"The most important achievement is the friendship with the students and the trust and confidence building process..."
I have been a mentor of 8 Roma students along the years of the program, but I in contact with major part of the rest of them – I took part initially in the selection process and the preparatory courses preceding the concourses in medical universities. The most important achievement is the friendship with the students and the trust and confidence building process. The regular meetings of the mentor with the students give an opportunity to be familiar with all problems and difficulties of the future medics. The mentor has a contribution to their academic development. Two of my students have already finished their medical education and specialize respectively dermatology and endocrinology. The other students continue to study. All of them take their exams successfully. I consult them on different academic issues. All the students have a vision for their future. Three of the students have participated in national scientific conferences and congresses. In the summer the Roma medical students usually have a practical training in the University Neurology Clinic leaded by me. One of them won the award for the best poster at national congress of neurology. On yearly basis I award the most successful Roma medical student at special ceremony every year with my personal funds. Most of the students have participated in different initiatives directed to ensuring access to Vulnerable Roma people to health and social services. Also, they participated and communicate with the National Network of Roma health mediators.Prof. Ivailo Tournev is Head of the Clinic of Neurology, University Hospital Alexandrovska in Sofia. He is a Professor in the Department of Neurology at Sofia Medical University and Head of the Department of Cognitive Science at New Bulgarian University. In 2001 he defended his DSc thesis “Clinical, genetic and epidemiological study of six novel hereditary neuromuscular disorders in Roma in Bulgaria”. He leads a team which has described 12 novel hereditary disorders. He is Chairman of the Bulgarian Neuromuscular Disorders Society.
Prof. Tournev is also Chairman of the Ethnic Minorities Health Problems Foundation and a member of the Board of the National Network of Roma Health Mediators. He is a WHO expert on Roma health. Prof. Tournev is a principal researcher of 50 scientific projects and a team leader of 40 social and medical projects related to Roma health. He has more than 250 scientific papers, 100 of them in international journals and has been working in the field of hereditary disorders in the Roma population for more than 20 years. He has visited more than 2500 towns and villages in Bulgaria with Roma districts and organized and participated in various prevention and health education programs in the Roma community.
Mr. Tournev supports the activities of Roma NGO’s. Since 2001 he has developed the concept of the Roma health mediator and set the basis of a program for their training. He was a substantial part in the training of 190 Roma health mediators who currently work in 105 municipalities in Bulgaria. He has developed a Program and Action Plan at the Ministry of Health for prevention and early diagnostics of tuberculosis, cardiovascular, oncological and hereditary disorders in vulnerable ethnic minorities, has organized prevention studies and exams with mobile units in Roma districts. He has developed community-based carrier testing programs for severe AR hereditary disorders in high-risk Roma groups. Last, but not least he is one of the main supporters of the education and mentorship of 106 Roma students in medical disciplines who study in the medical universities in Bulgaria.
