Helsinki to launch campaign to discourage giving money to beggars

Authorities urge aid to Romanian Roma at home

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Helsinki is launching a campaign this spring urging residents not to give money to street beggars.
      At the same time, officials note that helping Roma from Romania is sensible if the assistance is brought to the people in their home areas.
      To this end, Helsinki plans to open a bank account for donations that sill be used for helping the Roma at home.
     
"As soon as we find partner organisations", says special researcher Johanna Seppälä, Senior Planning Officer at the Safety and Preparedness Co-ordinating Division of the City of Helsinki says that the city is still looking for organisations to work with.
      The money would be used to promote better housing, education, employment, and social and health care services in Romania itself.
      "Romania has a labour shortage. Funds from the campaign would be directed at training unemployed Roma for construction work, for instance."
     
Seppälä was in Romania last week as part of a delegation from Helsinki. The group visited a Roma village in the Craiova area about 200 kilometres from the capital Bucharest.
      Seppälä characterised the conditions in the village as unacceptable for a member state of the European Union.
      The Helsinki officials met with senior Romanian officials, politicians, and representatives of organisations and the media.
      During the trip, it became clear that the Roma should be helped through well-known and reliable aid organisations.
      "Corruption is a big problem in Romania. This was widely acknowledged in our discussions", Seppälä said.
     
Helsinki officials are preparing for the possible influx of hundreds of Romanian beggars in the summer.
      Felician Vasilescu, an attaché for Roma affairs at the Romanian Embassy in Norway, is to visit Helsinki on Thursday. He will prepare plans for the arrival of a Romanian police official who is to come to Helsinki in the summer.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finn working with Roma in Romania does not expect flood of beggars in Helsinki (13.2.3008)
  Helsinki sends beggar mothers back to Romania on child welfare grounds (11.2.2008)
  OSCE´s Andrezej Mirga: Education of Roma key to everything (7.3.2008)
  Police clear out Romanian beggars´ camp in Helsinki (20.2.2008)

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