Honorary Supporters are those who are bridging gaps between faiths, eras and continents. Those who personify the universual value of equality of human beings in both rights and obligations.

Dr. Ian Hancock

Dr. Ian Hancock is a linguist, Romani scholar, and political advocate. He was born and raised in England, and is one of the main contributors in the field of studies. He is director of the Program of Romani Studies and the Romani Archives and Documentation center at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been a professor of English, linguistics, and Asian Studies since 1972.

He has represented the Romani people at the United Nations and served as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memoral Council under President Bill Clinton. He also represented the Romani people at the 1997 Rafto Prize award Ceremony.

Rajan Zed

Hindu statesman who has taken up Roma, interfaith, religion, environment, and other causes all over the world. Read opening prayers in US Senate, various state senates and houses of representatives/assemblies, counties and city councils all over USA. Invited by President of European Parliament in Brussels for a meeting to promote interfaith dialogue. Panelist for “On Faith”, a prestigious interactive conversation on religion produced by The Washington Post. Bestowed with “World Interfaith Leader Award”. President of Universal Society of Hinduism, Senior Fellow and Religious Advisor to New York headquartered Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy, Director of Interfaith Relations of Nevada Clergy Association, Spiritual Advisor to National Association of Interchurch & Interfaith Families, etc.

Contact: ranjanz@aol.com

Günter Grass passed away on 13 April 2015 (see the blog on this site). We are grateful for the work he did. May his soul rest in peace!

Günter Grass

Günter Grass was born in Dantzig in 1927. From 1946 he studied arts at the Kunstakademie Düsselforf and the Universität der Künste in West-Berlin. He was a member of the German group of writers known as group 47, whose aim was to inform and teach the German public about democracy after the Hitler era. In 1959 Günter Grass published The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel), his most famous work. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.

Long before that his interest in Romani culture made him join the Romani-P.E.N.-Club (later called Romani-PEN-Zentrum), in which Andreas Bengsh and Dr. Rajko Djuric also involved non-Roma/Sinti artists. Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Jorge Amado, Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Günter Grass all became Members.

In 1997 Günter Grass established, together with his wife Ute,  the "Stiftung zugunsten des Romavolkes", in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein.

On 8 April 2011 Günter Grass decided to support the "Commemorating the Future Text" and with that our Artists' Initiative.

Contact: Glockengiesser Strasse 21, 23552 Lübeck, BRD

Phone: +49 451 794 800   E-mail: hohsoling@steidle.de

Juan de Dios Ramírez-Heredia

 Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia combines his work as a journalist and lawyer with the presidency of the Romani Union. Born in Puerto Real (Cádiz) in 1942, he has an extensive political career that began in 1977 when he was elected as a Member of the Parliament in the first democratic elections that took place in Spain. Until the end of the term, he held the following positions: Vice President of the Culture Committee of the Congress of Deputies, Vice President of the Parliamentary Control Commission of RTVE, acting president and he also was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

In 1983 he was appointed as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a position he held until 1985. On 1 January 1986, he was appointed as a Member of the European Parliament and he was reelected in 1987, 1989 and 1994. During that period he held positions of various kinds, among which we highlight the next ones: Vice President of the Information Subcommittee of the European Parliament, Member of the Citizen’s Commission on Law and Rights, Member of the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs and Member of the Subcommittee of Human Rights.

Contact: u-romani@pangea.org

Phone: +34 93 412 77 45

Monic Hendrickx

Monic Hendrickx is an actress born on the third of December 1966, in Steevensbeek, Northern Brabant in the south of Holland. She was the second daughter to Joep Hendrickx and Annemarie Bergmann. She has an older sister Ingrid and a younger brother Xander.

The family moves to Paramaribo, capital to Surinam, South America. That’s where Monic sees her first movie on the big screen. It was a Bollywood movie filled with singing and dancing and she thought it was magical.

When Monic is seven years old the family returns to a small village in Brabant, Deurne where she finishes high school 1984. In the same year she plays her first role, "little blue riding hood" in a school cabaret and she is in a girls' cabaret when people tell her: ‘You should do something with that... !’ After various jobs and courses she finds a safe haven to work and explore at the Academy for Drama in Eindhoven, where she graduates in June 1991. Since then Monic Hendrickx has always been on stage, television and in movies.

