Improving Health for Roma Children_"together for a better health, for us, by us"
- At risk youth
- Social Investment
- Corporate social responsibility
- Health care
- Infant health
- Education
- Vulnerable populations
Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.
Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?
Founding Story
Paul
We are a team of 4 non-government organisations (NGOs) and employees of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Belgium and the UK, passionate about improving the health of Roma children in Europe.
I am a father of an 11 year old son. I work for GlaxoSmithKline for 19 years now. I love travelling and seeing the world, meeting and learning from other people and other cultures. I have lived and worked in, the Netherlands, Indonesia, the UK, Slovakia and now in Belgium.
Our Project is initiated and funded from the GSK European Community Partnerships Programme.
Passionate to address inequalities, especially towards children not having the chance to grow up in good health and appreciate good education. A pragmatic problem solving and solution oriented can –do attitude. A healthy aversion towards (corporate) bureaucracy. Proven ability to make things happen. Able to see the big picture and future needs and linking it to the Corporate Strategy. Strong internal GSK network and growing external network In Brussels and Central Europe at sufficient level to raise awareness and gain support. Natural and inclusive leadership/moderating skills to align different (professional) stakeholders and individuals towards a common goal
, Brentford (london)
, PR, various Roma settlements in CEE
Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary
Health Care
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Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)
First project of its kind, aiming at accelerating goals by the mutual intensive collaboration and learning of Roma NGOs in different member states, the Roma community, Governments and GSK. It will raise the awareness and potentially strategic approach towards the health of 5-10 million Roma people in Settlements. It will support new Roma policies at the EU level new partnerships and in time the Roma people will gain a better health, including access to medicines and vaccines
Within the first nine months of the project: 87 new Health Mediators have been trained, 117 communities have been reached and 149 700 children have benefitted either directly or indirectly. Approximately 70% of those who benefitted are children. The mutual learnings and best practice sharing between the NGOs and with GSK have led to the exchange of educational materials, tracking and improving Health Mediator activities, broader acceptance in general towards the Health Mediators and the role of medical society, including proposed legal changes. The Project has attracted attention and even support from respected international Institutions and professionals that are willing to help and who will bring learnings from the project into European Roma Policy making and insights on European procedures to this project. The project is already being extended in various regions in the four countries and can be scaled up even further
We expect to reach more than 480 000 Roma people by the end of the three year project term. The primary focus being increasing access to healthcare and health infrastructure. The project aims to attract other sources of funding so that it is more self-sustaining. The GSK funds and support at the inception of the project are meant to provide a kick start to take the collaboration off the ground. We will work in partnership on building a strong international platform that will continuously work in the field of Roma health literacy and enhance status of the community. Grow and extend a stable network of Health mediators in the 4 countries and beyond , to be able to spread their knowledge and best practices outside of the current scope.
GSK will have the opportunity to demonstrate our open and collaborative way of working by working in genuine partnership with all national and EU stakeholders to ensure the change in Roma communities is sustainable. It serves as an example of how we bring our philosophy of ‘health for all’ to life. In time the significant community of Roma people will gain access to better quality of health (including access to our vaccines, medicines and consumer health care products) and better quality of life overall as well as an uplift in their social status.
We are providing a grant of €500.000 over a period of 3 years to support the NGOs for the direct benefit of the work of existing Health Mediators and projects and to increase the number of Roma Health Mediators and education. We provide a part-time project manager who works in close collaboration with the NGO that chairs the project. We are finding synergies with other GSK programs, GSK Colleagues are working in teams with the local NGOs and support communication and contacts with medical and governmental stakeholders and provide communication infrastructure and in kind materials. Our European Government affairs department in Brussels leverages the project and needs of NGO's towards EU and global institutes and our HQ communication department supports in/external awareness
GSK will support the project for a defined period of three years. Support is skills-based and financial. The initial funding from GSK should help to kick start the project, create and embed ways of working and attract other sources of funding. The aim is for the programme is to be self-sufficient and therefore able to operate independently of GSK funding. One of the aims is to achieve legal acknowledgement and broad government adaption and funding towards the NGOs and towards Health Mediators as a recognised job.We, as a collective, should gain the skills to successfully apply for the European Structural Funds 2014-2018. Overall the base for an extended network of European NGOs and the learnings about how to collaborate and benefit from each other will be established
As mentioned before, the project is supported by a variety of professional disciplines from within GSK. Learnings and materials from other GSK Community Partnership Programmes from all over the world are brought into this project and vice verse.
National Governments and National and international NGOs and organisations have indicated their interest and support us in various ways. We are aiming to embed this support into the sustainability of the programme
Full internal support including communications. The project will be featured in the 2012 Corporate Responsibility report, is featured on the internal web page and is featured on gsk.com. Initially the reputational impact of this project on GSK was considered – primarily since awareness of the Roma community is low within the company. It was decided rather that the project would be the responsible course of action given our position as a healthcare company