During the previous six years, the RHSP awarded 121 scholarships to as many as 58 students who attended the faculties of medical sciences at four universities in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac.
The Roma Health Scholarship Program is an important international assistance project launched by the Fund for an Open Society which has been supporting education of the Roma students and pupils in the fields of medicine, stomatology and pharmacy at a university level and at secondary and vocational schools in Serbia for already 6 years.This Program is important in many aspects. In the first place because very few Roma have career in medical professions. Some studies showed that discrimination in health is overwhelming. Hence the Fund for an Open Society as well as Roma Education Fund had many reasons to launch a scholarship program of this kind.
It consists of four components: providing scholarship for the candidates – realized by the Roma Education Fund, mentoring component, public advocacy training and media component.
During the previous six years, the RHSP awarded 121 scholarships to as many as 58 students who attended the faculties of medical sciences at four universities in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac.
The last year of the project (2015/2016) involved 18 students from the faculties of medical sciences in Serbia from three Universities – Belgrade (1), Niš (8) and Novi Sad (9).
In addition to providing scholarships, the key objective of The Roma Health Scholarship Program is an exceptionally important mentoring component, actually the provision of expert support in personal and professional development of Roma students. This component is pursued by the Centre – the School of Public Health and Health Management of the School of Medicine at Belgrade University.
Investment in creation of the mentoring culture results in strengthening of the scholars’ learning capacities and achievement of better academic results, encouraging their development and enabling better integration not only into the school environment but also into the society in general.
The mentors, who are professors, assistant professors and assistants at the faculties of medical sciences in the mentioned university centres, steer and guide Roma students, rendering them assistance in order to surmount the teaching material and include into the academic community.
Up to now, 31 mentors have rendered their support to the students. This year that number is 12.
''This is one of rare projects that has assembled teachers and associates from all faculties of health sciences in the country, the enthusiasts dedicated to achievement of fundamental equality among the students, namely, decrease of unacceptable differences between the Roma and the rest of the society“, says Professor dr Snežana Simić from the Institute for Social Medicine of the School of Medicine in Belgrade.
She emphasizes that the mentoring component has particular quality which reflects an increase of visibility of the Roma students who acquire knowledge in the field of health and health care, pointing out that this visibility could certainly be greater if an additional effort is made.
’’The leading project team endeavoured to include into the mentoring process the students who received the scholarships but who did not have the right to have mentors as well as those who were accepted through the affirmative measures because we did not want to exclude them from the mentoring process“, explains dr Janko Janković, the mentoring component manager and assistant professor of the social medicine at the School of Medicine in Belgrade.
This Program is even more important due to the fact that the share of the Roma with university degree in Serbia is below 1 per cent (more precisely 0.7 per cent) and that the number of those who get academic diplomas is much less.
''But this small community at the faculties of health professions in Serbia is strengthened by support of their teachers – mentors who help them master teaching materials, engage in scientific research work and non-governmental organizations and develop into responsible young people and experts in their own profession“, emphasizes dr Snežana Simić adding a disturbing fact that even when they graduate they become invisible, lost and equalized in the army of young unemployed people.
''Affirmative measures which exist at enrolment of schools and faculties should be also applied at employment because there are few exceptional young doctors, pharmacists, dentists and professional nurses among them who deserve a job and status in the society“, says dr Simić.
Janko Janković explains the necessity of recognizing the importance of these young people for the health care system as a whole, but he also highlights that they represent the agents of change in the fight against discrimination and prejudice-breaking that exist in regard of the Roma.
According to Nenad Vladisavljev, a representative of the public advocacy component from the Association of Roma Students, the advocacy schools give an opportunity to Roma students to connect, strengthen their self-confidence and equip with various instruments for professional development: ''They are also an opportunity to become aware of the historical role of the Roma students of medicine in the process of Roma emancipation, initiate the questions related to the future of the Roma community and reconsider the role of young, educated Roma in such future.''
In addition to visibility, mentoring and public advocacy, the program coordinator Jelica Nikolić from Roma Education Fund mentions the additional components which the RHSP scholarship beneficiaries have: foreign language grants, conferences and computer courses, small scale projects. She points out that the efforts are being made to make these programs sustainable and that there is a wish to establish cooperation with the Ministries and universities in that context.
The RHSP results are best reflected in the achevements made by the students who pursued scientific and research work and presented them at domestic and international professional conferences in Brussels (in 2013) and Milan (in 2015).
’’Also, one student received the Erasmus Mundus scholarship for continuation of education in Ljubljana, while another one received the Exchange Program scholarship, also in Ljubljana“ dr Janković points out.
The future health professionals could initiate a change of the health care system and education system in general. Thereby, they would contribute to breaking the prejudices, negative stereotypes and attitudes that exist towards the Roma, and also to combat discrimination and violation of their rights.
Progress for the better status without discrimination of the Roma community are promised by the Second Roma Decade in Serbia and Europe (until 2025), the initiative of the EU Communication Directorate to appoint a new special representative for Roma issues in the General Secretariat, launching PAL Project and network which will combat Roma discrimination in Europe and appropriating about 5 million Euros for the projects dedicated to Roma integration into local communities after readmission. The Central European University in Budapest appointed the first chief of department who is a Roma and a Roma woman as an assistant for the issues related to the Roma status in the European community.
Two very active FACEBOOK groups - the first is our ''Second Roma Decade'' and the second is an international organization ''Legal Advocacy for Roma Rights“– gather and inform the concerned parties about activities, programs and projects dedicated to improvement of the Roma status in Serbia and Europe and provide a good insight into the problems met by the Roma and the ways for their solution.
CENTRE – PUBLIC ADVOCACY SCHOOL AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT
Centre – the School of Public Advocacy and Health Management of the School of Medicine at University of Belgrade is the mainstay of mentoring component of the Roma Health Scholarship Program (RHSP).
School Mission is promotion of public health and health management along with provision of excellent academic study programs, programs for continual education, research and consultation for the present and future generations of professionals.
School Vision is to create experts through education of the staff in the field of public health and health management who would be ready to face the key challenges in this field.
School Goals and Objectives are education of competent experts in the field of public health and health management, improvement of knowledge in the public health sciences, training of researcher in this field, promotion of health in cooperation with the social community and improvement of the process of decision-making and formulation of public health policies.
