A new medical center for prevention and treatment will be opened in Bucharest's Ferentari neighborhood, with support from the French and the Swiss Embassies to Bucharest.

Ferentari is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Bucharest, and a recent survey found that people who live in the area need support for their drug addiction problems. It also found that half of those who live in Ferentari are of Roma origin, and that the area does not have the usual segregation problems found elsewhere.

The authorities plan to prevent children from Ferentari become victims of drug addiction, and then limit the effects of drug use. The medical center is a first step in improving living conditions in the neighborhood.

“When talking about Ferentari, we were always told it was impossible to change anything here. It is not true. Here, in this school (where the project's press conference took place, e.n.), many things have changed. […] Poverty reduction is the main social stake […],” said French Ambassador to Romania Philippe Gustin.

Romanian authorities do not have an opening date for the medical center yet, which is part of the Ferentari Project. The Bucharest Ambulance will also take part in this project, according to State Secretary withing the Domestic Affairs Ministry Raed Arafat.

The Ferentari Project is in fact an NGO created by the Romanian Government, which however doesn't yet have the greenlight from the country's president Traian Basescu. He sent the law to set up this NGO back to the Parliament last year, saying it overlapped the National Roma Agency.

The Ferentari area, part of Bucharest's 5th District, hosts around 80,000 people, out of which around half are estimated to live in depriving conditions. Around 5,000 apartments and 100 houses in the area need urgent revamp work.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Wikimapia.com)