Integro Association, Bulgaria acting during pandemic situation

Date 5 April 2020 Author Gabriela Hrabanova Category Pandemic RE-ACTIONS, Roma mobilization

Immediately after the outbreak Integro established a coordination group of NGOs and relevant government representatives. Through this group they can convey needs and difficulties identified on local level and propose solutions, with a direct contact to the National Headquarter for combating the Corona-virus infection.

All health and education mediators of Integro are visiting Roma neighbourhoods to provide information, monitor quarantine and refer people to specialists. They also distribute schooling materials for children who cannot take part in online learning. At Integro’s suggestion, many mediators are also included in municipal coronavirus teams and receive protective equipment. As the equipment is not sufficient, Integro is looking for suitable fabrics so that the women at the organisation’s Roma Mother Centres can sew masks for mediators and activists. Integro also translated a brochure and video from the Roma Standing Conference on preventing the coronavirus infection from Bulgarian and Romanes into Turkish, the language of many Roma communities in Bulgaria. 15,000 brochures of the brochure have been printed!

In addition, the association proposed urgent measures to be taken by local authorities to support Roma communities, and many of them complied and provide for example food packages and water tanks. Integro also discusses with the Ministry of Education to provide internet access, and with IT companies to provide old computers to the communities so that children can participate in online learning programmes. Last but not least, they closely monitor whether rights of the Roma are violated.

Source: ERGO Network