Background

In October, 2000, on the occasion of the Roma in Europe: Improving Healthcare and Rights of a Minority in Distress, a European forum organized by Doctors of the World, two Roma doctors from Sliven informed Doctors of the World about the worrisome condition of healthcare in the Nadezhda residential area. Sliven is the city with the highest child mortality rate. The latter is a consequence of bad living conditions, low healthcare awareness and lack of access to health services for the residents of the Nadezhda neighborhood.

A partnership between Doctors of the World , the Roma Population Health Foundation and the Municipality of Sliven was established within a very short time. Since 2000, several study missions have been organized to identify the current status, the needs and the intervention opportunities. Consequently, Doctors of the World decided to implement a project for the establishment of consultancies for protecting mothers and children in Nadezhda residential area.

Practice

The overall health of the residents was improved and the mortality rate among mothers and children in Sliven was reduced by:

- improving the health of pregnant women, young mothers and children in the neighborhood;

- improving the medical services available to families in the neighborhood and assisting the residents in implementing their rights;

- focus on early diagnosing of pregnancy, regular medical checks of pregnant women to monitor and prevent birth complications, organization of information meetings on pregnancy, hygiene, sexually transmitted diseases and contraceptives;

- regular medical checks of children to identify nutrition problems and other disease conditions, inoculation and provision of nutrition supplements for children in need;

- registration of patients by a general practitioner and, when needed, provision of assistance to the families in taking different administrative actions;

- the Municipality provided financial and logistics support to the project and has committed to ensure its sustainability; it also provided training for the team employed at the mothers protection office, collected information and submitted it to the competent authorities and to the Doctors of the World s head office.

Results

A health center with consultancies on protecting mothers and children was established in the city. It will contribute to improving the minority's status by increasing the degree of health awareness and by providing access to medical care at the place of residence.