The Romani Resource Distribution Committee (Romani RDC) plays a key role in co-designing the Dalan Fund’s Romani Program and holds decision-making power in selecting movement partners that advance intersectional Romani organizing across Central Europe.
Rooted in Dalan Fund’s commitment to participatory, activist-led, and decolonial practices, the Romani RDC comprises five Romani women activists from Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Serbia. The committee members bring deep knowledge, lived experience, and local political analysis to guide the Fund’s strategic priorities and resource distribution practices within Romani communities.
As a regional fund committed to redistributing resources towards historically excluded communities, Dalan Fund sees the Romani RDC as essential in centering the self-determination and leadership of Romani organizers. The role of the committee is rotational, ensuring that decision-making remains accountable to the diverse and shifting realities of Romani movements and struggles.
Simona Torotcoi / Romania
Simona Torotcoi is a Romani scholar and activist from Romania. She is currently a tutor at the Roma Graduate Preparation Program at Central European University (CEU) and a former research fellow at ReThink Central Eastern Europe, a program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She earned her PhD in 2020 from the CEU Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy, and International Relations, specializing in education policy.
Simona has long collaborated with Roma civil society organizations such as the Roma Education Fund, ERGO Network, and Phiren Amenca, contributing research on a wide range of issues affecting Roma children and youth. Her work has addressed the effectiveness of affirmative action programs, experiences of discrimination, unemployment, political participation, representation in school curricula, and more recently, gender inequalities within Roma communities.
She also serves as a rights expert for the Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFoD CDWD), representing ERGO Network, where she contributes to global advocacy efforts towards a UN Resolution addressing work- and descent-based discrimination.
Through her academic and advocacy work, Simona brings critical attention to structural inequalities affecting Roma communities, while advancing intersectional and justice-oriented approaches within both policy and global human rights arenas.
Sonia Styrkacz / Poland
Sonia Styrkacz is a psychologist, researcher, and educator specializing in clinical psychology and crisis intervention. She is currently in the final stages of her doctoral work, pursuing an open PhD track in pedagogy at the University of Silesia, while also preparing a dissertation in psychology at the University of Warsaw.
She has extensive experience providing psychological support in public institutions and NGOs, working with children, adolescents, and adults, including individuals with refugee backgrounds and Roma communities. Clinically, she specializes in adult diagnosis and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in outpatient settings.
As a researcher, she has conducted studies for UNICEF Poland, as well as for governmental and academic institutions. Her work focuses on qualitative approaches to education, mental health, human rights, and the intersections of trauma, identity, and minority experiences. Drawing from her insider perspective within Roma communities, she bridges academic analysis with lived cultural knowledge, while critically reflecting on NGO practices and community dynamics.
She is particularly engaged in decolonial academic discourses and the amplification of women’s voices in research, advocating for inclusive and reflexive methodologies. In addition to her research, Sonia teaches and develops curricula in psychology and pedagogy, with a focus on clinical and forensic psychology, emotional education, and trauma-informed approaches.
Vera Lacková / Slovakia
Vera Lacková is a Romani film director and producer, born in Slovakia and based in Vienna, Austria. She is the founder of the Czech-Slovak production company Media Voice. Her documentary debut, How I Became a Partisan (2021), which traces the story of forgotten Roma partisans based on her great-grandfather’s, Ján Lacko’s life story premiered at the goEast Film Festival in Wiesbaden and received the Prize for Cultural Diversity by the German Federal Foreign Office. The film was developed in the Ex Oriente Film Workshop, pitched at East Doc Platform 2020, and is distributed through the East Silver Caravan.
In her broader body of work, Vera consistently centers Roma perspectives, histories, and resistance, including in her recent documentary O Baripen (2023), which explores the legacy of pioneering Roma writer Elena Lacková. She was selected for the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator in 2022 and has been a mentee in the FC Gloria mentoring programme in Austria. In recognition of her contributions to European cinema, she was invited to join the European Film Academy in 2023.
Through both her creative and activist work, Vera Lacková brings a critical and insider perspective to the political and cultural struggles of Roma communities across Europe.
Đuli Ramadani / Serbia
Đuli Ramadani is a Romani feminist with experience in community development, documentary filmmaking, research, and teaching. She is committed to making marginalized voices heard, drawing on her strong sense of justice, empathy, and a diverse skill set. With extensive experience in both local and international organizations, her work spans urban inequalities, environmental injustice, and women’s rights.
Her research focuses on urban poverty and marginalized neighborhoods, exploring the intersections of race, gender, and space. She has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in an informal Roma settlement in Serbia, centering Romani women’s lived experiences in these environments. To reach broader audiences, she directed a short documentary, Veliki Rit bb, addressing the issue of residence registration for internally displaced Roma from Kosovo.
She completed a traineeship at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in Vienna, within the Equality, Roma, and Social Rights Unit, and taught a semester-long course on “History of the World since 1300” at Central European University, where she earned her MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology.
Tímea Markócs-Mezei / Hungary
Tímea has worked in primary education for over seven years and is currently a PhD researcher at the University of Szeged, where her academic work focuses on inclusion, equity, and social justice in schools. Her professional and personal commitment to equal access to education is reflected in her long-standing engagement with Roma communities, both as a researcher and activist. She is actively involved in several civil and professional initiatives that aim to reduce educational inequalities and support the development of inclusive learning environments.
At the Romaversitas Foundation, a Romani women-led educational organization, she contributed to a research project documenting the lived experiences and challenges of Romani refugees fleeing to Hungary, centering first-hand narratives and knowledge production within the community. In parallel, she has been deeply engaged in the Roma women’s movement and in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
Currently, Tímea is a key contributor to the MARA program, jointly coordinated by Romaversitas Foundation and EMMA Association, which focuses on strengthening Romani women’s community-based activism in the field of SRHR. As part of the program’s preparatory phase, she authored a research paper examining institutional gaps in Roma women’s access to SRHR, published in a study volume created to support the program’s foundation.
Her work weaves together education, research, and activism, with a deep and ongoing commitment to centering the voices, rights, and leadership of Romani women in both academic and community contexts.
