World Roma Day was marked today at the City Administration in Smederevo with a gathering organised by the Union of Roma Non-Governmental Organisations “Smederevski forum”.
After the national anthem “Bože pravde” and the Roma anthem “Đelem, Đelem” were played, Miloš Jovanović, a final-year student at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, spoke about the origins, history and culture of the Roma and their suffering in the Second World War, and took the opportunity to thank the local government for its highly committed approach to the integration of Roma in the City of Smederevo.
“Through the implementation of the Local Action Plan aimed at improving your position in the community to which we all belong, and through certain projects and activities we have carried out in practice in the previous period, we have taken significant steps towards your stronger inclusion in every respect.
We are pleased that more and more young children are attending kindergarten, that children regularly attend school, that a growing number of young Roma men and women are finishing secondary school and that some of them are also choosing to enrol in and complete university.
That is a good path and a clear signal that together we can do a great deal to eradicate prejudice, discrimination, inequality, social exclusion and poverty,” said the Mayor of Smederevo, Jasmina Vojinović, congratulating everyone on World Roma Day.
To mark World Roma Day, certificates of appreciation for successful cooperation were presented to the City of Smederevo, the Centre for Social Work, Preschool Institution “Naša radost” and long-standing members of the Council for Improving the Position of Roma of the City of Smederevo, Marijana Aleksić and Slaviša Stošić.
