Mission Roma
Main conditions : illnesses linked to living conditions, delay in accessing healthcare (in France and in their country of origin), and psychological trauma caused by repeated expulsions
Epidemiological characteristics : Early neonatal mortality (0-1 month) nine times higher, infant mortality (0-1 year) five times higher, life expectancy 15 to 20 years below that of the French population (Romeurope data, 1998)
Number of projects : 4
Number of beneficiaries : approx. 3,500 of whom more than 2,000 in Ile-de-France (estimate)
Number of volunteers : 76
Sources of funding : Local health authorities, department councils, etc.
Partenaires : Alpil, ASAV, ATD Fourth World, LDH, MRAP, Roma family support collectives, Romeurope, sector MCW, town councils, PASS (permanent access to healthcare service, etc.…
The Roma have suffered racial discrimination and poverty in their countries of origin and are now living in deplorable conditions in France in shanty towns or squats. Repeated expulsions make them ever needier and make their lives even more insecure.
Often forced into acting clandestinely, the Roma are often refused access to healthcare, and more generally, to their fundamental rights.
Supporting expelled families
1992, Suburbs Project: the 1st programme amongst migrant Roma
Activities:
MdM continues to visit places where the Roma live to help them get access to healthcare and their rights (universal health insurance and state medical aid). This health watch is aimed particularly at health education and promotion, schooling for children, help for access to drinking water and mother and child health. The mobile project amongst Roma in Lyon visited 17 places in 2005 and met nearly 1,000 people, 56% of them women. The expulsion policy to which Roma are subject aggravates their already insecure living conditions even more. All their affairs are often destroyed, and contacts with healthcare structures and schools broken, etc.
Their wandering forces them to settle in shanty towns, thus making it harder to access their fundamental rights and delaying or preventing the work of the medical and welfare teams working amongst them.
Types of work:
> Health prevention and education, primary healthcare, help for children's schooling, access to drinking water, implementing sanitary measures, etc
> Antenatal work: preventing terminations, monitoring pregnancies, information on contraception, child vaccinations, MCW support and in family planning centres.
> Bearing witness to living conditions, repeated expulsions, obstacles to access to healthcare and rights.
> Involvement of Roma family support committees, health workers, town councils and state services.
Outlook:
Continue local health work on the ground, with an emphasis on children and rights to health, and continue to develop mother and child health work. As part of the Romeurope collective, MdM will continue to work alongside other member associations against the discrimination and human rights violations of which the Roma are victims in France (expulsions from living places, police harassment, arrests, removals from the area, etc) and to improve access to fundamental rights for migrant Roma in France (right to health protection, housing, work and education).
October 2006