Did Valery, Roma Virtual Network founder really pass away last weekend?

Date 22 August 2016 Author Juice Vamosi Category Activism, People and life-style, Romani remembrance

Old Roma say that God is taking the best ones away.

Valery was one of our best ones. It is very hard to say anything but I feel gutted to raise the question.

For what other reasons is he gone?

Did we lose him because we just didn’t care?

Have we been too busy with our own concerns?

Is it the Roma movement and its failures that drive activists into death?

Not sure but I know for a fact that we have less and less time for each other. We all believe that our pain is the worst and then we slowly but surely forget about others.

I am not aware of the very cause of Valery’s death but he’s approached me recently –as well as several other friends– to ask me to pray for him. He did tell us about his pain, yes, not just me. I know he told many friends and I also saw his recent fb posts where he has indirectly ‘warned’ us and the world.

This is a period to remember who Valery is but also a chance to reflect on ourselves and ask us the question what it is that we’re doing wrong, as we’re certainly doing something extremely wrong.

Val is one of the most sincere and most giving men I’ve ever met. We’ve been friends since 1999. He believed in God so passionately and he was loving every second of life. He was highly appreciating a good laughter, a nice company, a smile, nice food, dance and music. He has never taken drugs and he wouldn’t drink alcohol either. He was a highly educated man mastering several languages who had no other ambition but to help the Roma people.

I really don’t have the faintest idea on what could have lead to this tragic event. Not sure if Valery committed a suicide but if he did then he isn’t the first and he isn’t the last one either to do that in the Roma movement.

When we did the diplomacy training together I shared rooms with him in Bucharest and in Brussels too. He’s always been a truly caring and loving friend who actually never bothered to make money or a career for himself on the back of the Roma. He was simply very proud to be a Rom and fought back each and every injustice we came across. He wanted nothing more but to share the pride and the sadness that was coming up in our interactions in the international arena. He was very proud to share news about Roma artists, musicians, writers and other talent but also key actors of public life.

There are so many of us with the same feeling. We are extremely passionate about saving the Roma people and then when we lose funding or attention we just feel useless suddenly. We want to carry on what we were doing but then it seems to be impossible.

If there is no family and friends answering to our desperate call, we may decide for a route that we would probably regret afterwards but then we can’t reverse the situation anymore. I don’t know and I don’t understand and probably I never will. I just feel so sorry that I didn’t hug you and tell you enough times how much I love you brother.

May your body rest in peace, and may the soil be light on your grave, may God forgive all your sins and may your spirit live for good in the world! Valery, phrala, I want to thank you again for the soil I got from you from Jerusalem and for all the prayers and love you shared with me and my family throughout the years. You were born on April 15 just like my elder brother and he also died young like you did. May the Lord fill the void left behind you and console your brokenhearted friends and family that stay mourning you. We will always miss you…

Valery, o ilo pharrol kaj kade sig gelantar
O Del te jertosarel sa e bezexa so kerdan
Te del tut vudud taj te lel tut pasha peste ando pesko rajo