We commemorate equal work rights and bring to the attention of Europe's employees and employers that together we can improve the working conditions and access of the Roma people in the labor market. We celebrate and revaluate on Roma people - our everyday heroes – with whom we are very proud of and need as an example for the next generations!

Anatoli Georgiev from Bulgaria-Each day, every lesson, he gives his heart, his inspiration, his knowledge and skills to help his students realize that classroom classes are not just forty minutes of boring grammar, lexicon, reading, writing, listening and talking, but to realize that these are precious moments, which are a rehearsal for their future life and realization!

Dimitrinka Borissova is a nurse from Bulgaria. For many years she used to work as a health mediator while once she decided to continue her study and graduate university as well.

Pepa Karadzova is a Roma doctor from Bulgaria who has recently graduated from medicine. At present she works as a doctor at the Military Hospital in Sofia and has just gone to her first mission in Africa. “I also dream that the wind of change comes in our community and that after 20 years we do not have to talk about integration and education of Roma!”

Raycho Chaprazov is one of the first Roma camera man, who used to work for one of the biggest national television in Bulgaria. “I received my first camera when I was in the 8th grade. My father brought it to me on his return from Russia. The pleasure of seeing what appeared on the white paper was unbelievable.”

Julius Mika from Czech Republic graduated from a technical school with training as a decorator/painter. Julius now hands his experience over to others. He has started to work as a social worker and helps Roma pupils avoid enrolment into the “practical schools.” Recently Julius Mika is engaged for the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) – a Roma-led international organization combating anti-Roma racism and human rights which have consultative status with the Council of Europe as well as with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Magdalena Karvayova from Czech Republic: “My daddy and mom were telling me that I should be proud of being Roma. That I should not be ashamed of my origin, and that I am primarily human being as they are. And at that time, the feeling in me came into existence that when I will grow up, I would change the world. Or I would help kids who would go through the same behaviour - so I'm going to became a psychologist. Or I will change the law so that it does not happen anymore - so I'm going to became a lawyer.”

Laura Farkas from Hungary: „I chose this profession, because I felt several times lonely in my childhood and was very grateful when somebody helped me in a difficult situation. I myself wanted to help those who are in need, wanted to achieve more, remain and work in the city.”

Zsolt Kalányos from Hungary: “I have been working as a decorator for 25 years.  I had also worked as a mentor in the social sphere, but currently I work for an enterprise. I plan to start a business as an entrepreneur in the future. I love my works and I can maintain my family from the money I earn. I suggest the Roma children to study and learn languages as well, that is the requirement of the society.”

Oana Parnica-Nicolae – Social services Inspector from Romania: „We are six brothers at home and three of came out black and three white. . I was wondering why is my sister white and I'm black, so I would steal the kitchen dishes whitener to rub it on my face to bleach it, because I thought my mother didn’t wash me well. " In Bucharest, we were about forty trying to pass the exam to get to college, but of all forty only six of us got in. We had the habit of studying and telling each other every lesson at night and I used to make bets with my colleagues who can learn more lessons. This is how I managed to get to college.

Eugen Raportoru – Roma artist & painter from Romania :"I feel joy and honor that I exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London! My biggest exhibition in my own country, at the Palace of Parliament, forced me not to become lazy but to move on. That's what anyone has to do in any field of work. Not to stand still when you get to a point and do not relax after the last step you made. The world is waiting for more from you. That's what I've learned to do: always be a student, permanently seek new things, that’s the way to live!"

Ljiljana Lekić  from Serbia: „To this day, the main thing that comes to my mind is that trust and confidence is only won when leading by example – a point of which parents of my children like to remind me in the dusty and muddy settlements: “you keep telling us that education is our children’s way out of this mud, but you are the one who keeps coming back to us! Come to think of it, it is really not that hard to be a role model. They mostly are people who do what they love. I love my work. When you do something you love, you become the best version of yourself, and that means you made it in life!”

Marina Simeunović from Serbia -Three exams short of a master's degree in law, Marina Simeunović can boast a flourishing career in the civil society sector in Serbia and a job at the Vojvodina Provincial Office of the Ombudsman, where she works to break down institutional stereotypes to enable more Roma girls to follow in her footsteps and blaze their own trails to education and opportunity.

Nataša Tasić from Serbia: „My own role model has always been my mom. She fought hard for all three of her children, often not understood by people around her and sometime I feel like this is still the case today. Still, she got us all through school which proved to give us great start in life for each one of us.”

David from Slovakia: „I want to be out on the streets to listen to the people and see their real problems. I am convinced that without that, it is not possible to do social work.”

Jožka´s view of the surrounding world has been blocked by a high concrete fence. The Municipality built it to fence in the poor Roma houses and shacks, in which more than eight hundred people live in Slovakia. Since 2014 when Jožka became the Assistant in the Community Centre. She helps the children with the Slovak language, assists them in the after-school club and studies and plays with them in the Community Centre.