Doctors with Africa CUAMM USA

WHO WE ARE
Doctors with Africa CUAMM is the biggest Italian organization for the
promotion of health among African populations . CUAMM implements long-term projects to improve access to health services, especially for women, girls, children and marginalized people. We operates in 8 sub-Saharan African countries ( Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania,Uganda and Central African Republic ) at hospitals, health centers and community level with more than 2,000 workers. AN INTEGRATED LOGISTICAL-MEDICAL INTERVENTION IN CHERNIVETSKA AND TERNOPILSKA OBLASTS Overview As a consequence of the ongoing armed violence and rapidly deteriorating security environment in most parts of Ukraine, over 18 million people have been affected by the conflict and 6 million of them are in urgent need of humanitarian support (Ukraine PHSA-Short Form, 3/3/2022), where the population most represented are women, children, older people, persons with disabilities, and ethnic minorities. Description Before the conflict, the procurement and supply of medicines, especially specialized drugs , was centralized in Kiev. With the conflict the all supply chain has been interrupted and most of the region of Ukraine have been left without stocks of drugs, consumables and medical supplies. In this crisis, the three main health risks that need to be addressed, identified by WHO, are Non-Communicable Disease (NCDs) being the leading cause of death in Ukraine (death occurring before the age of 70 years) even before the conflict; HIV-TB (with among the highest rate in Europe) and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), since all of them foresee a strong retention into treatment. The conflict has disrupted many distributors which became non-operational, hampering the supply chains for medicines and medical supplies (especially procurement and distribution of medicines, of diagnostic materials and of treatments). For this reason, many people fail to remain retained into treatment, especially those with chronic medical conditions (both communicable and not communicable) such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer. Key attention must then be given to the health of people with disabilities and older persons (more than 60 years old) more prone to both NCDs and infectious diseases Objective CUAMM's intervention, based on its needs assessments, will mainly focus on health-related logistics activities (aimed at immediately procuring and delivering life-saving medicines) but also with the additional component of ensuring mobile health clinics in 2 targeted oblasts (Chernivetska and Ternopilska), with the final goal of ensuring access to PHC to the population residing in the most remote areas, as well as identifying severe cases to be promptly referred to a higher level of care. Černivici is currently accessible only via the Romanian border (Siret) due to attacks reported the Ivano-Frankivs'k area is isolated from the polish border. For this reason the project will ensure international quality procurement of medicines and supplies, delivered them to Černivici via Siret. Outputs 1) Provide essential and specialized medicines and supply to Ukrainian hospitals; 2) strengthening the medicines and medical supply of VRB hub, a Ukrainian community-based organization called Volonterskiy ruh Bukovyny in Černivci and its distribution capacity; 3) Organize mobile clinics in the Chernivetska and Ternopilska Oblasts