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OSI’s Public Health Program (PHP) works to promote the health of minority communities facing stigma and discrimination. A goal of the program is to enable minority communities to better participate in decision-making for health policy by ensuring they have the skills and resources to identify health issues and advocate for programs tailored to their needs. OSI works extensively with Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe/ South Eastern Europe (CEE/SEE), and the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa is starting a new project to address the needs of the San in Southern Africa. The following is a selection of work undertaken by OSI’s Roma Health Project (RHP).
- Convenings
- TB and Social Exclusion in Eastern Europe (2/07), Salzburg, Austria – OSI’s Roma Health Project and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease sponsored the gathering of 42 national health planners, TB coordinators, and representatives of civil society to discuss the response to TB in marginalized and minority communities throughout Central and Eastern Europe and make concrete recommendations to improve strategies.
- Left Out: Access of Roma to Health Care (3/07), Bratislava, Slovakia – OSI sponsored a panel discussion at the annual European Public Health Alliance Conference, “Health in an Enlarged EU,” featuring Roma health service and advocacy projects by OSI grantees.
- Reports
- Confronting a Hidden Disease: TB in Roma Communities outlines the available literature and data on Roma and TB in Central and Eastern Europe and current efforts by governments and NGOs to address TB in Roma communities. The report aims to bring research needs and program opportunities to the attention of key stakeholders.
- Ambulance Not on the Way:The Disgrace of Health Care for Roma in Europe, published by OSI grantee the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), explores major systemic causes for exclusion of Roma from access to health care and documents inferior medical services and other forms of human rights abuse in health care provision.
- Capacity building and partnerships
- OSI provides core institutional support to organizations working on programming and policy initiatives to improve access to health care for Roma women. The grants include a training component to strengthen the capacity of organizations to address minority health issues.
- OSI gives grants to harm reduction organizations for outreach to Roma communities to increase the availability and access of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services. OSI is planning a conference in the fall of 2007 with Roma activists on drug use in Roma communities and approaches to protect individuals from HIV/AIDS, including a harm reduction approach.
In addition, the Human Rights and Governance Grants Program (HRGGP) provides institutional support to many of the leading Roma rights organizations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union whose work includes promoting access to health care. Many of these organizations are also leading efforts to ensure that state commitments made in the framework of the Decade for Roma Inclusion are honoured. HRGGP support focuses on groups providing legal aid, monitoring and reporting on abuses, and taking strategic litigation to protect the rights of vulnerable minority communities.
