Hundreds of Thousands of Euros for Roma Access to Health Care: The “Sastipe” Affair

Nearly 730,000 euros of EU funds have been invested over the last three years in Braila County, Romania, in support of the Roma community’s access to health care and the development of the areas where they reside. As a result of wide-ranging investigations initiated by the Center for Independent Journalism, the reporters found that not all of this money can be traced to the community. The amounts supplied for Roma health care followed a winding path, and Roma lives did not improve significantly, despite the considerable investment.

This article was written as part of an investigative journalism fellowship program funded by the Open Society Institute. Open Society’s Roma Health and Health Media programs collaborated to support the Center for Independent Journalism, based in Bucharest, Romania, to launch an investigative journalism fellowship on the topic of access to health care for Roma. After a national two-day editors roundtable and a competitive selection process, the project resulted in the production and publishing of three pieces in regional newspapers in Romania. The work details various issues impacting Roma health—which is disproportionally poorer than that of non-Roma residing in the same communities. The articles bring to light the need to further improve access to quality health care for Roma and explore the systems that create unequal access.