International Women of Courage Award 2022: Leader of RO NGO promoting the rights of Roma women among winners

Carmen Gheorghe, the president of E-Romnja, a non-profit promoting the rights of Roma women, is among the twelve winners of this year’s International Women of Courage Award, a distinction given by the U.S. State Department.

Established in 2007, the award honors women who have shown “exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in order to bring about positive change to their communities, often at great personal risk and sacrifice.”

Since 2013, Carmen Gheorghe has been the president of E-Romnja, an NGO that promotes Roma women’s rights.

From 2008-2019 she worked as a project manager, expert, and trainer on LGBTQI+, gender, and Roma issues for several NGOs in Romania, including the “Impreuna” Agency for Community Development, the Roma Education Fund, the LGBQTI+ rights NGO ACCEPT, the Center for Education and Human Rights, and the Resource Center for Roma Communities, a spin-off organization of the Open Society Foundation.

Before this, she worked as an expert for the National Agency for Roma, a governmental agency in charge of developing policies for Roma communities. She has a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration (2006), a master’s degree in Gender Studies (2008), and a PhD in Political Science (2014) from the Bucharest-based National School of Political Science and Public Administration.

To date, under the International Women of Courage Award program, the U.S. Department of State has recognized more than 170 women from over 80 countries.

(Photo: screen capture from video of virtual award ceremony)