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  • International Romani Day

    International Romani Day 8th April 2023

    International Romani Day is celebrated on April 8 each year. The annual day honours the first major international meeting of Romani delegates which was held in April 1971 in Chelsfield near London. This international cultural awareness day celebrates Roma’s culture and history, art, and valuable contributions of Roma to our societies.

     It’s also a day to acknowledge and highlight the different challenges facing the Romani population — one of the largest minority groups in Europe today. Even in modern times, the Romani people still battle systemic discrimination, poverty, and social exclusion. 

    Today, International Romani Day is recognized by all European and international organizations and institutions. 

    Here's a clip with Alina Serban, an invisible Roma, raise awareness of the issues that Romani people face


    We were lucky at Enfield to have a talk by our very own Donna Dunn and her sister Reggan – many of you will know Donna from Floristry - What you may not have known is that Donna & Reggan are the adopted Daughters of Sylvia Dunn, the founder of the National Association of Gypsy Women.

    Donna and Reggan told us about their Trailblazing mum, and their life and experiences.

    they spoke of discrimination that was hurled towards many traveller families, and how their mum lead the way campaigning for fair and equal rights for travellers. Clearly way before her time she embraced equality by suggesting at the 5th World Romani Congress in Prague (2001), that instead of having one representative from each country who were usually men, there should be one man and one woman, to enhance gender equality. A few years later, Sylvia travelled to Strasbourg (France) with a delegation of Romani women, to seek justice for GRT communities in the UK.
    This work is still going on with Reggan and Donna following in their mums footsteps promoting a society that gives full respect and understating to every single person, regardless of heritage, gender or background, we are all people, trying our best. 

    Following this talk we discovered that even in our community, we have some invisible Romani at Capel, and so we wanted to highlight this day to say that we support and encourage you to be proud of your culture and who you are.