“This conference helped us to think about the problems of our nation from the point of view of the science that we are learning,” observed one participant.
“This conference helped us to think about the problems of our nation from the point of view of the science that we are learning,” observed one participant.
Thirty Roma students pursuing medical studies in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia assembled in Bucharest on July 23-24 to share their experiences at a regional conference entitled Future Roma Medical Professionals: Looking Ahead. Selected from among a student body of 151 current beneficiaries in the Roma Health Scholarship Program (RHSP) – supported by the Roma Education Fund and the Open Society Foundation’s Public Health Program since 2008 – focusing on the their academic and professional future.
Over two days students had the opportunity to listen to and interact with guest speakers, who included professionals from various medical fields and/or medical services. Envisaged as a first step to stimulate the development of a network of Roma medical students and would-be professionals, the conference also was a chance to learn new things as well as be inspired to continue to follow the course on which they have embarked.
After welcoming remarks by Dan Pavel Doghi, REF’s Higher Education Program Manager, the student audience heard from Adriana Ivama Brummell, an expert on health surveillance and good regulatory practices. She was followed by Daniel Radulescu, director of SASTIPEN who spoke about Roma identity and health-related advocacy. The representative of ActiveWatch, Ana Ciutu, introduced the students to RHSP’s media work in Romania, with a focus on program’s visibility and dissemination through mass-media and social media, as well as awareness raising campaigns aimed to dismantle societal prejudice against Roma and promote equal access of Roma to health care services.
Later, REF Scholarship Program Officer Merziha Idrizi spoke about other professional development opportunities within RHSP. She was followed by Marian Mandache, director of Romani CRISS, who highlighted the importance of maintaining and developing relationships with the Roma community and presented examples of a human rights approach to advancing equal access of Roma to health care services and address cases of discrimination of Roma within the health system.
On the second day, Alina Covaci, Program Officer of the Roma Health Program of the Open Society Foundations, spoke about the program’s goals and objectives. She was followed by the event’s main speaker, the eminent Dr. Wolfgang Aulitzky from the Open Medical Institute in Salzburg, who talked about new approaches to capacity building in healthcare.
The conference ended with discussion about an alumni network and further mobilizing RHSP beneficiaries to increase the visibility of the program.
Background
The RHSP initiative, launched in 2008 by the Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program and the Roma Education Fund, aims to help the emergence of a generation of professional medical staff among Roma minority. RHSP provides a comprehensive set of services: in addition to financial support, the scholarship scheme offers a combination of components such as mentoring, vocational development, advocacy, foreign language courses, and opportunities to attend medical congresses, seminaries, summer schools and internships.
For more information about REF’s Scholarship Program, click here.
