Expected, desired and necessary meeting of Roma activists from across the country. 87 Roma from 21 organizations, plus representatives of some non-Roma non-governmental organizations working on issues of the community. The forum, organized by coalitions "Amalipe," "Intellect" and association "Roma - Lom" took place on 2 of October in "Ramada" hotel in Sofia.
In their opening remarks for the meeting Nikolay Kirilov and Deyan Kolev stressed the need to consolidate the Roma movement for common advocacy.
Lili Makaveeva, chairman of the "Intellect" (Ms Makaveeva is chairman of the Association "Integro", which is among the founders of the "Intellect", but not as chairman of the coalition), stated her belief that the convergence process is desired and expected of all Roma organizations, and this is a guarantee of agreement between them.
Inspired words were pronounced by Mensur Haliti from "Roma Initiative" Program in Budapest, which financed the event.
He recalled the struggles of Bulgarian Roma for electoral and human rights at the beginning of the last century, noted implacability of some of today's Roma leaders against discriminatory, isolation policy of Bulgarian politicians etc.
We live in difficult times, said Haliti, in the general discourse of the nationalists if we are not Bulgarians or less Bulgarians, although we live on these lands for centuries. Further Roma leader spoke about the sustainability of Roma "We hold the monopoly of peace, of mutual understanding, though hatred is huge ... We have to go back to the main pillars of the Roma in order to have the strength to face threats and killings after the unstoppable hatred ... "
It is not enough to blame others for our situation - said Mensur Haliti - we must integrate, we need political thinking and political maturity ...
It's up to us if we would leave this meeting stronger and more confident, highlighted speaker.
Presentations on Roma issues, on integration state policy were presented by Vasil Chaprazov, Milen Milanov, Maria Metodieva, Rumyan Rusinov, Dimitar Georgiev, Stella Kostova, Ognyan Isaev and others. Active participation in the debate took Sasho Kovachev, Roberto Marinov, Gancho Iliev, Spaska Mihaylova, Sergi Karakashev and others.
Participants of the conference adopted a declaration to be seen here.
Source: Agency "Drom Dromendar", http://ddrom.net/bg/component/content/article/41-a-front/414-o-dunas.html
List of participants, see here.
Deyan Kolev presentation on the topic Roma education: more options or more obstacles are provided by the new education act for Roma education, see here
