Health
promotion and the Roma community:an approach to drug dependencies
Madrid, 28 and 29 November 2003
The
Roma people are an ethnic and cultural minority that have been
residing throughout Europe ever since the XIVth century; their
numbers in Europe today stand at an estimated eight million
people. A proportion of them live in Community countries, and
a considerable number (6 million approximately) reside in Eastern
and Central European countries. Despite many common traditions,
the Roma communities are made up of diverse branches, with many
different cultures, dialects and languages between them. Due
to their way of life as a minority group, Roma communities suffer
from social and cultural exclusion in most European countries.
The
problems of marginalisation are particularly severe in the central
and eastern parts of Europe, where Roma have suffered in the
transition of the countries towards market economies. The problems
most commonly faced by Roma populations are racism and discrimination,
low levels of education, high unemployment, poor housing conditions,
and health standards well below those of mainstream population.
When
we address the issue of health, we are referring to something
that affects the lives of individuals, groups and whole communities
and that is one of the most important indicators of inequality,
quality of life and the degree of active participation as full
fledged citizens in society.
European
policies aimed at inclusion identify basic work objectives such
as stimulating an inclusive health policy for everyone, developing
policies to deal with dependencies and guaranteeing access to
health care for the most vulnerable groups as well as promoting
partnership and collaborating among public and private entities
for the development of health programmes. Moreover and more
specifically, the European policies have promoted the adoption
of measures aimed at providing support to the Roma communities
from central and eastern European countries within the context
of preparation for European Union accession. These measures,
that originate in the Copenhagen criteria, emphasize that the
candidate countries should be able to guarantee human rights
and respect for and protection of minorities.
It
is within this framework that the project "Promotion of
networking and co-operation on drug dependencies within the
Roma community" was born, with the FSGG as promoter in
partnership with NGOs from five countries (Prima -Slovakia-,
Sananim -Czech Republic-, Blue Point -Hungary-, Romani C.R.I.S.S.
-Romania, and Initiative for Health Foundation -Bulgaria-) and
financially supported by the European Commission DG Enlargement
and the Spanish National Plan on Drugs. The seminar "Health
promotion and the Roma Community: an approach to drug dependencies"
provides the opportunity to deal with the issue of health promotion
in the Roma community in relation to drug prevention and treatment
through transnational cooperation and the transfer of know-how
and best practices. Furthermore, it intends to mobilise the
different agents involved and foster a debate on those issues
that are vital to improving the quality of life and health of
Europe's Roma community.
In
the light of the above it is our view that, to the degree to
which we are capable of tackling the variety of problems facing
this community (and health is one of them), we will be contributing
to the cultural and social advancement of the Roma people and
will be fostering social cohesion throughout the different European
countries.
Seminar
Goal:
