Romania:
Young Roma’s become doctors: “If you are a professional, you won’t be subjected to ethnical discrimination.â€
18 year’s old and accepted at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy from Iasi. She is a young girl like every other, but her home environment and background would have never permitted her to achieve her goal. “Discrimination made me want to prove all the rest that ethnic backgrounds doesn’t mean anything. If you are a professional, you won’t be subjected to ethnical discriminationâ€, explains the young Roma student.
Alexandra-Daniela Constantinescu benefited from free tutoring in chemistry, offered by the program “A generation of Roma specialist in the medical fieldâ€, a Romanian national program that’s aiming to give young people with vulnerable ethnic backgrounds to follow their dream.
Discrimination should not be taken as a handicap
Alexandra from Braila is 18. She appreciates the program because she is well aware that without these courses she would have never been admitted to the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iasi. “I don’t think I would have managed by myself because most candidates prepare themselves in private and because of my background, my family wouldn’t have been able to offer me private lessonsâ€, explains the young student.
The program offered me tutoring 5 times per month, from December 2011 till in July 2012. For each session I had to prepare homework and I was evaluated. If I got good grades like 9 and 10 I would get a monthly scholarship of 400Ron, if I received smaller grades I only got 200 Ron.
“I can’t say I was discriminated. Discrimination should not be taken as a handicap. Discrimination made me want to better myself. If you are a professional no one can discriminate you. “
The young student admits that she chose her profession from the 11th grade, because it offered her moral and financial satisfaction.
This program offers 360 positions during the 2012-2013 school year, for mentor programs and scholarships 125 for medical qualification courses.
Young Roma people that want to follow a medical career can enter the program by signing up till the 30th October to the scholarship programs offered by Active Watch, in collaboration with other non-government organizations.
Active Watch, together with the Roma Education Fund Romania Foundation, Resident Doctor Association, Roma Center for Health Policy and Open Society Institute, offer in total 360 places in the program “A generation of professional Roma citizens in the Medical Field†with funding help from the Social European Fund. This program is implemented nationwide between 2011 and January 2014.
The Program for Personal Development gives 500 Roma students and pupils the chance to benefit from courses in the medical field during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years.
For 2012-2013, young Roma citizens, depending on their interests and qualification, can apply for the Personal Development Program “Roma professionals in the medical field†or the program for qualification and re qualification of young Roma’s in the medical field.
Source of the article here
