Being a dental technician as main profession and, later, graduate of the Psychology and Education Science Faculty in Cluj-Napoca, Gelu is the initiator, founder and president of ANIALMG. Having the Romanian Sign Language as his mother tongue, he always belonged to the Deaf community and Deaf culture, initiating and taking part in various activities and projects that have this community as main beneficiary. As a certified trainer, Gelu teaches Sign Language within the courses held by ANIALMG. In the light of his entire activity, of the support he showed towards the Deaf community as well as of his personal achievements despite his disability, Gelu is perceived as a role model by many members of the Romanian Deaf community.
A graduate of the European Masters in Conference Interpreting within Babeș-Bolyai University and a certified trainer, Simona started her training in Romanian Sign Language in 2006. Her double specialization as conference interpreter and Sign Language interpreter helped her transfer knowledge and skills from one domain to the other and continue to research and publish in the domain of sign language interpretation, while gathering a rich experience in interpretation. Among the various sign language interpretation activities we mention the four-year sign language interpretation of TV talk-shows at TVR Cluj.
For Rodica, Romanian Sign Language is a second mother-tongue since her childhood, when she became hearing impaired. Together with Gelu, her husband, Rodica constantly fought for the rights of Deaf people, contributing to numerous projects and activities through which access to sign language interpretation was facilitated. Together they also founded Bogdan Humanitarian Foundation through which the first Romanian Sign Language Dictionary was published in Romania in 2003. Rodica doesn`t only teach the sign language interpretation courses within the ANIALMG but also sign language communication courses for the students of Psychopedagogy department and for those of the Cluj-Napoca Medical School.
Authorized trainer and sign language interpreter, Violeta graduated the Economy Science and Business Management Faculty Cluj-Napoca in 2010, bringing a fresh view in the management of the projects run by ANIALMG. That fact that she was born hearing impaired and grew up in both the hearing and the Deaf world prompted her to be even more involved in creating a bridge between the two languages, developing the sign language interpretation domain through the documentation she made within the projects that she initiates and manages.
The creative mind of the ANIALMG team, Cristina is a native user of Romanian Sign Language as well as a graduate of the Arts and Design University in Cluj-Napoca. She contributed to the implementation of several projects of the association that sought to bring the Deaf and the hearing cultures closer through the arts. Her experience as an Erasmus student as well as the experience gathered during some international projects, helped her come in contact with Deaf people from many different countries as well as with their sign languages and cultures, thus enriching her knowledge and skills that she uses as a trainer and a sign language interpreter.
Being trained as an IT technician, Monica is also a native user of the Romanian Sign Language, having a wide experience in communicating with Deaf people and also being trained as a sign language interpreter. Along the years she has been one of the main models in the ANIALMG team for the video recordings with sings and sign language in different projects. Her passion for photography and for discovering new places and cultures helped Monica come in contact with sign languages and Deaf cultures all over the world and thus get a broader perspective and more knowledge of sign language.
