Six among the Romani Early Years Network (REYN) members are also Global Leaders and have attended the event. REYN and the World Forum Foundation closely cooperate to develop the leadership benefiting the children and families from the disadvantaged groups in Europe, namely the Roma, Travellers and migrants. While most of the training, supervision and mentorship takes place online, Global Leaders have chances to meet in their cohorts twice during the program. Global Leaders Europe had a chance to meet at the ISSA Conference in Vilnius in 2016 and will meet at the ISSA Conference in Ghent in October this year. The only time they had a chance to meet with all cohorts of the Global Leaders program, was at the World Forum, which took place in Auckland in the beginning of May.

Thanks to this opportunity, the Global Leaders from Europe: Sonila Dubare (Albania), Brigita Mark (Slovenia), Lisa Smith (United Kingdom), Sinisa-Senad Music (Croatia) and Bozidar Nikolic (Serbia) got a chance to see their work from a global perspective. Driton Berisha (Kosovo) could not participate at the World Forum, but is also part of the program. By engagement in discussions with Global Leaders and other World Forum delegates from around the globe, Leaders had a chance to see the similarities and differences between issues they are facing at the local level and issues other minorities or disadvantaged groups face elsewhere in the world.

Inspired by many new stories, Global Leaders are now developing their advocacy projects aimed to bring sustainable changes to their communities or the communities they work with. Find more information here.