The
phenomenon of drug abuse has affected the European Roma community
in a singular way due to its large young population and the
impact of drugs use on its social structures, damaging even
more the deteriorated image of the Roma population.
Speaking
about drug abuse we recognise that there is a high prevalence
of use of substances in the Roma community. This is related
to the fact that the population is very young and there are
social problems as marginalisation and discrimination. Public
opinion often connects drug use and ethnicity, resulting in
an additional stigmatisation.
As
regards the drug use, if the image of the Roma as a drug dealer
has had some kind of success within their social representation
up to the point of forming this new stereotype, the role of
the Roma as a user, as a drug dependent, however remains hidden
or has received less attention. In this regard, the most productive
strategy for the improvement of the situation seems to be the
involvement of the Roma communities themselves - as cultural
mediators, as workers in the field and at institutional level
as well as the transfer, at national and international level
of knowledge and good practices.
With
the aim of promoting co-operation between drug-related entities
working with the Roma Community, the Foundation Secretariado
General Gitano (FSGG) in the framework of this project has organized
as leader partner this seminar in order to offer a space in
which to meet, reflect and exchange ideas and experiences. It
is a springboard from which initiatives can be launched to raise
the Roma community's standards of living mainly through drug
addiction interventions.
The seminar took place at the Central European University Conference
Center in Budapest on the 29th and 30th October 2004.
The
aims of the seminar were:
-
To transfer knowledge, experiences and successful strategies
in the drug prevention/intervention field for the Roma population
to other partners and to other networks
-To gain understanding of how intervention on drug use is carried
out in other organisations and in other countries, to allow
the transfer of work methodology and the sharing of experiences,
and to focus on problems from different perspectives.
-To have a store of information on organisations and experiences
involving any type of intervention with the Roma population
affected by the problem of drug abuse.
-To mobilise social agents and public bodies to promote the
development of drug prevention and intervention initiatives
for the Roma population throughout the partner countries
Concerning
the participants, these were members not only of the network
partners, i.e. Blue Point (Hungary), Romani CRISS (Romania),
Initiative for Health Foundation (Bulgaria), PRIMA (Slovakia),
SANANIM (Czech Republic) and FSGG (Spain) but also members of
relevant national and regional public administrations (re: ethnic
minorities, social inclusion, drugs) from each of the partner
countries, representatives of social inclusion, drug demand
reduction, and ethnic minorities organisations from these countries
and experts working in the fields drug prevention/intervention
and in Roma associations.
The
seminar was carried out through short presentations on the situation
of the Roma Community concerning prevention and intervention
on drug dependencies on each of the partner's countries followed
by the presentation of the best practices, experiences and materials
identified at national level. All these experiences and materials
have been the basis for a further discussion and interactive
participation, concluding with a general debate on the main
issues withdrawn from the different presentations.
From
all the experiences and practices exchanged during the two days,
participants highlighted that the difficult situation of Roma
arised from the significant portion of the Roma minority that
belongs to the lowest social level, with high unemployment,
a low level of education compared to the total population, a
disproportionately high crime rate and their difficulty to fit
into processes which are standard for the majority. Furthermore,
it was underlined the complexity of needs in dealing with drugs-problems
and the importance of integrating all levels of services allocating
the most appropiate services for every client according to their
individual needs as well as trying to provide simple access
to treatment and plan to do activities not for Roma people but
with Roma people.
It
was commonly accepted that the use of drugs among Roma is not
different from the rest of the society. Poverty is as in many
other cases, the main cause that drives Roma people to become
drug consumers.
Furthermore,
it was withdrawn from the experiences and the further debate
that the key issue to deal with drug prevention in Roma comunities
is to be focused on the work done with the family, Roma authorities
and local communities.
Concerning
the gathering of information and the data collection, all participants
agree on the fact that there are not many projects targeting
this especially endangered minority groups. Furthermore, it
is complicated to obtain this information, due to the fact that
in most countries, recording this sort of data is illegal and
in any case quite difficult. The reasons are that Roma and non
Roma organisations consider that this data should not be collected
on ethnic bases, the fear to increase the negative stereotypes
about Roma communities and the tendance to hide the use on the
families themselves.
To
conclude, this seminar has represented a great opportunity to
foster mutual knowledge and learn about the good practices and
experiences carried out by institutions and organisations working
at all levels with drug-related issues within the Roma Community
in Central and Easter countries. Now it is time to carried out
new initiatives and projects addressed to promote a greater
involvement of the Roma Community on the decision making processs
not only at local or national level but also in the international
scenario in order to go further on the fight against discrimination
of the Roma Community not only on health issues but in all spheres
of their lifes.
