Valea Seaca (County Bacau)

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Valea Seacă is a rural area, with approximately 4,000 inhabitants. It is a part of Bacău County in the North-East of Romania. It is composed of two main villages, Cucova and Valea Seacă with a Roma population which is somewhere between 1,100 (the official census) to almost 2,000 citizens (NGO estimates). One of the biggest issues for the Roma community in Valea Seacă is the lack of identity documents which prevents them from accessing services for health, education, employment and housing.
Valea Seacă launched the ROMACT programme in October 2013.
The first meeting between the ROMACT National Support Team and the local administration took place in November 2013 and the Letter of Commitment was signed on 3 February 2014.
The Roma Community Action Group (CAG) was set up with the help of the ROMACT facilitator in November 2013 and by February 2014 it represented a diverse group: Roma and non Roma, men and women, Romani speakers, and members of different religious groups
The identified development needs were published in a Joint Action Plan, which was endorsed by the Local Council in March 2015, and it included the following measures:
 
IDs AND PROPERTY DOCUMENTS
Access to IDs and property documents (ROMACT contributed to this by providing the necessary legal expertise regarding the appropriate legal procedures). A project proposal called “Preparing documentation for the legalization of living areas of Roma citizens from Valea Seacă, Bacau County”, which aimed to complete the property title documents for 54 Roma households from Valea Seacă, was submitted for funding by the local administration and the local NGO United Europe. The project was implemented between 23 June and 2 December 2014 and was financed by the National Agency for Roma. The CAG members were involved in phases of the project;
EDUCATION
Recruitment of a school mediator;
Organising Second Chance and After School programmes;
 
HEALTH
Recruitment of a health mediator;
Ensuring minimum required vaccinations for all children from the Roma community;
A project proposal “Integrated Day-care Centre for Roma citizens” was developed and will be submitted for funding, as soon as the ESIF 2014 – 2020 becomes available.

In Valea Seaca there several important projects have been implemented after the mayor agreed to participate in the ROMACT programme, some of the actions have included: the development of water supply system in the whole town and part of Palamida; the paving of communal roads in Roma neighbourhoods; the construction of a modern wastewater treatment plant and sewerage system; the rehabilitation and modernization of public lighting and the construction of a new modern nursery in the community centre that Roma children most frequently use.