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6 July 2023

Over the past few weeks, we have highlighted various aspects of intercultural mediation, each time
focusing on the health and welfare sector. Today we visit the Roma and Travellers Service of Foyer
vzw for an interview with Sorin, who has been working there as a mediator since the beginning of
this year.

We ask Sorin what specific skills a Roma mediator must have to do his job well. Again, it starts with
good language skills.

Sorin: “You have to be at least trilingual. I work with Romanian Roma and I speak Romanian, Romani
(the language of the Roma), French, and I also have a basic knowledge of Dutch. But you not only
need to speak the language; you also need to know the communities very well. As a Roma mediator,
we are a real bridge between Roma families and Brussels institutions.”
Sorin is from Gârla Mare, located on the Danube in south-western Romania. Some families from the
region have been in Belgium for decades and have integrated well, others arrived more recently and
experience even more cultural barriers.

“For girls, it is not self-evident to finish secondary school. Girls are allowed to marry from 16.5 years
old and many stay home from school after that because the family considers it an unsafe
environment, where the girl’s honour is at risk. But, of course, there is compulsory education until 18.

There are also recently arrived families for whom even school as such is taboo. They were not in
the habit of sending children to school in Romania. Moreover, there are still many cases of
discrimination against Roma pupils in Romania. People also don’t always know that in Belgium there
is compulsory education until 18, and one of my tasks is to explain the Belgian school system to
families.”

What happens if a teenage girl quits school after she gets married?

“We look for a solution together with the family. For example, we work with the CEFA (centre for
part-time education) of the Athenée Royal de la Rive Gauche: students can thus still go to school
about two days a week and at the same time already start earning something.”

Like intercultural mediators in health and welfare, Roma mediators are bound by professional
secrecy.

“What is discussed at consultation moments between a CLB and a parent, for example, naturally
remains confidential. Taking and maintaining a neutral position at all times is an important skill and
one that you learn as you go – in the beginning you inevitably make mistakes. So although I will never
pass on anything unsolicited, I am often called in as a channel of communication. I am often asked by
schools to make something clear to parents, and conversely, parents also often tell me, “Tell the
school that…”. “

The mediator thus ensures optimal communication, but is not a social worker.

“Our main function is to refer to appropriate services. Therefore, as a mediator, you definitely need
to be sufficiently familiar with the social map of Brussels. You also have to be alert to people’s
questions and needs, even if they don’t express them. After all, part of our job is also outreach:
getting people interested in a job, training, leisure activities… Finally, I would like to point out two
important practical skills: as a mediator, you need to be able to get your bearings in Brussels and you
also need to be somewhat fit. The emphasis of our work is on home visits, of which we do as many as
five or six a day. That is often a lot of kilometres, and in the homes of our target audience there is
often no lift.

And perhaps the most important competency is this: you have to do your job with heart and soul,
otherwise you won’t last. But I do – I am proud to be a role model for young Roma.”

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