Gallery: Students work with ostracized Roma during Slovakia travel course

A dozen UW-Green Bay students took part in a life-changing travel course this summer, working to bring improved health and critical education to the ostracized Roma people of Slovakia. Eight Nursing practicum students and four Women’s and Gender Studies students made the trek with Associate Prof. Janet Reilly and Prof. Sarah Meredith Livingston. They worked hands-on with residents of Roma settlements who were ailing or had health questions, and also organized educational opportunities for specially trained health mediators within each community. “People would come outside and they would ask about their blood pressure, their swollen legs, growth and development of their kids, parenting, polio, TB,” Reilly said. “I, in my 30 years of nursing, have not seen such young polio patients.” The trip was an at-times trying, yet eye-opening and rewarding experience, Reilly and Meredith Livingston said. You can read more, and check out a photo gallery — click here.