Medical assistance

In addition to education and practical assistance, we also provide medical assistance.

Medical care is very much needed in the area where we work. Most people in the neighborhood have no money for medicines or other medical care. First aid in hospitals is free, but you must pay for further care. We provide medical assistance because we believe it is extremely important that Roma people have access to good medical assistance. Very often they are excluded from medical assistance. We also give a piece of advice to the neighborhood about healthy food, hygiene and we give them advice on how to prevent things.

Every month we receive a gift through the thrift store from our partner GAiN, for which we are very grateful. Providing medical assistance is not possible without this gift. With the money we receive, we can support people from the neighborhood. We can support mothers who have no money to buy milk powder for their baby, we buy the milk powder and then give it to the mothers. As mentioned earlier, many people have no money for medicines. People can report to us with the prescription they have received from their family doctor and then we go to the pharmacy to buy the medication. There are people who need glasses, we go with the people to the optician and then pay for the purchase of the glasses. An important principle is that we never give money but that we purchase the necessary things.

With the money we can also offer home care. A good example of this is the following. A few years ago, there was a man from the neighborhood with cancer who had been treated. He had to have the wound treated in the hospital. Thanks to the money we received, we were able to offer this man home care by going to his house every few days and taking care of the wound. We were able to buy the required materials such as betadine and dressing materials from the money from the thrift store. After having cared for this man for a few months, he died. It was nice to see the family come to thank us for the care and love we have given.

Due to the finances of a church from The Netherlands, one of our Romanian team members was able to follow an education to become a nurse. She can offer people simple medical assistance and advice. Our nurse can explain to people that it is better to go to the hospital. We see that people listen to her more and more and respect what she does.