Engaging Roma communities for more liveable communities

What is the aim of the ROMED programme?

A cooperation with Roma communities is a challenge for many mayors.

The vast majority of the marginalised and segregated community live in extreme poverty on the fringes of towns and villages. The situation is seen as a problem by most people on all sides, due to a lack of trust and accumulated bad experiences; there is no or conflicting relationship between the Roma community and the local administration, no real dialogue.

The Partners Hungary Foundation offers local authorities a tried and tested methodology and toolset - in more than 50 European and dozens of Hungarian municipalities, which strengthens dialogue and cooperation between communities, local institutions and the municipality. As a result reduce tensions and start working together to solve local problems. This is intercultural mediation.

What do we do during ROMED?

The methodology is based on the Council of Europe's ROMED programme, complemented by the Partners Hungary Foundation's more than 20 years of experience in the field of Roma inclusion.

An intercultural mediator is an accepted member of the local Roma community who gains skills in conflict resolution and community planning through the training of Partners.

From a Local Community Action Group (LAG) is set up with the help of an intercultural mediator. Members of the group discuss community problems and discuss them with representatives of local institutions, local decision-makers work together to develop and, depending on resources, implement possible solutions.

The programme is low-cost, easy to adapt, the results of successful cooperation can be tangible within a year, and in the long term it contributes to the development of local society, the cohesion of local communities and the strengthening of social cohesion.

What are the results?

• In the municipality of Gyulaj more than 20 houses renovated in Kalaka by the local communityi Action Group. Bathrooms have been built in some homes, water has been installed in some, several households have been sanitised and a sterile room has been constructed, thanks to the community and local partnerships.
• Salt room built in the kindergarten building in Nagydobos, which is used by the population of the municipality, in addition to children, to relieve and prevent respiratory diseases.
• In the city of Nagyecsed, living in a segregated area the Roma community now runs and successfully maintains a civil society organisation, which strengthens the links between Roma parents and schools and offers meaningful activities for young people. Previously, 30 outdoor toilets were built. Through community collaboration, bins were purchased and regular garbage collection was arranged.
• In Nyírbátor, in the framework of municipal cooperation, from own resources launched targeting Roma and people living in extreme poverty school scholarship and employment programme.
• In Jászfényszaru, the local government, with the involvement of the Community Action Group, launched a housing renovation programme.
• More than 100 outdoor toilets built in Porcsalma and a blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring point was set up in the community centre.

What is the aim of the programme?

The aim of the programme is to support the disadvantaged and isolated Roma population improving access to health services, and the raising health awareness in these communities.

Intercultural mediators are the voice of the local community, signalling needs and difficulties, which they help to address through community collaboration and municipal support. The objective of the pilot project, launched in 2012, is to bring intercultural mediators into the health care system in Hungary. as facilitators to carry out their work, thus improving access to health services for disadvantaged people, especially Roma, and promoting health-conscious lifestyles. The mediators are "bridge" between the care system and the community. The work of mediators is supported by local and external expertsin all cases beyond a Community Action Team also helps.

The project in Hungary is a big one, four countries as part of an international project with the support of GlaxoSmithKline Unlimited (GSK). The project works in international partnership in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, with Roma inclusion non-profit organisations working with GSK's local organisations. The international partnership provides an excellent opportunity to learn from each other's achievements.

What do we do during the project?

In the four countries, four different projects are being implemented in response to local specificities, with the following common features improving access to health and promoting health awareness, for the trained health mediators with the participation of.

The Hungarian pilot project focuses on the dissemination of the intercultural mediation method.Between 2015 and 2017, Roma mediation as a profession defined the specificities of the profession and its training needs.

In addition, in several municipalities each year (in total over the 7-year programme cycle 20 municipalities) municipal mini-project with the involvement of the local Roma population.

With local professionals and representatives of the Roma community we reveal local health problems, and on this basis we base the municipal mini-projects, which are always professionals and community members together are implemented.

What are the results?

