Stories of Romani health care professionals who have managed to make t

Stereotypes and bias are components of every person’s life. It is mostly stereotypes that give rise to erroneous attitude towards ideas and phenomena, and often also make people come to wrong conclusions about a person or about an entire group. Romanis are a community pending development; a community that is non-homogeneous. Romanis of different professions, though, face stereotypes even today. Journalists of the “Jianes” mass media outlet have talked to Romani health care professionals from different parts of Ukraine and have gathered their stories.

Artur Ivanenko (Story No. 1)

Artur Ivanenko is of Romani origin. He was born in Kherson and has graduated from Kherson Medical College. He enrolled there after he graduated from the 9th form, as he faced discrimination from his teachers—who thought that a Romani, in his activity, should be confined to a street market. His preferred trades were to become a jeweller or a translator. He chose the former option, as it was available after graduation from the 9th form (basic middle school).

“After I graduated from the college, I spent two months working as a dental technician at a local clinic. It was there that I understood that I wanted to develop and to continue with my studies. To get a higher education as a dentist. In 2014, I moved to Odessa, and four years later, I received my diploma: Dentist’s Diploma. After the completion of my education, I went back to my home city of Kherson where I was an intern for 2 years. After the completion of my internship, I got a job at a local hospital. I also worked for the best private clinic of Kherson city. My life, however, changed abruptly as I had to leave my home city due to war”.

The lad has warm memories of his studies at the university where he got acquainted with many friends of various ethnicities. There were Ukrainians, a Jew, a Romani, an Armenian, a Palestinians, and a Moldovan in his study group. During his studies, not only were they receiving dental and general medical knowledge but they were also getting acquainted with each other’s culture. Artur says that they have become one family and were paying each others visits after classes to partake of each other’s ethnic dishes.

During his studies and later during work, he faced distasteful phrases addressed at him—particularly from his professors and his environment, none of whom was aware of his ethnic origin:

“I can clearly recall university professors coming up with examples, referring to Romanis, whenever anyone of us failed to master the study material properly. They used to always say something like: "If you do not study properly, you will be like Romanis: trading on the street market". Whenever a professor said something like that, the entire group looked at me, as everyone except the professor was aware of my ethnic origin. Same situation came up at work later. As I was just starting my work and was getting acquainted with my colleagues, one of the doctors made a joke about the Romanis, full of stereotypes. He did not know I was a Romani. After he found out about my ethnicity, he apologised and said that he had never ever seen a Romani working at a hospital.”

During his studies and during his work, the boy managed to demolish stereotypes about the Romanis—particularly as far as education and employment at health care institutions were concerned. People surrounding Artur expressed interest towards the Romani culture. That was one of the manners in which information was being spread about Romanis and in which stereotypes were broken from the outside of the system.

“I am never going to forget my practice as a third-year student of the university, when we were dispatched to various clinics across the city. I was studying therapeutic dentistry throughout my stay there, and at the end of the week our cabinet was visited by Chief of Surgical Dentistry Department who offered to teach me surgical dentistry. I declined, citing my unwillingness to become a surgeon. Anything but surgery, said I. Chief of Department smiled and replied: "Well well well, we shall see". My further life, however, turned out to be different. Surgery is now my primary specialisation. I have become a dental surgeon. So when the Chief of Department met me five years later, he asked me: "Well well well, who was it that said I am never going to be a surgeon?" So this situation taught me to never say never".

As we ask him what is it that he likes about his profession, the boy replies: to help people. Arthur survived the long-lasting occupation of Kherson when he worked not only as a dental surgeon but also as a dental therapist and an orthopaedist, as there were too few doctors left in the city.

“Dentists bring smiles back onto people’s faces. And whenever a person leaves my office with a smile, I know that I am doing it right. My profession is something that improves human health. I understand that I can be useful to society and to my people. Modern dentistry is a swiftly developing science, always introducing new methods, new knowledge, something you should always be updating and upgrading. Lifelong learning should be your motto. But the main reason why I am a dentist today is because my profession is directly related to communication with people. This aspect is most important for me, as through working in the realm of dentistry, you are also enhancing your skills as a psychologist, breaking stereotypes of the system from within".

