A doctor in Leeds has created a drop in clinic for Roma. Lidia Persidia Holea, from the AME for Roma support group, set up the initiative after she noticed a lack of trust between the community and doctors and nurses, which could lead to poorer health.
A book, called “Ethnographic Methods in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Research”, subtitled “Lessons from a Time of Crisis published in 2024 by Bristol University Press edited by anthropologist Martin Fotta from Slovakia and by Paloma Gay y Blasco from the University of St Andrews, investigates the impact of the covid pandemic on Roma communities.
An interview with Aziza Sally, coordinator of the association “Initiative for the Rights of Roma Women from Shuto Orizari”. She says that since the pandemic, not a single patronage nurse has visited a mother from the Roma community. Roma women have been facing the same problems in the country for decades – from discrimination in the educational process to institutional belittling and humiliation.
Bad.
An article in the Czech press about Bulgaria’s drive to form more doctors and medical staff from the Roma community. And it works …
A long article about young Roma studying medicine, health care, or dentistry. They are definitively needed as the Bulgarian health care system is suffering from a lack of personel.
Anthropologist Andrej Belák from the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) has published a scientific study in one of the most prestigious social science journals in the world. It is focused on the causes of the poor health status of excluded Roma in Slovakia.
The published work is mainly based on a series of in-depth field research carried out between 2004 and 2015. “These mapped in detail the daily practice of the excluded Roma themselves and then various professionals of the health system who worked with the excluded Roma on a daily basis,” the SAV spokeswoman explained. According to her, the work brings to the fore and vividly summarizes deeper connections that have been little known in the international context until now.
Well, you do not really need a PhD to understand that exclusion and poverty are not good for one’s health…
The regional health inspectorate in Pernik organizes free preventive examinations for children of Roma origin with a mobile office – the institution reports. The purpose of these examinations is to improve the health status and access to medical care of people from vulnerable groups, as well as those living in areas far from medical facilities.
The Slovak Ministry of Health reacted to the comments of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’ Flaherty, who, after a recent visit to Slovakia, called on the Slovak authorities to urgently address the “terrible living conditions” of thousands of Roma, and improve their access to health.
The ministry said they would support programs for “socially excluded groups”.
Let’s see.
A local project in a Roma settlement saw the creation of a “hygiene centre”, a place where the residents of the settlement can come, take a shower, wash clothes etc. They have set up washing machines. In brief all sort of amenities that do not exist there.
An article in the Slovak press that says more than it intends: A Romani grandmother saved a new-born in a Roma settlement in Slovakia, even though she has not medical education. Fact is, if you live in a Roma settlement in Slovakia, you can write off health case, and no doctor or ambulance will go there.
More than 200 Roma in Sliven and Tvardishko participated in talks about the benefits of preventive health examinations, the National Patient Organization reported. The campaign was carried out together with the association “Zhadda za život” under the project “Active citizens for local and national reforms in health care”. The target of the explanatory campaign are patients without health insurance and those with limited access to health care, to whom the importance of immunizations, healthy nutrition and raising children was explained.
The Lendava People’s University, together with eight partners from seven other countries, is completing a three-year project that aims to contribute to better physical and mental health of members of the Roma community. The data show that the life expectancy of Roma is sometimes as much as nine years shorter than that of the majority population.
An article about underprivileged youth in Hungary, about their health, their knowledge thereof, teenage pregnancies, and contraception.
Scary as most of the youngsters have a very limited knowledge of how their body works. Also, it seems that Hungary has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the EU. The article highlights, that it is not all Roma, and definitively not a Roma trait, but rather an issue of poverty and education.
Ukraine launched a renewed vaccination drive against measles, especially amongst Roma in the Uzhhorod region.
The Andalusian Gitanos Sociocultural Centre, in collaboration with the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Granada, is organising a Workshop on Health and the Gitanos Community. It aim is to make the students of the Faculty aware of the values of the Gitanos culture, the socio-sanitary situation and the idiosyncrasies of this group.
The contents of the Workshop will deal with:
– History and cultural values of Gitanos.
– Current situation of the Roma community.
– Experiences of Roma men and women in the health field.
EN 
DE 
FR