Crossing the Continent

Drive 2 Survive doesn't just fight for the cultural survival of British Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, we see ourselves as part of a wider European movement to make the voices of Europe's 12 million strong Romany community heard. Jake Bowers reveals some of the European initiatives we have been part of this autumn.

In October we showed our film about the Gypsy and Traveller suicide epidemic "Reaching for the Rope" at the annual Ake Dikhea Romani film festival in Berlin. Whilst the film did not win, we were honoured to be selected for this very important festival. It also gave us the opportunity to network with other Romany activists from across Europe and witness British Romany man Toby Gorniak win with his film "That Boy" which also won our short film competition in September in Glasgow.

In November, we travelled to the General Assembly of European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture which unites Romany cultural and political activists from across Europe to fight for Romany Rights.

Whilst there we attended the Tajsa award ceremony in Bucharest. Every two years a cultural producer from within the Romany community is awarded the Tajsa Prize of 10,000 Euros in recognition of their work. This year the prize went to Bosnian Roma artist Selma Selman. Drive 2 Survive co-chair Jake Bowers had the honour of presenting her with the award alongside in his role of chair of ERIAC's Barvalipen Academy. He presented the prize alongside Italian Roma activist Diana Pavlovic.

Earlier in November we also travelled to Heidelberg in Germany to visit the Research Centre on Antigypyism at Heidelberg University as part of our ongoing work to remember and make visible the Romany holocaust.

Heidelberg is home to the documentation centre of the German Council of Roma and Sinti and as such is the ground zero of Romany holocaust remembrance. Whilst there we contributed to the international conference "Visibilities of Memory: The Representation of Sinti and Roma in Holocaust Film," and advocated for greater production of film that celebrates Romani Resistance fighters.

The modern Romany civil rights movement may have started in Britain in 1971, but the greatest progress has often been made in countries with much bigger and better organised Romany communities than our own, not least because they have fought and won the right to lead their own organisations.

Crossing the continent to keep those bonds strong is time consuming, but it is a crucial part of being connected to Europe's amazing Romany family. By travelling those miles we ensure British Romanies remain at the heart of European efforts to make our voices heard.