The Marginalized Groups Project in İzmir

Izmir City Council prepares for a new project aiming at the integration of this western port city's estimated 250 thousand inhabitants of Romany origin

Extending to the surrounding districts of Izmir, the "Marginalized Groups Project" will work to ensure that the Romany will see their value as individuals, and will recognize their citizenship rights through the project.

The project will be discussed at a City Council meeting on 21 September.

Among the organizations and authorities who support the project are the Romany Culture and Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation, the İzmir Governorate, the Greater İzmir Municipality, the Provincial National Education and Health Directorates, the Security Directorate, the Provincial Social Services Directorate, and the İzmir Physicians' and Dentists' chambers. Ege University, and 9 Eylül University will also participate.

The council meeting will lay out a picture of the situation by addressing general questions and discussing the neighborhoods where the Romany live.

The first priority of the project will be to deal with health and education problems, and it will later address the topics of employment and social housing.

Dr. Nurselen Toygar, an instructor in the Ege University Department of Dentistry and the coordinator of the İzmir Local Agenda Family Health Working Group, said that the fırst stage of the project will be to carry out health studies.

Toygar declared that with the assistance of the Health Directorate, Romany citizens will be sent to health clinics or visited in their homes by employees, and any treatment deemed necessary, including operations, will be provided at the İzmir Municipality Esrefpaşa Hospital.

Dissuading them from the path of crime

Professor Toygar, explaining that crimes such as pickpocketing and extortion occur at a high rate in Romany neighborhoods, explained:

"We think that these crimes occur as a response to the Romany not being treated as human. The results of this are seen in criminal behavior.

"Another factor is that many choose easy paths to making money. The employment, housing, health, and education problems are not being solved. By giving them trust, we want to dissuade them from these reactions and from the illegal paths they have entered. This will yield to the health and education questions at first."

Toygar: "The Long-term Project"

The scope of the project will include the creation of educational resources for this sector. University-based academics will conduct classes on the subjects of violence control and anger management, becoming a citizen, hygiene, and food security, Professor Toygar explained, and sociologists from the Provincial Social Services Directorate will participate.

Toygar said, "This will be a long-term project. In the end, I believe that the rate of crime will decrease a great deal."

Additionally, as part of the project, the Provincial National Education Directorate will employ guidance counselors for free classes and will work to encourage children to attend school.

As for the İzmir Youth and Sports Provincial Directorate, it will open the sports facilities in the city to Romany children and young people, and doctors and dentists' offices will provide free health checks there. (TK/EA)