Fundación
Secretariado General Gitano (FSGG) - Project leader
The
FSGG is a Spanish NGO providing services for the development of
the Roma community. The organisation was officially founded in
1982, but the activities started long before, in the sixties.
The
fundamental objectives are:the
full inclusion and advancement of Roma in society, participation
of Roma in their own development, improvement of their public
image and dissemination of their cultural values and collaboration
with organisations that work in favour of the inclusion of the
Roma community.
FSGG
activity focuses on three major areas:
- information services, training and technical support provided
to Roma associations, administration officials and other entities
that fight for the advancement of this minority (collaboration
with 40 associations and agreements with 55 Spanish public administrations;
special training services for professionals; transnational work
with European networks and cooperation with Eastern countries)
-
campaigns and overall awareness measures with a view to rooting
out the structural causes of inequality
Roma
Center for Social Intervention and Studies, Romani CRISS, Bucharest
(Romania)
Romani
CRISS combines civic activism with the creation and implementation
of public policy programmes for the benefit of the Roma community
to ensure their rights are respected. CRISS advocates for multiethnic
cooperation between the majority community in Romania and the
Roma population in order to strengthen local democracy institutions.
The
objectives and activities carried out by Romani CRISS can be summarized
as:
-
Prevention of inter-ethnic violence;
- Local development and the implementation of socio-economic and
cultural rights;
- Building confidence and community development;
- Schooling for Roma and civic education in relations between
majority and minority communities;
- Employment and income generation projects;
- Studies, political analysis, contribution to the association
movement of Roma in Romania and abroad.
CRISS
has a wide experience in the collaboration with international
institutions: with UNICEF in the promotion of summer programmes
for Roma children, with the Council of Europe in the issue of
health and Roma women, with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights (Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues) in
the training of Roma social workers.
It
has widely promoted the Roma access to health services, and has
a Partnership Agreement with the Romanian Ministry of Health and
Family for the promotion of the figure of health mediators in
the Roma communities.
Civic
Association PRIMA, Bratislava (Slovakia)
PRIMA
started working in Bratislava in 1998. It is a non-profit organization
whose main mission is to help people addicted to drugs directly
on the street. Through their work - street work - the staff of
PRIMA aim to minimize health and social risks associated with
drug use and prostitution, not only for OZ Prima clients but also
for their social environment. This includes mainly the prevention
of the spread of the HIV virus and other infectious diseases.
PRIMA
also implements programmes of harm reduction to support people
who are addicted to drugs, motivates these people toward treatment,
permanent abstinence and toward education.
PRIMA
started the street work project in September 1998 and since November
1999 has developed a syringes exchange program. Last year PRIMA
broadened its program and mobile street work, travelling directly
to clients and ensure the exchange of syringes and other material.
It allows them to penetrate into places that are harder to reach,
surrounding parts of Bratislava.
The
work of the civil association Prima also includes a social assistance
program for facilitating to drug users the access to health services.
PRIMA works closely with public health services and specially
with the Centre for Drug Treatment in Bratislava with a high percentage
of Roma drug users.
Initiative
for Health Foundation, Sofia (Bulgaria)
Initiative
for Health Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded
in 1997 to establish and deliver services for drug users and to
provide support to drug treatment services, local authorities
and other agencies in the establishment of an effective drug policy
in Bulgaria. The Foundation is involved in the development of
the Bulgarian drug demand reduction strategy and HIV/AIDS preventive
strategy.
The
Initiative for Health Foundation was the first NGO to do needle
exchange in Bulgaria and is implementing the Sofia Needle Exchange
Project. It works in Roma areas providing a wide range of services
to socially isolated groups of injecting drug users. Information
and educational materials are designed and edited by the Sofia
Needle Exchange Project. This programme has established active
cooperation and referral networks with several governmental services
and non-governmental organisations. Through active membership
in the Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network, project
staff exchange information and experience on a regular basis with
staff of other programmes in the region.
SANANIM,
Prague (Czech Republic)
The
SANANIM association was founded in 1990. In 1991 it opened the
first program / facility focusing on treatment on drug addictions
- the Nemcice Therapeutic Community. Therefore, the facility became
the first programme implemented by a non-governmental organisation
in the field of drug addiction in the Czech Republic.
Currently
the association primarily focuses on prevention and treatment
of drug addiction within the framework of a complex system that
includes 7 key programs: Field Programs, Contact Centre, Day-Care
Centre, Karlov Therapeutic Community, Nemcice Therapeutic Community,
After-Care Centre with sheltered housing and Drug Information
Centre. The SANANIM Day-Care Centre and After-Care Centre were
founded in 1997 with kind support of Phare Programme, where technical
and financial support significantly help in fast development and
establishment of the mentioned facilities.
In
addition to standard services provided within the framework of
operation of these facilities, the association also implements
various projects outside the framework of this network of facilities.
In particular, this relates to educational, research and primary
prevention activities. In a country such as the Czech Republic
with a high number of Roma population, also a part of the beneficiaries
of the SANANIM services are Roma.
"Blue
Point" Drug Counselling and Outpatient Centre, Budapest (Hungary)
The
"Blue Point" is non-governmental organisation founded
in 1996, the main objective of which is to reduce harms caused
by drug use (especially illicit drug use) among drug users, their
families and the whole society. The main services provided by
this organisation are: information about drugs, psychiatric help,
psychological and lifestyle advice, counselling (personal and
family), help in social administration, after-care following withdrawal
status and relapse prevention, legal advice service, peer support,
and outreach social work. The services provided by the organisation
try to harmonise the psychiatric, psychotherapeutic, addictional
therapies and social work. "Blue Point" prepares and
organises the admission of the clients to an in-patient clinic
and continues therapy in out-patient form thereafter. It works
closely and in collaboration with other health care services.
The
"Blue Point" has had an advisory role in the Hungarian
National Drug Strategy; it has delivered a special outreach work
in a Roma neighbourhood in Budapest and has signed an agreement
for cooperation with the local Roma Self-Government.
