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International Roma Day
7 April 2010
On 8 April, International Roma Day will be marked by many countries around the world. It is a day used to celebrate Romani culture and raise awareness of the issues facing Roma people.
Roma are the largest minority group in Europe, and there are estimated to be around 12 million Roma people worldwide, with many concentrated in the former Soviet-bloc countries such as Czech Republic and Hungary.
International Roma Day was instituted in 1990 in Warsaw, Poland, where the fourth congress of the International Roma Union (IRU) was held. The date was chosen because on 8 April 1971, the very first international meeting of Roma representatives was held in England. The meeting brought together Roma from around the world, including representatives from the former Yugoslavia, the former Czechoslovakia and France.
The Roma people have suffered from discrimination and even extermination, along with the Jews, in the Second World War. Discrimination still continues throughout Europe – in education, housing, health, social services and employment. Many of the children growing up in the kind of large-scale, residential institutions Lumos is working to shut down are from Roma families.
Lumos works to transform the lives of disadvantaged children by ending systematic institutional care. If you would like to support Lumos’ work in helping children out of institutions and into care which is right for their needs, please click here.
