Severina Lajtman was born and raised in Mala Subotica, Medimurje County in the Roma settlement of Piskorovec. She attended an elementary school with only Roma pupils. Due to her lack of knowledge of the Croatian language, she had to repeat the first grade. During her later years in elementary school, a teacher saw her potential and started training her for Lidrano competitions. Lidrano is a student competition focusing on literacy, dramatic arts and journalistic excerpts. Severina worked hard and achieved great results, she became the champion of Lidrano for her region for three consecutive years. With the help of REF, the State Ministry and the Desa and Jerko Foundation, Severina received a full scholarship to study in one of Croatia’s top secondary schools located in Zagreb.
We wish Severina best of luck with her secondary studies!
