Being part of the Roma national minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as it is today, is not easy. Just as it is not easy for any minority that is not taken care of in terms of respect for the basic human rights and the fulfillment of the basic existential conditions necessary for life.
But it was the environment which I came from that increased my ability to see things and take action. Many children from my environment did not have access to education or the basic conditions for a normal life and childhood. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to go to school in Kakanj, where I live, and that today, when I am twenty-six years old, I study law and am able to work on myself and improve my knowledge and skills. At the same time, I have a duty to share everything I have learned with others, primarily with those most vulnerable and in need. As a member of the Roma national minority, most of my activism is realized through the NGO Roma Support Center “Romalen”, and I also work as a moderator for the ROMACTED programme, implemented by the Council of Europe and the European Commission. The aim of all this is to help the Roma community, but at the same time to understand others and different ones as well as to help them better understand the Roma.
The largest number of activities is aimed at promoting education in the Roma communities, and I believe that this is the first barrier that the Roma community and a wider society must overcome in order to achieve inclusion. With better education, mutual understanding and respect, we can achieve stability and better prospects for the future, which implies a stable and long-lasting peace. A project like the UNFPA project and everything I had the opportunity to hear and learn give me confidence and motivation for further work and progress. Because I believe that it is necessary to provide young people with as many opportunities as possible for all forms of both formal and informal education, which, in addition to having the opportunity to learn and acquire new skills, will allow them to meet other and different people, and in this way, they will have the opportunity to change and shape themselves into better people. That is why I hold the title of UNFPA ambassador with great pride, wishing for as much new knowledge as possible, but also for as many acquaintances as possible in all our future meetings with the common goal of building a positive change, stability and peace, which we desperately need for the sake of a better life for everyone.
