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The 3rd European Public Health Conference organized by EUPHA took place in Amsterdam from November 10th to 13th. It gathered more than 1600 participants from around the world. Following the tradition established already during the previous conferences the Public health program of OSI together with EUPHA supported the participation of Roma activists from Eastern Europe in the poster and workshop sessions. Moreover, a special workshop focusing on closing the Roma health gap was additionally held on November 13. The workshop ‘Closing the health gap:addressing inequalities and inequality faced by Roma in health care’ enjoyed a significant interest having more than 40 participants from various backrounds: researchers, practitioners, Roma activists and representatives of different institutions including representatives of DG SANCO of the European Commission. The three presentations in the session included: Fighting inequalities in access to health care for Roma with Roma in Romania (Simona Barbu, Romani CRISS), The transformative policy switch: using a human security approach to tackle health inequalities in relation to Roma – the Romanian case(Romanita Iordache, OSI) and National-level advocacy for including Roma in the design, implementation and evaluation of health policies affecting them (Teodora Krumova, Center Amalipe). Simona Barbu presented the 15-year experience of Romani CRISS in introducing and promoting the position of the Roma health mediators. Starting from 25  the health mediators in Romania are now around 600. The good practice has been taken over by the Romanian government, but the Roma NGO has preserved its function for providing trainings and support of the health mediators. Romanita Iordache presented the OSI/REF program „Roma Leadership in Health: A Generation of New Professionals” together with three students grantees of the program in Romania. She underlined the undoubtful effect of the program in terms of establishing of a critical mass of Roma working in the field of health care and at the same time qualifying and capacitiating a generation of high-level Roma health professionals. The results of the two-year experience in Romania are already several students with outstending results in national and international competitions, scholarship programs and conferences. The challenge before the program in Romania now is to overcome the difficulties in implementing a European Social Fund project since the Structural funds are taking over the financing of the Program.

In turn, Teodora Krumova presented the experience and efforts of Center Amalipe for advocating for mainstreaming Roma issues in the health policy in Bulgaria and guaranteeing the Roma participation at all levels: from the decision-making process to monitoring and evaluation. In her speech she welcomed the position of the the representative of the Inequality unit of DG Sanco Charles Prize who had previously underlined during the plenary sessions the need for closer participation with NGOs for closing the health gaps and overcoming inequalities. She further refered to one of the conclusions from the previous-day workshops ‘Us vs. Them’ that in order to overcome this barrier community advocates were needed. Teodora Krumova presented the experience of Center Amalipe in two major policy directions: mainstreaming Roma issues in the National Health Map and providing supporting activities for overcoming health inequalities through the Structural funds. At present two major operations have been proposed for discussion  for the next Monitoring Committee of the Human Resources Development Operational Program  to be held on December 1st, 2010: Operation within priority axis 4: Improving the access to university education for students from vulnerable ethnic minority groups with special focus on Roma (providing sustainability for the Scholarship program supporting Roma medical students, and Operation within priority axis 5: Improving the access to healthcare in neighbourhoods populated by representatives of socially excluded groups with special focus on Roma.

Charlses Prise congratulated Center Amalipe and the Bulgarian Roma NGOs for the obvious success that has been achieved and shared that the formula of good cooperation between Roma activists, national government and EU officials should be popularized and multiplied in other countries as well.

An interesting discussion has been provoked after the presentations regarding the Program for Roma students in medical related specialities. Florin Nasture, representative of Roma Education Fund in Romania commented that all scholarship programs supporting Roma should guarantee that grantees preserved their relation with the communities and further contribute to overcoming the health gap. At the same time a Hungarian University representative shared the opinion that Roma do not need elite programs but rather programs directed to the most marginalized. The answer of Romanita Iordache however was a reference back to statement at the begining of her presentation that we should stop looking at Roma only as victims of marginalization but as potential which should be further developed. Teodora Krumova supported this statement pointing to some figured from the implementation of the program in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian case was additionally presented as a poster in the poster session.