Monic fell in love with film-acting during her first leading role in "The Polish Bride" in 1998, directed by Karim Traidia. Leading parts in ‘Nynke’ from Pieter Verhoeff,  ‘The South’ by Martin Koolhoven, ‘Leef!’ by Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen and ‘Nadine’ by Erik De Bruyn prove her versatility and courage.

Supporting roles such as in "Diep" and "de Uitverkorene" have immediately great depth thanks to her.

Apparently she switches shape effortlessly. From an Afghani refugee in "Unfinished Sky" to a politically engaged vintner in "Stellenbosch" to the cool gangster-mother Carmen in "Penoza". She can have the face of a film-star but also the familiar face of the neighbor. Just as variable is her voice. Hendrickx is a language virtuoso, who can act in convincing Polish, Afghani, Frysian or South African.

She won a lot of awards at home and abroad.

She already won The Best Actress Award three times at the Dutch Film Festival. In 2002 Monic played a main part in the feature film ‘Zus en Zo’ from director Paula van der Oest. This movie was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003.

Monic has also received International prizes for Best Actress in Canada, at the Newport Beach Film Festival in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival USA, and in Argentina on the Bueanos Aires Film Festival as well as in Rouen, France and an IF and AFI award in Australia. For her role as Carmen in the TV series Penoza she recently won a Sound and Image Award in 2010.       InterInternational Film                                                                                                                                                         

Monic lives in Zaandam with Ralph with whom she has a daughter Javaj J Saroeni, born in 2001. In 2007 she founded Stichting Small Change, a foundation that supports children in a Township in South Africa. www.small-change.nl  Romani Culture has always fascinated Monic Hendrickx who is well disposed towards the Romani Nation.

Rajko Djuric

Prof. PhD Rajko Djuric was born on 3 October 1947, in Malo Orašje in Serbia.

Teaching subjects: Romani Language, Culture of Speech, Children's Literature, European Context of National Minorities,

Education:

- Philosophy Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University.

- PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University - Thesis: Culture of the Roma in Yugoslavia.

Working Experience:

          -  Contributor of The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) contributor (Language and Literature Department, Department for Social Science). SANU has published his book with the scientific commentaries "The Roma Riddles"  and several scientific works in the SANU collections.

            In the period 1970-2010, he published his 40 studies about the Roma history, history of the Roma holocaust, the Roma literature, language and culture. His studies on the Roma History, History of the Roma Holocaust, the Roma Language Grammar and The History of The Roma Literature particularly represent the top of the Romology science in the world today.

The majority of Djuric's books have been published in German, French, English, Italian, Hungarian, Romanian, Macedonian, Slovak language.

Scientific Activities:

 - 20 scientific works and about 200 scientific essays published in domestic and foreign magazines as: Romani Grammar, History of The Roma, History of The Roma Holocaust, History of The Roma Literature (on Serbian, German, Slovenian, Hungarian and Romanian language), The Verbs in Romani and Their Etymology, Dictionary of the Roma Symbols 

- Author of the unit: The Roma, in the Encyclopaedia: "Prosveta", Belgrade; JLZ, Zagreb

- He took part in the numerous specialist meetings and conference organized by SANU,JAZU, INALCO, UNESCO, ECPD, etc.

Artistic Activities:

- Author of the several poem collections published on Serbo, German, French, Polish, Italian, and Spanish.

- Author of the radio drama "Hidden Word" awarded the European award in Spain

- Co-author (with the serbian writer Sveta Lukic ) of the drama "History of disease";

- Co- screenwriter in the film "Dom za vesanje" directed by Emir Kusturica.

- Co-author of the drama "Zoran Djindjic" (with Zlatko  Pakovic).

- President Roma Center of International PEN

Awards:

 - Ironworks "Sisak" Award (together with Danilo Kis and Radomir Konstatinovic).

- Fund for Free Expression Award, New York

- "Kurt Tucholsky" Award, Swedish PEN Centre

- Institute "Open Society" Award, Budapest

- Institute for Culture Award, Madrid

Language Skills: - Romani, Serbian, German, Russian

Contact: Prof. dr. Rajko Djuric, Makedonska 31, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Mobele: + 381 65 831 70 90   E-mail: rdjuric@beotel.net