OUR LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT

Did you grow up speaking a language that important people used on important occasions? That had big books printed in it and people signing up to learn it? 
Radko Kratsov, a Roma Christian leader in Bulgaria, issued a challenge to advocate for the development of Romani*:
“We (Roma, who are 'always under someone's feet', who 'come from a shame-based culture') need someone to lift our hands to show the world that our language is important. Someone to blow the trumpet to raise the status of the Roma language."

SIL Roma team member working with Roma in Moldova

He shared how he had witnessed at a Bible study in Ivaylo, Bulgaria, how people's faces changed from mirroring shame to expressing happiness when they truly understood and participated in the study and were able to express themselves in their own language.

(CBF partners with the SIL Roma Service Group. SIL members in Bulgaria are stimulating the use of Romani in engaging with the Bible in ways that include all people present.)

*Romani is a term often used to refer to Roma languages.