Marina Brezar of Črnomelj

Proposer: Institute of Education and Culture of Črnomelj, Nada Žagar MA

She encountered formal education upon enrolling in a Primary Education for Adults course. After successfully completing this she enrolled in the year before last in a course of vocational education in order to qualify as a sales person. Moreover she has been constantly acquiring new knowledge and disseminating this in the Roma society Vešoro, which she also helped to found. Her role as a promoter in enriching other people's knowledge can be seen in many other areas. She works as a mentor for the Roma language in the course of Basic Roma for Professional Workers, she collaborated in preparing the reference book Professional Information and Advice for Roma and in producing the Reflections on research findings, published in Sprejemanje različnosti - korak do pravične družbe [Accepting difference - a step towards a just society]. She collaborated on a compilation of Bela Krajina and Roma fairy tales, headed a national bilingual event on the conclusion of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for all 2007 and prepared material for a Roma-Slovenian Dictionary, which was published at the end of last year.

Marina is active in the musical (singing, playing instruments) and literary fields (writing, translating, teaching), and this contributes significantly to preserving the Roma culture, language, habits and customs. Through her linking role and dissemination of knowledge about the Roma language and culture she is contributing a great deal to mutual understanding between the minority and majority population, overcoming fear and moving beyond entrenched perceptions of Roma people.