Since 2010, the Roma Health Scholarship Program in Serbia has been a joint initiative of the Fund for an Open Society and the Roma Education Fund dedicated to creation of a generation of Roma health professionals.
Since 2010, the Roma Health Scholarship Program in Serbia has been a joint initiative of the Fund for an Open Society and the Roma Education Fund dedicated to creation of a generation of Roma health professionals. The program has supported only the best young Roma who would join the health institutions after completion of their studies and contribute with their work to a better health care of their fellow citizen.The Association of Roma Students from Novi Sad, as one of the partners in the program realization, has been working with young Roma for many years at strengthening their Roma identity, providing them at the same time some useful advocacy techniques for better position of their vulnerable compatriots, how to be the voice which will be heard, the voice which talks about the problems faced by this marginalized community.
In order to get to know real problems and the situation in the Roma settlements, in the scope of this year's Follow-up Program (April-June 2016), the ARS organized a series of activities for the scholarship beneficiaries. First of all, the visits to Roma settlements and work with their inhabitants; also, an intensive cooperation with health mediators, pedagogical assistants and mobile teams was achieved so that future Roma medical professionals got a picture of the real life in the settlements.
Direct work with the inhabitants of the Roma settlements was an invaluable element which would steer the work of future Roma doctors towards the real needs in order to improve health care of the Roma population. The scholars visited the settlements in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš three times a month.
The scholarship beneficiaries described their experiences and impressions in the essays which would be published as a separate edition.
