International Roma Day

“With approximately 10 -12 million people living in Europe, Roma is the largest ethnic minority in Europe. For decades they are subject of suspicion, mythology, discrimination, deportation, slavery and genocide living outside the boundaries of the society.

The more the world is erasing borders, the more its citizens should break prejudices and live as free people. Europe is full of Roma who are students and teachers, medical doctors and nurses, lawyers, engineers, musicians, artists.

No one is good or bad just because of ethnic origin, and besides, every one of us in one way or another can be minority labeled by the others. A country can never be prosperous if hundreds of thousands of people are switched off the society plans for development.

There should not be people with unused and not fully recovered potential.

Everyone today can contribute for the common wealth of the future. No one who has prejudices or fears from another race, color or religion, can be free.  And by provoking conversations we must work for more and more minds to break out the self-created prisons.

PAIRS project aims at collecting good examples of sectoral and local polices that have served effective inclusion of Roma communities in Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy and Romania. If you have a story that is worth sharing, finds on Facebook or write at ypelovska@osi.bg. Or just share this text.”