A/HRC/34/53/Add.2 right to education are clearly gendered. Child marriage exists in many Roma communities and married adolescent Roma girls often abandon school and take a subservient role in the family, resulting in Roma girls being particularly vulnerable to dropping out of school and experiencing lower rates of education, with social exclusion and health impacts. 70. Roma representatives expressed their concern over the fact that Roma are largely absent from decision-making processes and public life, both at the local and central levels. This is particularly acute in the case of Roma women. 32 While there have been some encouraging advancements, including the election in 2015 of the first two Roma women as local councillors, the participation of Roma women is extremely low in comparison with Roma men and non-Roma communities. C. Roma community mediators 71. One of the key measures of the previous Roma Action Plan that is also included in the current one was the establishment of a network of Roma community mediators in over 40 targeted communities with significant Roma population, tasked with facilitating the interaction and building bridges between Roma communities and the public authorities. During the visit, it was made clear that community mediators were instrumental in facilitating the social integration of Roma communities. They generally enjoyed a high degree of acceptance and were respected by both Roma and local authorities and their work seemed to be yielding tangible results. 72. The Special Rapporteur was deeply impressed by the dedication and commitment of the Roma mediators to improve the conditions for the Roma communities. In Otaci, she received reports that, thanks to the work of the mediator, Roma parents had started to take their children to kindergarten and that there had been an increase in the number of Roma students attending school. In Chetrosu, the work of the mediator together with Roma parents and local authorities has resulted in all Roma children in the village being enrolled in school. She received similar information with respect to the mediators working in Balti and Schinoasa. 73. Nevertheless, the mediators face serious challenges in performing their functions. In fact, the total number of Roma community mediators, which had been initially intended to be 48, was never met. Moreover, the number of mediators has been significantly decreasing in recent years. Many interlocutors stated that the decentralization reform had left the power to decide about the hiring of mediators in the hands of the local municipalities, which currently suffer from severe budget constraints, inadequate understanding and political will on Roma integration, resulting in the decrease of hired mediators. In addition, the salaries that mediators receive are extremely low, making the job unattractive given the challenges involved. At the time of the visit, fewer than 10 remunerated full-time mediators were working with Roma communities in the country. 74. The Special Rapporteur stresses the instrumental role of community mediators in building bridges between Roma and non-Roma communities and facilitating the social inclusion of Roma, and emphasizes the need to take measures to fill all vacant positions and that sufficient funding be allocated to secure their salaries so they can fully and effectively perform their functions. 32 16 See the concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the combined fourth and fifth periodic reports of the Republic of Moldova (CEDAW/C/MDA/CO/4-5), para. 23.