Miranda Vuolasranta

Miranda Vuolasranta (born 1959) is a Finnish Kale activist, Romani-language teacher and Roma human rights expert, who is President of the European Roma & Travellers Forum.

Biography Vuolasranta was born in 1959. She grew up in a traditional Romani family, speaking Finnish, Swedish and Romani. Whilst both her parents were illiterate, they encouraged education in Vuolasranta and her four siblings. Despite this, as a young woman she was advised by teachers to ignore her Roma identity in order to succeed in Finnish society. Nevertheless, she graduated as a teacher of Romani language and history after studying in Sweden in the 1970s. Whilst working as a teacher, she became an advocate for Roma rights, firstly as part of a working group on Finnish Roma immigration to Sweden, where she was living. In the 1980s, Vuolasranta returned to Finland and began to use journalism as means to advocate for Roma communities. In 1989 she began to work with the Finnish National Advisory Board on Romani Affairs as a representative of the organisation, Romano Missio. As of 2020 she was President of the European Roma & Travellers Forum.

In 2020, in her role as President of the ERTF Vuolasranta made a statement which encouraged the "Roma nation to come together to fight the pandemic", whilst recognising that many Roma communities ran a high risk of contracting COVID-19. In 2008 she was forced to pay a fine after Lumberg accused her of defamation.

Awards

Human Rights Fighter Award (2012) - Finnish Human Rights League. Golden Wheel Cross Award (2007) - International Romani Union.