Oleksandr Bahlaienko (Story No. 2)

Oleksandr Hryhorovych Bahlaienko is a renowned paediatric surgeon. Born on the 27th of December, 1933, in the city of Izium, he grew up in a large Romani family with 8 siblings.  After graduation from a 7-year school in the city of Izium, he decided to enrol at Kharkiv Mechanical and Technological Vocational School. A year later, however, he realised that the school fails to satisfy his interests, so he went back to his home school and eventually got enrolled at the Paediatric Faculty of Kharkiv Medical Institute.

One of the factors that urged Oleksandr to opt for the medical profession was multiple situations when he was providing first medical aid to his friends who got injured as they played with bullets, grenades, and other projectiles which were rife everywhere after the Second World War. These situations left an imprint, as he realised how important and vital medical aid may be.

Oleksandr Hryhorovych studied at the medical institute quite successfully and without any difficulties. As a fifth year student, he made a hard decision to become a paediatric surgeon. After he graduated from the institute, he was assigned to work at a rural hospital in the village of Shypuvate, Velykyi Burluk County of Kharkiv Province. Later, he worked in Poltava and studied at a clinical residency training outlet of his own medical education institution. In 1967, a paediatric surgery department was opened at the Children's hospital of Kremenchuk city, where the 34-year old Oleksandr Hryhorovych was invited to become Chief of Department. The then-already-experienced physician was the founding father of paediatric surgery in Kremenchuk, and a regular manager of the city’s paediatric service for the next 38 years.

During his lifetime, this physician has successfully completed over 15,000 surgical interventions and helped plenty of children regain their health and future. Bahlaienko became famous as an amazing specialist and researcher. He published scientific articles, shared his experience at international conferences and participated in medical experience exchange programmes. He was a participant of European surgical forums in Germany (Berlin), in Hungary (Budapest), in Spain (Barcelona), and in Israel. In 1992, the inter-county paediatric surgery service which Mr Bahlaienko was then heading, hosted the 5th all-Ukrainian Conference of Paediatric Surgeons. In 2003, the citywide competition entitled «Man of the Year» awarded him as the «Physician of the Year».

Oleksandr Bahlaienko passed away on the 3rd of October, 2005 and was buried at the Novomiske Cemetery in Kremenchuk. Since 2005, the city has been holding an annual boxing competition in his honour that is organised by Kremenchuk Boxing Federation. A memorial plate in his honour was unveiled on the wall of the hospital where Mr Bahlaienko used to work.

Antal Shvedchenko (Story No. 3)

Another dentist with Romani roots is Antal Shvedchenko from Izium in Kharkiv Province. After he finished school, he got enrolled at Kharkiv National Medical University and afterwards finished his internship training and specialisation training. He admits that the love for medicine is something that his grandmother, a lifelong paediatrician, weaned on him.

“Every summer, I went to visit my granny who took me to her workplace. I had to watch her and I fell in love with the medical world. It was then that I decided to become a doctor”.

He recalls his university studies fondly. His study group was a motley international crew. Except Ukrainians, Antal studied with Dagestanians, Azeris, Kartvelians, Armenians, Iranians, and Syrians. The diversity of cultures notwithstanding, they went along very well with each other—and are still in good contact even today.

It was during his internship that the boy found a job fitting his profession. He got himself employed at a medical unit of Izium instrument-making plant which later also became the place of his specialisation training. Starting 2015, Antal worked at Izium City Dental Clinic. He admits that he did not face any uneasy questions, nor with any oppression, neither during his studies nor during his work career.

“I cannot say that there were any expressions of discrimination aimed at me. Although my Romani origin was common knowledge across the city. The only thing I clocked was those jokes from people who were unaware of my Romani origin. But once they became aware, they apologised immediately and tried to alleviate this uneasy situation“.

The thing he likes most about his work is the ability to help people. Quite often, people go to see the dentist in the moments of dire suffering, so it is always pleasant for a doctor to see people get better.

“People come to me with pain and I help them. Then, I receive the words of thanks. That is something that motivates me most. The happy faces of my patients is the most important thing for me”.