Enikő Magyari-Vincze

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND ROMA WOMEN

Activities between April – August 2005

• Literature research (on reproduction and reproductive health, policy research, Roma communities, and Romani women)
• Contacting the Romanian Ministry of Health, and the NGO’s working on the domain of reproductive health, on the behalf of Romani communities, and on the reproductive health of Romani women, like: Society for Sexual and Contraceptive Education (Cluj office), Resource Centre for Roma Communities (Cluj), Association of Roma Women for their Children (Timisoara), Association of Roma Women in Romania (Bucharest), Association for the Emancipation of Roma Women (Cluj)
• Data collection and analysis regarding Romanian policies of reproduction and reproductive health, and Romanian policies for the improvement of the situation of Roma communities
• Data collection and analysis of reports and previous research on reproduction, reproductive health, and Romani communities from Romania
• Fieldwork in Hunedoara county (city of Orăştie) within Roma communities and medical institutions
• Starting to transcribe the interviews resulted from fieldwork
• Preparing the interim report: this includes activity report, financial report, outline of policy paper and outline of research paper
•  Writing the outline of research paper published on the web-site
• Writing the outline of policy paper published on the web-site

• Return to the city of Orăştie for continuing fieldwork
• interviews/ life narratives with Roma women 
• participant observation (in the Roma neighborhood, and at the spectacle  “Miss Piranda”, where – besides the dancing troupe  from Orăştie I was having the chance to meet local and national Roma politicians)
• transcribing the interviews
• plans for making a film about the local Romani community started to be made together with the two Roma experts (this was not included in my initial and approved project proposal): the film would aim to represent the life of women in the context of the ghettoized Roma neighborhood, and, as such it is intended to be used as a tool for video advocacy    
• Trip to Bucharest
• participation on the Conference about Roma health organized by the National Agency for Roma of the Romanian government and by OSI: the conference gave me the chance to meet Roma activists and health mediators from Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, but also governmental representatives from Romania and Slovakia charged with Roma-related health issues; besides this it was a good occasion to collect materials/research reports about Roma health (including one comparative policy research done by OSI, and one research in Romania), and also a great opportunity to learn about the main policy-related debates within the Roma communities 
• interviews at Romani Criss with two Roma activists (Magdalena Matache, executive director and Dan Rădulescu, head of Health Department)
• transcribing the interviews
• Trip to Timisoara
• visiting the Roma Women’s House and the Association of Gypsy Women for Our Children
• interview with Letitia Mark, the president of  the Association of Gypsy Women for Our Children and the representative of the International Association of Roma Women for the European Roma and Traveler Forum
• visiting one Roma community from Timisoara, where the beneficiaries of the Roma Women’s House live
• transcribing the interviews 
• Literature research
• Materials collected from the Internet

• Workshop with representatives of Roma women’s organizations and of reproductive health organizations, Cluj

<>Invited guests:

Letitia Mark, Association of Gypsy Women for Our Children, Timisoara
Anca Teodor, Association of Gypsy Women for Our Children, Timisoara
<>Ioana Neagu, Association for the Emancipation of Roma Women, Cluj
Rodica Teodoroiu, JSI, Cluj
Adriana Melnic, formerly project director at SECS, Cluj
Mariana Buceanu, Romani Criss
Georgel Radulescu, Doctors without Frontiers, Bucharest
<>Mihaela Tipter, Romani Criss, Bucharest

• Shooting in the city of Orastie, Hunedoara county

• Writing the research paper
• Writing the research paper with policy recommendations

• Video-editing the first part of the film entitled „Flori de mac – Red Poppies” (55 minutes, Romanian speaking, English subtitle)
• Editing the book that contains my research paper with policy recommendations in English and Romanian
• Publishing the book entitled „Social Exclusion at the Crossroads of Gender, Ethnicity and Class. A View Through Romani Women’s Reproductive Health – Excluderea socială la intersecţia dintre gen, etnicitate şi clasă. O privire din perspectiva sănătăţii reproducerii la femeile Rome”, Cluj: EFES, 2006 (each copy of the book includes the film „Red Poppies” on a DVD)