Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral supports the Roma people
“The Orthodox Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral is active in supporting the Roma people through numerous manifestations and humanitarian actions, such as in clothes and shoes for poor Roma families, not only in Podgorica, capital of Montenegro, but in Pljevlje as well, where our Metropolitante helped many Romas. They also get help in food and some Roma families are users of Church soup kitchens”, co-president of European Union of Romas and director of Democratic Cente of Romas Ivan Toskic said for the Church Radio “Svetigora” on the occasion of the International Roma Day, the 8th of April.
Ivan Toskic is also editor of the programme “Trag duse” that is broadcast on this radio of the Serbian Church Metropolitanate.
“As an Orthodox Roma, I think that our faith is the most beautiful in the world. Because of it, my wife and I have translated the book written by His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije ‘There is no better faith than Christian’ into Roma and we hope that with God’s help, when this pandemics has been ended, we will present this book, probably at the end of May, the book that is meant, first of all, for the young Romas” - said Mr. Toskic.
The Roma Day is celebrated on April 8 and is a day for promoting of Roma culture and raising awareness of the problems the Romas face. It was officially founded in 1990 in Serock, Poland, the place of the Fourth International Roma Congress of International Roma Union (IRU), in commemoration of the first major international meeting of Roma representatives held in Chelsea near London from 7 to 12 April 1971. At that congress, a decision was made that the song Djelem, jajem (I’ve been wandering…) be the Roma anthem and that the flag shold a blue-green with a red wheel in the middle, a symbol of progress and movement as well as of Roma migration during their history.
Source: Metropolitante of Montenegro and the Littoral (translated by Sanja Simic de Graaf)
