Not just music and dancing. Stories of famous Romanis who are integrated into Ukrainian society

We proceed with familiarising you with interesting people from the realm of culture, science or activism who are creating their own cases. Each one of these people is a member of the Romani community—and is, at the same time, a part of Ukrainian civic society.

You can read Part One of this report HERE

Natali TOMENKO

Natali Tomenko is a co-founder of ARKA NGO (Youth Agency for Roma Culture Advocacy), a cultural manager, a human rights defender, and an artist.  She is thirty years old. Natali Tomenko was born in the city of Kremenchuk, Poltava Province. She graduated from Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. Since then, one of the co-professions of this Romani activist has been creating artistic and cultural contexts in the optics of the two nations: Romani and Ukrainians. For the past couple of years, Natali Tomenko has been engaged in human rights advocacy, as she has been co-ordinating one of the largest human rights organisations in Ukraine: ARKA.

In her activity, Natali focuses upon preserving the cultural heritage of Romanis, as the main subject of ARKA’s activities is the Romani cultural and artistic heritage.

«We have been working in this area for over five years now. We have held a number of events, cultural festivals, events focusing on the preservation of memory about Romani genocide. Every year, we bring young people together to conduct an informal education and training courses for Ukrainian and Romani youth. We make sure there is this cultural dialogue between the two of them; we tell them how important it is to preserve memory about our ancestors—something that should be preserved», - says Natali Tomenko.

Janusz PANCHENKO

Janusz Panchenko is a Romani historian, researcher, translator, and civil activist.

Janusz is referred to as the “custodian of the ancient language”, as one of his major sectors of activity is to preserve and codify the Romani language (Volokh and Serv dialects). Janusz is 33 years old. He was born in Kherson and had lived in Kakhovka before the full-scale Russian invasion. He has survived the Russian occupation at the time when Kherson Province was occupied in the very first months. Today, Janusz lives in Germany where he maintains ties with Ukraine as he pursues his civil activism abroad.

His family story is far from an easy one. His grandad and grandma have been wandering (nomadising) for many years and decades. That was their usual lifestyle. Ultimately, they settled down and got accustomed to another, more social way of life. Janusz received higher education and a Master’s degree; he was an awardee of the Romani Education Foundation scholarship and a leader of Romano Tkhan, an NGO which, before the great war, was engaged in getting the Romanis of Southern Ukraine together. Due to the Russian invasion, Janusz has never been able to implement his dream of setting up a Romani human rights advocacy organisation in his home city of Kakhovka. In addition to his human rights advocacy, Janusz also translates famous 20th century Romani, Ukrainian, and Polish poets. He researches culture and traditions of his ancestors. He has created a dictionary of the Volokh dialect of Romani language. He is also a voice actor as he creates cartoons and fairy tales in the Romani language.

Volodymyr YAKOVENKO

Volodymyr Yakovenko is the founder of ARKA, an NGO for Romani culture advocacy. Volodymyr is 35 years old. He was born in Kremenchuk and lives there today, too. Volodymyr has worked in state-owned businesses and organisations for a couple of years. He used to be the co-ordinator of the secretariat of "Interdepartamental Working Group for Implementation of a Strategy for Protection and Integration of the Romani minority into Ukrainian society before the year 2020" at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Presently, Volodymyr mostly focuses on lobbying for the interests of Romani communities on international platforms, creating new platforms to amplify voices of Romani activists and those involved with the topic of ethnic minorities of Ukraine. Volodymyr actively collaborates with European partners from both state and non-state sector; he participates in international conferences and discussions; he liaises with foreign delegates and takes every effort to create new senses to look for ideas and their implementation, as far as the Romani communities of Ukraine are concerned. And, to crown it all, Volodymyr also co-ordinates the activities of the entire ARKA team and also handles grants management.

Petro RUSANENKO

Petro Rusanenko is an activist, actor, and human rights advocate. Two times internally displaced person, Petro is originally from the Donetsk Province. He has survived the occupation back in 2014 and was then forced to move abroad. Petro Rusanenko has graduated from Kyiv National Theatre, Cinema, and TV University named after Ivan Karpenko-Karyi. Before the full-scale Russian invasion, Petro has faced discrimination due to his Donetsk region origins. He has often heard phrases like “you are from Donetsk, hence you are a separatist”.

At the time, Petro has been a student of the Central European University in Budapest. And he was supposed to have his internship in March’2022: to go work with children and teenagers—but, due to the Russian aggression, he had to go abroad. Now, he has graduated. He lives and works in Berlin. The focus of his activities is civic activism which is intertwined with mass media. At the same time, Petro Rusanenko collaborates with Ukrainian Viche NGO which counters Russian disinformation and brings truth about the war in Ukraine to the German and European audience.

Myroslav HORVAT

Myroslav Horvat is a Romani-Ukrainian politician, living and working in the city of Uzhhorod, Transcarpathia Province. He is the chairman of the Transcarpathian Youth NGO «Romani Cherkhen» («The Romani Star»). He has been engaged in civil society activity among the Romani youth. He graduated from the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management. In the year 2007, he received his higher education diploma, majoring in Jurisprudence (Bachelor of Law). For the past couple of years, Myroslav Horvat has been famous as a Transcarpathian Romani politician. He is a City Councillor of Uzhhorod City Council and is also Director of the Department for Social Policy of Uzhhorod City Council. Being a civil society activist, he is engaged in human rights advocacy, defending the rights and interests of the Romani ethnic minority in Ukraine. He assists in providing legal information and counselling for the Romani population.

Photo: open sources