldest children witnessed the slayings of Jovan's brother and 16-year-old nephew. A business and home owner while in Kosovo, Jovan and his family now rely upon donations from community members, and meager wages received through gray market agricultural activities. Their mud home shares a wall with a stable where a cow resides. Two steps out the front door is a pen filled with their neighbor's six pigs.