The seminar on the topic “Changing the Narratives on Roma in the Context of Health Care“ was organized by the Foundations Open Society New York and the American-Austrian Foundation in the period from 26 – 31 October 2014 in Salzburg, Austria. The seminar was aimed for the civil organizations and health workers from Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.  The coordinator of the program for public health and women’s health from the Association ESE participated at the seminar. The representative of ESE presented  the findings of the research “We are all humans: health care for everyone regardless of the ethnicity – The situation regarding the health, health care and right to health among Roma in Republic of Macedonia“. At the seminar, the participants were able to learn different techniques and methods which can be applied in order to overcome the negative narratives on Roma in health care.

In the period 24-26.10.2014, the Association ESE organized the initial training on the paralegal assistance programs, whereby the focus was on rights related to health care, health insurance and protection of patients’ rights. This is a regular activity organized once a year in order to increase the level of knowledge and skills among the coordinators and paralegals from Roma partner organizations.

With regard to this concept, one should point out that the initial training is conducted every year as part of the project on paralegal assistance, and the preparation of the training and the working materials includes special focus on two matters: whether new paralegals or coordinators were engaged in the new period; which are the latest news, i.e. changes in the health care system. With regard to the content, the following components were included: health care system in the country, rights and obligations related to health care and health insurance, patients’ rights and safeguard mechanisms, role of the state health and sanitary inspectorate.

The participants in the training were addressed by Borjan Pavlovski from ESE, Mihajlo Kostovski from the Health Insurance Fund, Angelina Bacanovik from the Ministry of health and Vera Menkovska from the State health and sanitary inspectorate. The coordinators and paralegals from the partner organizations CDRIM and RRC from Suto Orizari, as well as KHAM from Delcevo also participated at the event.

The workshop on improving health services for Roma by changing negative narratives was organized by the Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia, from 31.08. - 03.09.2014 in Ohrid. The workshop was attended by two representatives from ESE and they presented research findings "We are all people: Health care for everyone regardless of ethnicity - Conditions regarding health, health care and the right to health among Roma in Macedonia." Special emphasis was given to the following findings: Roma access to health services, barriers to access, behavioral of the health professionals to Roma patients, the quality of health services for Roma patients and the discrimination in health care. All the findings were presented as a comparison between the situation of Roma patients and patients of other ethnic groups, and from the findings conclucion can be made that the situation in Roma patients are less favorable in contrast to other patients. At the end of the workshop, ESE with the group of other civic organizations prepared a draft plan for future work in changing negative narratives in health care for  Roma.

On 08^th of July in Skopje, the Forum for judges “Court procedures for protection from domestic violence – opportunities for advancement”, was organized by Association for emancipation, solidarity and equality of women ESE.  The event is part of the project ''A view from the Outside”- Whether and how is the court protection for victims of domestic violence regarding the temporary measures of protection provided?, which is part of the USAID  civil society project, implemented by Foundation open society Macedonia.

On the event, there was a presentation of the main findings of the previously conducted analysis on the civil court proceedings for issuing the temporary measures of protection in ten basic courts: Veles, Bitola, Kumanovo, Tetovo, Stip, Radovis, Gostivar, Delcevo, Debar and Strumica. The main goal was to have exchange of experience among the judges and discussion on the opportunities for advancement of the court proceedings in these cases, which will contribute for increased level of court protection for domestic violence victims in general.

Third continues training of the paralegal programs, organized on 25^th of June 2014 

On 25^th of June 2014, ESE has organized the third continuing training for the paralegal programs on the subject “Drug usage, sexual work and services for drug users and sexual workers in Republic of Macedonia“. The training was delivered by representatives of the Association of citizen HOPS and was attended by the coordinators and paralegals from ESE’s partner organizations.

The aim was to inform the representatives of the paralegal programs about the human rights of drug users and sexual workers, as well as with the mechanisms and services for their protection. Information about the factual position of these vulnerable groups and their problems and needs was provided by the trainers. The training was organized in order to support the paralegal work and provision of help and support in those cases where the clients are representatives of the above mentioned vulnerable groups.