Speaker: Jarko
Job title: Culture maker
Company: The Growing Wall of Love

About the spreaker
Jarko is an independent culture maker and passionate human rights activist. He is the initiator of the traveling global interactive community art project 'The Growing Wall of Love' supporting and embracing lgbtqia+ communities worldwide. He started the project in his hometown Dordrecht, the Netherlands, in 2022 with 123 picture hearts. Currently, the project has grown up to 4000 participants from 100 countries. Jarko has always had a passion for lgbtqia+ rights. He successfully advocated from 2001 to 2008 for full adoption equality in the Netherlands for same gender couples. He published the very first childrens picture book featuring a family with two dads in the Dutch language area (the Netherlands and Flanders): 'Arwen And Her Daddies'. Not able to find a publishing firm at the time willing to publish the book, he decided to independently published it. It sold out in a matter of weeks and got high appraisal in national media, both in the Netherlands and Flanders. It was nominated for the Jos Brink Aanmoedigingsprijs in 2009. Jarko is a grassroots activist in his city of residence Dordrecht, aiming to make his local environment a safe and inclusive place to live for all. He and his husband Jos are also activists in raising awareness of church hurt, and moving church communities to become (more) safe, accepting and affirming environments for the lgbtqia+ community. Born and raised in Ghent (Belgium), Jarko moved to the Netherlands at the age of 21 to live with his Dutch husband Jos. This year, they celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They are fathers to 2 children through adoption: a girl, Arwen, meanwhile 21 years old, and a boy, Wolf, 18 years old. Together, they are a happy and much respected multinational, multiracial family.