Author: Redazione Cuamm

The importance of male involvement

Posted on by Redazione Cuamm

Within the broad spectrum of child health intervention, one of the aspects that both research and field based implementing agencies are focusing on is male engagement.

Doctors with Africa CUAMM is making efforts to integrate meaningfully men’s participation into health services and programmes, especially with regards to nutrition programs. Indeed, even if men are not directly involved in feeding children or taking them to health facilities, they are often the ones administering household’s finances or giving women permission to take part to community nutrition activities. Among barriers that men face are: lack of time and flexibility due to work, cultural habits and belief around the role of women in taking care of children, and a health system that is designed to be accessed mainly by women.

In Tanzania, in the region of Iringa and Njombe, Doctors with Africa CUAMM is implementing a program that aims at contributing to the reduction of prevalence of stunting. The program intends to create awareness on nutrition related and early childhood development issues to ensure mothers/caregivers of children under two access better health, nutrition and ECD services and fathers are well involved and participate from the very beginning in child upbringing.

Ally Yahaya Nyaulingo, 30 years old, father of Clayan who is 1 year old and seven months, is among the beneficiaries of the project and member of a counselling group in Kising’a village in Iringa DC. He has been participating in community sessions as he saw the importance of his involvement in the proper upbringing of his child with constant awareness provided by facility health care workers during clinic sessions as well as by Community Health Workers during community group counselling sessions.

“I love and care for my family. I have seen other children whose fathers were not responsible and their health had deteriorated with severe malnutrition and from there I saw the importance to participate and support my wife in the upbringing of my children by attending counselling group sessions and by sending my child to village health and nutrition days with my wife.  By doing so I am in the position to understand the nutrition status and progress of my child. I want to ensure my child stay healthy, bright when starts school and not stunted or severely malnourished”.

He has advised his fellow fathers to self-recognize the responsibilities fathers have in ensuring a healthier family. “Men are very much dealing with negative norms and taboos in supporting their wives on matters related to taking care of children. Having peer men counselling groups during these events would create a room for them to be more educated and discuss all issues related to positive parenting and responsive caregiving”.

COVID-19: humanity is just one

Posted on by Redazione Cuamm

In these days we’re carefully following the evolution of #Coronavirus in Italy. We’re close to the many people who have been affected and to the more vulnerable ones, who are especially exposed to contagion. Likewise, we’re close to the healthcare operators who are in the front line tackling the epidemics.

Many of them include the doctors and nurses who came with us to Africa or were preparing to. In these hours they’re experiencing a situation of hard fatigue, facing a virus we know little of. Many are giving their contribution of knowledge and experience that they have gained when managing healthcare epidemics in limited-resource settings, where the scarcity of supports forces them to deal with challenging choices on a daily basis.

We can’t help but show solidarity to them and respect to those who have to make important decisions with not enough scientific evidence available. As healthcare operators we reiterate that in order to reduce the epidemics and restrain its impact on the Italian healthcare system, we can all do something: comply with the measures of containment and social distancing, reduce our movements, stay home.

A few days ago, don Dante Carraro, contacted in South Sudan, told the daily paper Il Mattino di Padova:

Venetian people are able to express stubbornness, quiet wilfulness and such strength that has allowed us to pick ourselves up in the challenging post-WW years, in the years of the economic crisis and in other dramatic situations. We have to keep going, without leaving anyone behind, without forgetting the most in need. Veneto and Italy as a whole will make it. United we will overcome any challenge and there’s no real development if we leave someone behind. We live in one world, it’s a system of communicating vessels. We used to fear the diseases that others would spread, now instead we risk being the spreaders of contagion. The world is one, humanity is just one and there must be one development project which involves everyone. This is the only way we can keep going.

This emergency will also pass thanks to the responsible contribution of each of us!
 
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A VACCINE FOR “US” ALL

Posted on by Redazione Cuamm

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Ensuring Africa’s access to COVID-19 vaccines is critical for containing the pandemic. Global emergencies demand global responses, and Africa cannot be left out.

We join civil society, governments and institutions that ask for it: It is right to suspend the patent on vaccines.

