Initiatives were funded under the project "Support to Work and Capacity Building of Roma women network "Uspjeh" B&H", funded by the OAK Foundation and implemented by the Roma women association "Bolja buducnost" Tuzla.
Association of Citizens Youth Roma Initiative "Budi mi prijatelj" in many years of work and the implementation of other projects have noted that a large number of young people from Roma communities lightly enter into sexual relations without being aware of the consequences such as unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted infections. All this is the result because sexuality and reproductive health are considered taboo in the Roma community, and that the parents themselves do not advise their children how to protect themselves. Today, access to this information is very easy since we have volunteer, confidential, counseling and testing centers for sexually transmitted infections, but unfortunately these centers are located in larger cities such as Sarajevo, Zenica, Banja Luka and Tuzla and are unavailable for Roma that lives in smaller environments. However, the views of young people are that they can not be infected with sexually transmitted infections, unwanted or early pregnancies, and that this information is not needed, but the number of unwanted pregnancies in Bosnia and Herzegovina is increasing, which actually shows the level of knowledge in this area.
Association of Citizens Youth Roma Initiative "Budi mi prijatelj" held a training on reproductive health topics and the use of contraceptives protect against sexually transmitted diseases and family planning.
We felt that we needed to realize this initiative in our area because in the last period we had a large number of young people who came to us because they needed assistance in exercising their right to health care, mainly from young people who were underage and pregnant. What we have succeeded is that we through the employment bureaus have managed to help in realizing the right to health care but we did not stop there. In addition to education, we managed to provide our future parents with the starter package for the newborn.
