Second National Working Group:

Assessment and adaptation of a Handbook for Action in the Area of Health Services for the Roma Community

(Bankya, 14-15 September 2006)

The second working group, titled “Assessment and adaptation of a Handbook for Action in the Area of Health Services for the Roma Community” was organized on 14-15 September 2006 in Bankya. It was attended by 19 participants, mainly representatives of NGOs, but also Roma people not affiliated with particular organizations . The task of the working groups was different from that of the first group. It was organized specially to facilitate the development of the Handbook for Action in the Area of Health Services for the Roma Community, which is one of the project products. After the translation of the handbook from English, this workshop was organized in order to present the text to a group of Roma health workers, all of them persons of Roma origin, and acquire their assessment and suggestions on the text, in order to have the handbook adapted to the Bulgarian readers. The participants were divided into groups, each of them analyzing different parts of the text. Generally there were minor changes on the text, mainly concerning cultural aspects of the Bulgarian Roma community, health status of the Roma population in Bulgaria and some recommendations to health care managers and workers. The changes were subsequently incorporated into the finalized text of the handbook in Bulgarian.