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01.08.2016An experiment in Pavlikeni shows how to increase the number of health insured people

 

Seven months after they recovered their health insurance status, ten Roma people from the municipality of Pavlikeni continue to support it by paying their monthly health insurance. It was a part of an experiment designed to increase the number of health insured people, organized under the program LERI (Empowering local level for Roma inclusion).

 

In December 2015 Center "Amalipe" supported 10 active volunteers to the Center for Community Development - Pavlikeni to restore their health insurance rights by covering half of their payroll for the period from 01.01.2013 to 31.12.2015. The other half was paid by the volunteers themselves. By contract, which everyone signed with Center "Amalipe" volunteers took the commitment to regularly pay their health insurance after January 1, 2016, and to continue their voluntary work in the Center for Community Development - Pavlikeni, as well as in Byala Cherkva, Stambolovo and Batak. The moderators from the Centre for Community Development in Pavlikeni started to support the volunteers since January 2016 by including themin campaigns and increasing their motivation.

 

Information for health insurance status indicates that each of the supported ones continues to be insured. Only two of the supported have been hired with an employment contract and their insurance are paid by their employer. Other two were small entrepreneurs, two of the women were housewives and others make their living through activities under civil contract or no contract. They pay their own health insurance. Three have missed one month.

 

The experiment showed that the combination of support and personal commitment  leads to encouraging results. Individual work is the key to success to increase motivation and participating in community campaigns is crucial to change attitudes towards health insurance system.

 

The experiment also shows certain weaknesses in policies to increase the scope of health insurance. Increasing the years required to return to the system (from January 2016 requiring paid contributions for five years instead of three, as it was at the end of 2015) increases the financial burden and reduces the number of persons who could return to the system. In rural areas, self-insurance is associated with additional costs: for example, two of the three supported have a gap of one month, because they pay payroll taxes once every two months in order to save travel costs and bank fees. The actual return to the system requires this to happen in the regional center, as the National income agency didn't have export centers in small municipalities.

 

Project "Support for participation in the study of Roma integration at local level in the municipality of Pavlikeni" is financed within the program LERI (Empowering local level for Roma inclusion) of the EU agency for fundamental human rights. In Bulgaria the program was implemented in the municipalities of Stara Zagora and Pavlikeni as partners are respectively "World without Borders" and Center "Amalipe".

 

01.08.2016Let’s fight together for equality and dignity for Roma community: Annual Meeting of EGAM

 

Under this motto passed the annual meeting of the European antiracist movement EGAM, which took place from 21 to 24 of July 2016 in Sofia. It was organized in partnership with Center“Amalipe” and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.

Moderator of the event was Benjamin Abtan, president of the European antiracist movement - EGAM, which brings together some of the most successful in this area organizations in over 30 countries in Europe and beyond. Among the participants were Deyan Kolev, President of the Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance Amalipe and Krassimir Kanev from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.The Forum involved organizations working in the field of human rights, antiracism and Roma issues from Macedonia, Serbia, Italy, Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary and France.

Since 2011, the Member organizations of the European movement - EGAM have organized the initiative “Roma Pride”: day of the Roma's pride. Participants in the annual meeting explained how the event has taken place in 2015 and planned its conducting in 2016.This year's Roma Pride: day of the Roma's pride will take place on 2 October in more than 15 countries, including Bulgaria. Participants identified the key messages of the initiative and target groups. This year the focus of the event will be reducing the anti-Roma hate speech and better communicate the benefits of the Roma integration for the society as a whole.


The language of hatred against Roma was the theme at the press conference, which participants gave on 22 July in the BTA. Krasimir Kanev from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee expressed the opinion that the Bulgarian authorities and the Prosecutor's Office did nothing against anti-Roma speech and discrimination. "We have seen real-world examples of anti-Roma hate that pours from the Tribune of the Bulgarian Parliament in such a way as it never happened in history, he commented.Not only there was no response from the District Attorney's Office, but when it was approached, it decided that it was a legitimate way of expression! ", noted the President of the BHC and pointed out that the Prosecutor refused pre-production for the President of the NFSB, on the occasion of his racist statements. He also blamed the media, since some of them have a "low" sensitivity on the subject. "Some media tolerate similar acts. Other media allowed spreading the hate speech in their Internet forums ", concluded Kanev.

Anti-Roma stereotypes and attitudes are strong, but they can be overcome, if work systematically”, commented  Deyan Kolev, President of “Amalipe”. According to him, the language of hate cover broad groups of Bulgarian citizens, but the problem is not incurable.Kolev pointed out that over the past decade there have been significantly increase in the percentage of Roma with higher education. Unfortunately this does not lead to a reduction of the language of hatred, but the opposite – reinforces the tendency more educated Roma to conceal their identity because of anti – Roma hatred.

 

At the same time in the European Commission's progress report of the policy for Roma integration Bulgaria is one of the most frequently mentioned countries: for good and bad. From a total of 65 positive examples of successful integration models, 10 relate to our country, and in three of them Center Amalipe is a partner, pointed Kolev. But the report indicates that many successful examples of integration are not supported and maintained by the national institutions: there is no comprehensive integration policies, the European Commission pointed out.Thus Kolev explained the paradoxes. He believes that language of hatred will diminish when there is a real progress in national policies for Roma integration. Deyan Kolev announced that once again Center Amalipe will organize "Roma pride", which will be held at national level in the country for a week and will begin from October 2, 2016. The idea is Bulgarians and Roma to be together and to see the similarities in the cultures of the various ethnic groups and the common problems faced by.

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