The project aimed to influence Oldham Roma residents’ behaviour and choices in relation to their day to day commutes and encouraged walking which happened through the increase of the knowledge, skills, awareness and confidence of traditional Roma mothers, grandmothers and KaskoSan volunteers on three different occasions. All are Romani speakers with no English, have poor knowledge of their respective mainstream language from Eastern Europe. They also have no familiarity with local walking routes and history of the places they regularly visit. Activities were meant to improve the health outcomes and well-being of Roma ladies and even though the funding was spent by the end of September 2024, community members and KaskoSan carry on organizing walking activities and opportunities for physical exercise.
Locality: Oldham
Dates: August and September 2024
Background
Under the guidance of Maria Palmai, KaskoSan has been actively developing the most isolated Romani mothers and grandmothers in Oldham since the outset of the coronavirus pandemic both through providing individual support and via creative arts based group activities tackling social isolation and mental health issues. Maria uses Romani language in all activities which is the first language of the Roma ladies and creates a safe space through the application of Romani cultural rules.
Over time, a core group of these Roma ladies have grown into volunteers at KaskoSan who help with gathering as well as disseminating information in the community, but also with volunteer and training recruitment and event organizing.
Findings
The overall finding is that Roma women are at greater risks of poor mental and physical health than Roma men.
Regarding travel habits we learnt with help from our volunteers that most Roma ladies get a lift from their husbands with the school run and shopping while they report health issues such as high blood pressure, slipped discs, pain in multiple joints, radiating lower back pain, arthritis, varicose veins, diabetes, obesity, gynaecological and dental issues.
Roma ladies also reported that they have obstacles with booking GP and dental appointments. Lack of fluent English, differences in British and East European medical approach to responding to health issues, NHS staff incompetence with Romani language and culture have been mentioned as issues preventing access to NHS services.
Roma ladies reported that they have no access to gynaecological services locally at all and they often end up at A&E with emergency gynaecological issues. Many also reported that even after long waiting hours they would not be seen or would not get the right interpreter or help. Interpreters in Romani language, the first language of Romani people, are not available, while Roma residents originally from Slovakia or Hungary would often receive a Romanian interpreter while they don’t speak Romanian language at all. (The native language that Roma people share across Eastern Europe is called Romani which is an Indo-Greek language mainly with Persian and Armenian influences).
KaskoSan also found that the few that can afford a trip back their home countries would get their health issues sorted overseas. Roma community members also gave an account of no access to antibiotics with their gum inflammations which is another reason they would attempt to save up to travel back to their home countries to sort out dental issues, however, for most that remains a distant reality with the dramatic increase in the costs of living.
Roma ladies and other Roma community members would travel to KaskoSan’s training sessions, workshops and community events in a taxi or would get a lift from family members while some would make their way in their own car. Walking journeys are rare within the community. The only other regular event in their life is the Roma church mass, however, the vast majority would make their way to the venue in a car.
The long term isolation of Roma communities from the outside world has been exacerbated by the deepening antigysyism since Brexit and the pandemic and by the increase in the costs of living. According to YouGov, Gyspy, Roma and Traveller communities remain the least liked community in the UK to date. Oldham Roma residents reported that they do not feel safe walking on their own. We also learnt that numerous Roma children get bullied by other school students on their route to schools, and to prevent them from any abuse, many parents walk with their children to school or organise their transport in a car.
THE PLAN
To address the aforementioned issues, KaskoSan decided to respond with a plan co-designed with community members that would both tackle the long term healthcare access issues of Oldham Roma residents, but would also give an immediate response to ongoing problems in order to improve health outcomes.
To close the gap in terms of healthcare access in the community we came up with a plan to train community health champions /we call them ‘health bloggers’/ so the wider community can start receiving health information in Romani language and gain digital literacy skills to improve Romani speakers’ access to local healthcare services.
Health bloggers should receive a mix of different skills and would need training in drafting and publishing blogs, working with sound and video editing tools, editing captions, social media content management, basic design skills, translation and interpreting and advocacy skills too. Another need that will need responding to is to organise interpreting and translation in Romani dialects for Romani speakers.
KaskoSan approached Jane Glaysher White, KaskoSan’s Action Together development worker since 2014, to seek help with the achievement of both goals. Jane helped us with creating an implementation as well as a fundraising strategy. We came up with schedule of activities for the recruitment of health champions / -bloggers, the training, content ideas, laid out events across the calendar, and Jane also connected us with potential partners.
