Roma community leaders in Hungary have said that the minority has largely been excluded from the country’s vaccination rollout.
Jozsef Radics, 53, is one of the organisers of the Vaccines for Life! campaign, a movement that aims to register Roma living in isolated communities for vaccines, AFP reports.
Organisers have been visiting Roma settlements to explain the registration process, create email addresses for those without and input their data into an official database.
“No one else is looking after us, so we have to do it ourselves,” said Radics.
“These people are disadvantaged in many ways, including lacking information and access to the internet, which makes them particularly vulnerable to the virus,” the Roma activist told AFP.
Many live in one of around 1,300 mostly-Roma settlements on the edge of Hungarian villages and towns.
Radics said that some 13,500 settlement dwellers have registered for the jab so far thanks to the campaign.
“There’s a long way to go. We look for local leaders in each community to continue the project once we leave to go to another settlement,” he said.
The Vaccines for Life! campaign has also created social media-friendly videos featuring Roma celebrities to appeal to a range of age groups.
“The government’s vaccination promotion billboards only feature white faces, so the videos provide strong Roma voices to counter the anti-vaccination voices that are common in places like this,” Radics said.
The Roma community, which makes up around 7% of Hungary’s population of 9.8 million, face widespread poverty and exclusion from mainstream Hungarian society.
