THERE are two sides to every story and, as a journalist, that has been drilled into me more than for most people.

Yet until recently, one side to which I had never really given much thought beyond the standard right of reply was that of gypsies and travellers.

Until this month, my only experience of them was visiting Irish Travellers who were illegally parked and very hostile towards outsiders.

Beyond that, like many, my experiences have been seeing camps beside roads or the mess they leave behind once evicted.

June is Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month, aimed at celebrating their culture and history. Getting them to share their stories is not easy, but more are beginning to in the hope of creating a better understanding.

One such person is mother-of-two Lizzie Isaacs. She has lived on a site near Exeter for 14 years, with some periods of travelling.

For the last three years the 40-year-old has been employed as a sessional trainer with the Plymouth and Devon Racial Equality Council.

Part of her job involves going into secondary schools and showing an educational DVD called The Pride, The Prejudice, which Lizzie and some fellow Romany Gypsies helped make.

She said: "When I go into schools I don't say that I'm a gyspy; the pupils think I'm an invited guest.

"Before they watch the DVD, I give them a post-it note and ask them to write down what they think they know about gypsies and travellers.

"Usually it's things like 'they smell and don't wash', 'they live in caravans', 'they steal children', 'they are nasty to horses', 'they don't pay bills' and 'they kill rabbits'.

"It's stereotypes we have grown up with when we were at school but it does not stop at school. It goes on through adulthood and right through to employment and all parts of life.

"When I collect all the notes back I ask the class how many of them have ever talked to a gypsy or traveller?

"Usually two or three hands will go up but they will have all written pretty much negative things.

"That's when I show them the film and five minutes into it they will see me in it as a gypsy. They are always usually mortified when they find out who I am. Afterwards we have a questio-and-answer session, and they often ask really good questions.

"In one school in Exeter, a 14-year-old child said to me they were really sorry because they didn't know any gypsies before that day. Sometimes they will even ask what they can do to help you.

"When that comes from a child you know that with proper education you can change public perception but there's so much negativity it's very difficult to get that across."

Lizzie comes from a family of four children. Her father, who laid asphalt for a living, died when she was four and her childhood was spent travelling during the summer months and settling with extended family and friends in winter.

Aged 14, she left school to continue the family's hawking trade but changes in the law meant they could no longer knock on doors and Lizzie ended up packing toiletries before getting married and raising a family.

"I couldn't have wished for a better childhood," recalled Lizzie. "School was quite traumatic as we did experience a lot of negativity and bullying.

"We were bought up by our parents and grandparents that the word gypsy was an insult. Our real name is Romany and our origins are from India.

"It took us 500 years to get to Britain and people thought we were Egyptians as we were dark skinned and we spoke a strange language.

"From then, society called us gypsies and almost everything negative was associated with the word.

"If you were take out the word gypsy and replace it with Muslim or Chinese in a story that would be a whole different scenario."

Lizzie's children, aged 12 and seven, have full-time schooling but it is rare for Gypsy children to finish secondary school.

Lizzie explained: "They are not safe in school. It's not just about being physically safe. If a child has to go to school pretending they are not what they are, what does that do to them?

"The child is constantly in fear their friends will find out they are a gypsy and that they will turn against them. That fear is very, very real."

Those who are educated are employed in all walks of life, yet often because they still conceal their real identity, she explained.

"Most go to work every day afraid to tell their colleagues as there is so much racism towards gypsies."

The future of gypsies and travellers in society is a worry for Lizzie.

She said: "We are living in a time of great change. There are not the stopping places that enable gypsies to travel so gypsies and travellers are becoming more settled. Being settled means education becomes a little bit easier.

"Gypsies are very good at adapting and that's why I don't believe the Gypsy race will ever die out.

"But I think it will change and move forward and will, in time, become part of society, yet still maintain our own ethnicity and culture. That's all we are fighting for."

See tomorrow's paper for an interview with Romany Gypsy Linda Broadway, who dismisses some of the myths about gypsies and travellers.