At the municipal level:

• 130 Roma mediator training (including the Health Assistants of the Primary Care Model Programme)
• for 60 women contraceptives spiral insurance
• Health painting of 70 family houses (Nagyecsed, Nagydobos, Gyulaj)
• 1 pc sterile room, a mother of a family on dialysis, with the help of the volunteer work of the Community Action Group
• Several hectares of firewood collecting for needy families in cooperation between the forestry, the municipality and the Community Action Group
• Construction of 70 outdoor toilets (Nagyecsed, Porcsalma)
• Construction of 1 covered bus stop in cooperation with local government representatives, civil society and KACS (Pécs)
• 50 persons health screening
• 50 Health education 800 for school children
• 6 health day (Nagydobos, Nagyecsed, Borsodnádasd)
• 11 litter picking actions (Nyírbátor, Nagydobos, Nagyecsed, Pécs, Onga) with the participation of 180 community members
• 1 salt room (Big Drum)
• Total 1500 Roma mediator interventions addressing community problems at local level between 2013 and 2019
• reaching 6300 people in need health services
• Mobilising the Roma community 12 times in cooperation with local health professionals (midwives, general practitioners)
• 200 times collaborative planning involving Roma community members, Roma mediators, local institutional representatives and decision-makers
• Cockroach extermination
• Washroom creation (Borsodnádasd)
• School Toilet renovation (Arló)
• Playground renovation (Hernádkak, Hernádnémeti)

At national level:

• Cooperation with the Swiss Fund supported by the With the Model Primary Care Programme
• 11 Roma mediator training
• 12 Roma mediator network meeting
• 1 Roma mediator Website created: romamediator.hu
• 6 mediation awards (2016, 2017)
• 1 Roma mediator conference, 100 participants (government, municipal representation, Roma mediators, KACS members, Council of Europe, press)
• DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) vocational training development and implementation of the process

• 1 online questionnaire which was completed by 45 health professionals, social workers, Roma inclusion specialists and Roma mediators
• 80 Roma mediation activities analysis of, proofreading involving Roma and non-Roma experts

Check out on our videos and Through the example of Jászapátihow we work!

In the community roundtable discussions, we looked at what the Roma community needed support with, based on local needs: this was helped by the intercultural mediators, the trained coordinators of the local Roma community. We managed to work together with the municipality to ensure that each household had hygienic waste collection and wheelie bins.

Girls in science

What is the purpose of Project POWER?

Raising awareness among students, teachers and parents about the importance of science, with a particular focus on encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers, as they are still under-represented in this field.

The elements of the programme included:

• developing competences related to engineering and science through innovative tools,
• strengthen business English communication,
• increase personal effectiveness
• students have the opportunity to observe and learn about different professions and career paths and gain personal experience.

The programme was encouraged to

• more girls to choose a career in science or engineering,
• a science competences of secondary school students, interpersonal skills and English language skills.
• enable teachers to develop professionally, to help secondary school students, especially girls, to choose a career through their own experiences.

What have we done during PROJECT POWER?

We worked initially with four and then two secondary schools on the projectwho have applied to participate in the programme

• Students in the programme participate in in-school and extra-curricular development activities to improve their scientific competences, interpersonal skills (assertive communication, presentation) and English language skills.
• Students get support to choose a career, gain insights into science-related careers through company visits and job shadowing.
• Teachers have the opportunity to renew their methodologies and exchange experiences.
• By involving parents in certain project elements are brought closer to school life and made aware of the importance of science and technology careers and how to support their daughters in choosing them.

What are the results?

• 1000 students and 60 teachers were involved in the programme and in some project elements
• 300 students took part in a careers class
• 200 students worked on a school project within the framework of the programme
• The intensive small-group science and IT development in the programme has made a major contribution to the development of the three schools' students' for outstanding competitive performances:
• Lakeside High School and Secondary School of Arts: national third place in an international mathematics competition
• Rudas Secondary School and College of Economics: place in junior engineering competition
• Comenius girls' team: international first place in forest engineering competition.
• Joint school workshop, where both students and teachers could get to know more about spectacular and interesting STEM-related activities: experiments and logic games
• The local media have given the programme a high profile and are happy to report on the events of the programme (10 articles in local written media, 1 television appearance)
• 10 video interviews with female researchers/engineers

Other important information:

• Supporting organisation: the Arconic Foundation, USA
• Project ID at the donor:222792
• Partners collaborating in the project:

Arconic Köfém Kft. Székesfehérvár

Tóparti High School and Secondary Art School, Székesfehérvár

Rudas Secondary School and College of Economics, Dunaújváros

• Duration start/end: 27 December 2016 - 27 December 2017
• Budget amount, currency: 36 000 $

As we have reported several times, Partners Polska Foundation, with the support of the Visegrad Fund, organised a one-day conference in Warsaw in October 2016. The theme of the conference was "The role of the Visegrad countries in solving the migration crisis". A few minutes from the conference: