On Thursday 8 April 2021, on the occasion of the International Romani Day, President Zuzana Čaputová received the Romani men and women working In the front lines during the pandemic.

The participants in the meeting with the President included Veronika Danielová, a social rehabilitation worker at the Social Services Centre for Children and Adults in Rohov; Barbara Balogová, a student of St. Elizabeth’s University of Health and Social Work and a healthcare assistant of the OMIS department in the hospital in Michalovce; Jozef Demeter, the teacher of a special class at the Elementary School in Slovenské Nové Mesto;  Martin Farbar, the assistant headmaster of the Ivan Krasko Elementary School in Trebišov; Vladimír Rafael, the director of the eduRoma NGO; Rastislav Zubaj, a regional coordinator from Humenné (National Field Social Work and Field Work Project in Municipalities with Marginalized Roma Communities II); Stanislava Dotková, a volunteer and student of the Pedagogical Faculty of Prešov University and Lenka Bužová, a coordinator of health support assistants in Snina. Lenka Balogová, an infectious disease specialist from the UNLP in Košice and the coordinator of a vaccination centre, was invited but could not attend.

The President expressed her appreciation of their efforts and thanked them for their help in dealing with the pandemic and its social impacts in marginalized communities and teaching children from socially disadvantaged environments despite the fact that schools are closed.

 
"I’m aware of the fact that many more Romani men and women deserve our thanks. Thank you for what you do. You are proof of the fact that no one should be judged by their ethnic origin or skin colour, but by their actions. Unfortunately, this is not the reality for every individual, and it must be our joint effort to change that. The pandemic has had a health and social impact on every one of us, particularly on those on the margins of society.”