21/04/2017

ESTEVE AND FARMAMUNDI STRENGTHEN HEALTH CARE IN HAITI, ECUADOR AND THE SYRIAN REFUGEE POPULATION

ESTEVE and Farmamundi have renewed their yearly agreement for collaboration, whereby the laboratory participates as a member of the NGO's Emergency Fund and as a donor of medicines. This agreement has allowed launching 10 emergency interventions in Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru, Haiti, Kenya, Mali, DR of Congo, Gaza, Serbia and Syria in 2016, with food and health care being provided to almost 81,000 people, mostly refugees, women, and children.

In 2017, care continues to be provided in Syria at the Khan Eshieh refugee camp. Together with local NGO Jafra, food and basic necessities are being distributed to more than 3,000 internally displaced people to fight the winter and the lack of supplies due to the harsh blockade imposed on them. Food and health care are also being provided to refugee families at the Shalila and Burj El-Barajneh camps in Lebanon, and to refugees and forced migrants in several areas of the Serbian border with Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia.

One more year, ESTEVE and Farmamundi renew their agreement for collaboration in two different ways. On the one hand and on a yearly basis, the laboratory contributes financially as a member of Farmamundi's Humanitarian and Emergency Aid Fund (FAHE). This allows immediate action to be taken in case of natural disaster, armed conflict, and chronic health imbalance situations. On the other hand, the entity donates medicines to meet current needs on the field. These medicines are distributed by Farmamundi's Humanitarian and Logistics Area (ALH) to hospitals, clinics and maternal and child health centers, where they are most needed.

In 2017 we continue to support refugee families in Syria
After more than six years of armed conflict, food and health care provided to refugee families in Syria remains a top priority of Farmamundi. After the summer, together with local NGO Jafra (Foundation for Relief and Youth Development), food, medicines and personal hygiene items were distributed among some 8,000 people at Khan Eshieh, a camp located in the countryside near Damascus, where our work is being continued in 2017. Specifically, an intervention supported by ESTEVE was launched to deliver food packages, jackets, sleeping bags and footwear to 3,000 people, giving priority to the elderly, the injured, pregnant and/or lactating women, children aged 0 to 36 months, and unaccompanied minors.

In 2016 Farmamundi and ESTEVE also launched a post-emergency intervention in northern Ecuador, where a devastating magnitude-7.8 earthquake destroyed infrastructures, homes and harvests. The Emergency Fund provided urgent medical aid and drinking water to 1,500 families in the worst-affected areas of the provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas.


In Haiti a social and medical emergency intervention was launched among the population affected by Hurricane Matthew, with the support of NGO Movimiento Socio Cultural para los Trabajadores Haitianos (MOSCTHA), where more than 2,500 people were provided with food kits, bottled water, personal hygiene kits, essential medicines, and mobile health clinics.

Also to be emphasized is the emergency aid provided to people suffering from the Zika, Chikungunya and Dengue diseases in the county of Mejicanos, in the department of San Salvador (El Salvador), and the medical aid provided to the population of Peru affected by the earthquake in the districts of Ichumpa, Achoma, Yanque and Coporaque, in the region of Arequipa.

Finally, in Africa, several health care interventions were launched: in Nairobi (Kenya), for the urban refugee population to fight the reactivation of the cholera outbreak and to reduce health-related vulnerability in the face of health threats; in Mali, where work is being done directly and steadily with 15 Community Health Centers and with the population of the different Health Areas of the region of Kayes; and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -where Farmamundi has been working steadily for more than a decade now- with two actions: one, preventing sexual assault and improving medical and psychological care for the victims. And two, strengthening the health system in Nord Kivu and resupplying 14 health structures of the Oicha area with generic and specific medicines, medical consumables and first aid kits for the victims of the rise of the armed conflict in this area.

Medicine supplies to 23 countries

In 2016 ESTEVE donated medicines that were delivered in the course of 42 expeditions conducted in 23 countries. With the support of 28 organizations, the medicines supplied by the laboratory were distributed to hospitals, health centers, refugee camps, orphanages, and nursing homes. Shipments were made to the refugee camps of Algeria and to countries such as Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, and Mali, among others.

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