To provide a prompt and efficient response to many of the physical and mental health issues we came across in the Oldham Roma community, we also shared with Jane that many have mobility issues and that we understand that walking and physical exercise can be a great remedy, and that it may also replace repeat medications in the long run. We looked at different programmes across the borough to understand what others communities do already.
We understood that there were costs involved so Jane helped us understand current funding streams available.
To tackle obstacles in relation to NHS access, KaskoSan received funding as part of the One Oldham Fund from action together to train health community champions/health bloggers to pass on relevant healthcare information in Romani language to the wider community and also to report findings to KaskoSan regularly.
Oldham Roma Health Champions / -Bloggers funded by One Oldham Fund, Action Together
Action
Roma community health champions / -bloggers gathered information in the community about health issues and helped us identify the most common health problems in the Oldham Roma community.
They engage with residents face to face via door knocks, at KaskoSan events and on the KaskoSan platform as well as at the Roma church every week. They produce and share audio-visual content in Romani language with the Oldham Roma community in WhatsApp groups.
To influence the behaviour of Oldham Roma residents in terms of walking, we received £984 of funding from the Active Travel Grants Programme run by Action Together. We decided to run the initiative with the a cohort of the most enthusiastic Roma ladies who share about their experiences with the wider community in their face to face encounters as well as in WhatsApp groups. They got recruited with help from the bloggers.
The plan was to organise a walking group together with a non-Roma community group that already organises its own walking activities in Oldham. However, we came across two issues. One was walking and the other one was doing it with others. Roma ladies did not feel confident enough to do that at this stage. To influence their behaviour and to ensure that walking as a group will actually happen, we suggested that we organise our own walking group and we won’t join others for now. We wanted to make sure that Roma ladies feel safe and have fun at the same time, since walking as a group is something the community does not normally do. We formed a WhatsApp group and agreed to dedicate a day at the end of August 2024 and two days in September 2024.
We had three walks in total, the first on 29th August 2024, the second on 21st and the third on the 26th September 2024.
Result
Ladies decided to explore the new pathways in Oldham town centre and to spend time in Alexandra Park too. On the first occasion we had several stops to rest while walking since some of the ladies complained of joint and muscle pain. Also, some of them were not able to do stairs. At the end of the walk we all enjoyed a brew and evaluated our experiences. We discussed the benefits of walking in terms of mental and physical health, the risks of not keeping active regularly, and how much this is completely lacking in the Roma community. Everyone agreed that a behaviour change is required and they were happy to be the messengers of that change in the Oldham Roma community. In the WhatsSapp group a few days later everyone found it a great experience and waited the second one with excitement.
Ladies had a sunny day on the second occasion. This time they met in Hathershaw, had a walk through the town centre, then to Alexandra Park again where we concluded with a nice chat. This time we looked at the content produced by health bloggers and Roma ladies also reflected on them and found them really useful. They suggested that health related content should be produced in Romani language regularly as that would greatly increase the knowledge, awareness and confidence of Roma community members.
The third walking activity was also adored by ladies, no one missed the time on the third occasion. Some of the ladies reported improvement in their mobility and encouraged more group activities. We learnt throughout the years that Roma mothers and grandmothers cannot spend time for themselves due to cultural reasons, but as part of their time spent with KaskoSan charity, they get a chance to do exactly that as a group which they show a great appreciation for as this is the only opportunity in their life to do that.
The chats at the end of each walking activity formed a strong link between group members who started formulating their own ideas in terms of things needed so they have a better access to healthcare. Having the option to use Romani language at NHS appointments would be a huge advantage according to the Roma ladies.
FOLLOW UP ACTIVITIES
The enthusiasm of the group pushed them to want more than just walking and were wondering if KaskoSan can organize more opportunities to do physical exercises. They requested to attend the KaskoSan plot at RHS Bridgewater since they want to plant their vegetables unique to Eastern Romania where they grew up. We have already organised two visits for the ladies at the garden since the end of the project and the third one is coming up on Halloween’s day.
Ladies would also like to do strolls in parks around Oldham that they’ve not visited before. We learnt that they introduced more walking activities on their regular routes and do less travelling in the car since their mobility has also improved.
The funding for Oldham Active Travel project on its own would have not facilitated the impact we managed to achieve. A complex approach was required which was made possible through two different funding sources. We were lucky to have Jane Glaysher White who helped us see through the clutter and supported us from brainstorming stage all the way to delivery and monitoring.
