OPRE ROMA completed DETERMINE model project on 'Raising awareness for planning healthy and sustainable houses'

Opre Roma Association - established jointly by a disadvantaged Roma community and health promotion professionals in 2006 - identified housing as the single major problem of Roma in Debrecen, Hungary. This was due not only to the severely substandard housing conditions, but to the impending danger of evacuation. Our aim is to find a legally tenable solution for housing so we can the community together and tackle other health determinants.

We won support from the DETERMINE programme of EU to raise awareness of environmental and energy issues regarding sustainable housing and to develop a housing project eligible for fund-raising and implementation. We considered this important since disadvantaged populations enjoy relatively few of the benefits of natural resources but have been disproportionately suffering the consequences of their overuse. The project was running from October 2008 to September 2009.

We organized half-day visits to various public utilities (electricity plant, sewage treatment plant, waterworks, garbage processing plant) in Debrecen, and weekend visits to eco-villages such as Galgahévíz, Agostyán, and Gyűrűfű.

During the weekend visits, participants had hands-on experience in preparing bio-bricks and home-made solar collectors. You can read the leaflets that we produced for the weekend visits. A booklet is being prepared on the health consequences of the overuse of natural renewable and non-renewable resources, as well as everyday tips for sustainable use of resources. We held community meetings to discuss housing options. A detailed plan for housing was developed by the end of the project by the architectural company T4Terv.

Now we are negotiating with the municipal government about the legal possibilities, and raising funds for this project.