The civil organizations: Association for emancipation, solidarity and equality of women of RM - ESE, Centre for democratic development and initiatives - CDRIM, Association of education workers and for protection of women’s and children’s rights – LIL, and NGO KHAM, with financial support from the Foundation Open Society Macedonia, on 24.04.2014 at the premises of Mala Stanica in Skopje held a public debate and press conference on the topic “Immunization and preventive health services for Roma children in R.Macedonia“.
At the public debate, the citizen associations presented the findings from the research in the area of monitoring the community in the period 2013-2014 in the following municipalities: Gjorce Petrov, Saraj, Karpos, Suto Orizari, Pehcevo – village of Crnik, Delcevo and Vinica. The research was conducted among the Roma population with regard to the extent of coverage of Roma children with immunization, and with regard to the implementation of the measures foreseen with the preventive programs of the Ministry of health – program for active health care of mothers and children and program for systematic checkups. The research findings showed that in the period 2012 – 2014 one can notice the trend of improvement of the scope of vaccination of children at pre-school age, however; the extent of coverage of children at school age with vaccination is at very low level. Also, the research showed that certain activities in the preventive programs aimed for the Roma communities have not been realized. The consistent implementation of the measures from the preventive programs is of major importance because the following is directly dependent on them: scope of immunization of Roma children aged 0 -15, scope of health services related to immunization, scope of patronage nurses service, as well as scope of field preventive activities aimed for Roma communities.
At the public debate, the citizen organizations requested the Government of RM and the Ministry of health to accept the proposed measures for increasing the scope of immunization and preventive health services for children from Roma communities.
The Association for emancipation, solidarity and equality of women in RM – ESE, NGO KHAM, Centre for democratic development and initiatives – CDRIM and the Association of education workers and for protection of women’s and children’s rights, supported by the Foundation Open Society Macedonia, organize a public debate on the topic “Immunization and preventive health services for Roma children in R.Macedonia“. The debate will be held on 24.04.2014 in the premises of Mala Stanica in Skopje, at 11:00 hrs.
At the public debate, the associations will present the most recent findings regarding the scope of immunization and preventive health services for Roma children, such as patronage nurses, health education, systematic checkups and other activities. At the same time, the discussion will be oriented towards the necessary measures that need to be taken in order to improve the scope of vaccination and preventive health services for Roma children.
On that occasion, the association ESE invites all interested parties to participate in the debate and to give input to the discussion with the main goal to propose measures for promotion of health of Roma children in R.Macedonia.
The summarized findings and the main recommendations for situational improvement can be found on the next link.
Scope of vaccination and preventive health services for Roma children: situation, problems and solutions
The Citizen association for rare diseases “Life with challenges“ - Bitola, along with the Association for hemophilia, rare coagulopathy and von willebrand – HEMOLOG and the Association for emancipation, solidarity and equality of women in Republic of Macedonia - ESE organized a Conference for creation of a National alliance for rare diseases in R.Macedonia, on 22 March, Saturday at the hotel Porta in Skopje. This conference is part of the project which is realized as part of the USAID Civil Society Project implemented by the Foundation Open Society Macedonia. The project is also supported by Genzyme- Sanofi Aventis and the Celgene Corporation.
„I am proud that such project is supported by the USAID Civil Society Project implemented by the Foundation Open Society. Throughout the work with Vesna from “Life with Challenges” I learnt about the problems and challenges of the people with rare diseases in Macedonia. No matter if those are rare, very rare or extremely rare diseases; there is need for joint support and cooperation to ensure the necessary care. This alliance shall strengthen the cooperation and the voice of patients in front of institutions. I have met many patients and I always admire the courage and perseverance of these people who do not allow that a rare disease should define them. They are the heroes of our time. I encourage the institutions in Macedonia to make as much as possible to help the families who are faced with rare diseases.“ – said Mrs Mary Jo Wohlers, US Embassy to Macedonia, honorary member of the Citizen association for rare diseases “Life with Challenges“ – Bitola.
In the period from 21-22 March 2014, at the hotel Drim in Struga, networking meeting was organized for the purpose of networking the grant holders of the program CIVICA Mobilitas, which was organized by the Centre for institutional development- CIRa. During the meeting, debate was organized on the topic “Current situation and challenges for development of the civil sector in RM”, and the discussion was related to the impact of the civil sector on the policy creation and resolution of the situation in the society as well as the image of the civil sector, cooperation and solidarity in the work of civil organizations. The executive director of ESE, Jasminka Friskik shared her views regarding the status of the mechanisms for citizen participation and the inclusion of civil organizations in the decision-making process. Namely, she spoke about the inclusion of civil organizations in decision-making both on local and national level, i.e. at the level of local self-government, executive and legislative branch of power. Special discussion was held about the efforts and mechanisms that the Government of RM makes in order to enable the participation of civil organizations in the decision making process. In order to assess the impact of civil organizations, the assessments made by USAID in the Index of NGO sustainability were being used for many years in a row for that purpose. The challenges that civil organizations will face regarding this matter in future were specified at the end of the debate.
The signed Declaration to condemn hate speech and discriminatory speech towards women, lesbians, gay people, bisexuals, transgender people and marginalized communities was promoted on 18.03.2014 at the EU Info Centre. The signing of the Declaration was initiated by the Coalition for sexual and health rights of marginalized communities, Helsinki committee for human rights, LGBTI Centre for support, Akcija Zdruzenksa, ESE and the national network to fight homophobia and transphobia. The Declaration was signed by several political parties: Liberal party, Liberal-democratic party, Democratic renewal of Macedonia, Democratic Union, New Socialdemocratic party, Alliance for positive Macedonia and Social democratic Union of Macedonia.
The wording of the Declaration can be found on the following link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwKypQ6wUcCgZnZtTUdtZkxmbHc/edit?usp=sharing
