University of Arkansas Clinton School student, Jacob Perry of Fayetteville, Ark., partnered with Balkan Sunflowers, an organization primarily focusing on Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians in Kosovo, to help provide better health services to three minority populations.
Together with Balkan Sunflowers staff Perry performed an exhaustive literature review of all data available on the health issues of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians in Kosovo to identify key areas of interest for further investigation to inform Kosovo’s pending national health insurance scheme. Based on these focus areas, he assisted in designing studies that will evaluate the need for specific services in these communities and the economic impact on the health insurance scheme.
Perry also produced a report highlighting the significant findings of his literature review that will be used for advocacy efforts. Balkan Sunflowers plans to share the report, along with findings from the proposed studies, with other civil society organizations working with Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians, and also governmental agencies charged with policy creation and implementation concerning these populations.
“To my knowledge no one has compiled a review of all the available health data on Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians in Kosovo, and this is something we Roma need,” said Avni Mustafa, the production coordinator for Balkan Sunflowers’ film LIVES. “Now we have a single document to take to people and organizations and say, ‘look, here’s our situation. We’ve got to do something.”
Balkan Sunflowers is an organization founded in 1999 to aid Kosovar refugees and seeks to promote understanding, further non-violent conflict transformation, and celebrate the diversity of the lives and cultures of the Balkan region. Balkan Sunflowers is one of the many partners engaged in Kosana, a project by Suisse Solidar to inform Kosovo’s pending national health insurance system in order to best serve the citizens of Kosovo.
The student’s capstone project is the culminating field course at the Clinton School, the last of three field service projects in the Master of Public Service degree program.
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