A global pandemic is happening and vaccination doses are not enough, here and in Africa. To date, Covax, the initiative aimed to provide vaccines to poor countries, has enough doses for only 5% of the 1.3 billion people on the African continent. More doses are needed. The suspension of the patent would allow the various production centers (India and Brazil in particular) to increase quantities, thus dampening the vaccine market. And it is urgent to avoid the development of new variants that risk frustrating current vaccines.

A vaccination program is clearly imperative there as well: not only is it the right thing to do, it will also help ensure everyone’s wellbeing, as it is the only way to put an end to the spread of this virus and its variants.

And the first vaccines are now on their way. Just days ago, Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário enthusiastically announced the arrival of the first 200,000 doses of vaccines to Mozambique. Ghana has received 600,000, and Senegal 200,000, marking the start of a more hopeful period for the continent, which will require at least 1.3 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021 in order to ensure a sufficient level of immunity among its population.

Now these doses must be transformed into “actual shots in the arm”, first and foremost for our many local colleagues, doctors, nurses, midwives and health support staff (for example, administrators, drivers and cleaners). As we’ve seen in Italy, these individuals are the core of health systems everywhere, selflessly putting themselves on the front line and at high risk of exposure to the virus as they work to combat its effects on the sick.

And there are so many of them, starting with those nearest to us: the colleagues, from doctors to community health workers, with whom we work side by side in 23 hospitals, 127 districts and numerous peripheral health facilities. Altogether there are around 20,000 of them in the African countries where CUAMM maintains a presence, accounting for 5% of the continent’s total health workers. It is our priority commitment – with your help – to get each and every one of them vaccinated as soon as possible.

The communities in which most of Africa’s people live, including those in the most remote areas, must be vaccinated as well, of course. Meeting this objective will require a great deal of work, for example, ensuring well-functioning logistics (including the cold chain that makes it possible to maintain minus 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit temperature conditions) as well as other resources – syringes, cotton wool, alcohol, staff training– that cannot be taken for granted in low-resource settings. There is also the challenge of making vaccination culturally acceptable to communities, which will require public health campaigns. Since we do this work daily, we already have the essentials – vehicles, motorbikes, generators, solar panels, cooler boxes, and personnel – but now need to ramp up. We will tackle the job as always, not as do-it-all “superheroes” eager for the spotlight, but as sober, dependable health professionals doing our level best to meet the needs of communities and help overcome the vulnerabilities of healthcare systems that, already weak prior to the pandemic, now risk total collapse. And we will support our local partners, whether at the central level (Ministries of Health) or the peripheral one (districts and individual facilities) by working with them.

We’d like to ask for your generous participation, in the form of a symbolic €10 contribution to deliver a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine to the countries where CUAMM is present in Africa, to help us get vaccines into the arms of our 20,000 colleagues there. The cost for meeting this initial challenge – vaccinating each individual fully (two doses) – is €400,000, but we hope to vaccinate many more thereafter.

Our appeal goes out to everyone, including individuals both young and older, groups, foundations, public and church institutions and international media and partners. We need all of you, because only together will it be possible to undertake such a major challenge. The renowned immunologist Alberto Mantovani is the first official supporter of our appeal.

Recently a CUAMM mission returned from Mozambique. While still there, one of our Italian doctors who had already received his vaccine was speaking with a young Mozambican colleague. The latter quietly confided in the former: “You’re so fortunate to have been vaccinated! I hope to be soon too”.

Thank you for helping us out with whatever you can. It will mean a vaccine not only for our young colleague in Mozambique, but also for “us” all.

Father Dante

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WDF and CUAMM: Together to fight against NCDs

Posted on by Redazione Cuamm

On the 27th February, at the presence of the Mozambican Ministry of Health and local health authorities, Doctors with Africa CUAMM and the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) celebrated 3 years of joint work to fight diabetes and hypertension in Mozambique. A great event was organized in Maputo to share results and best practices.

Doctors with Africa CUAMM has been working in Mozambique since 1978, in close partnership with the Ministry of Health (MoH). In October 2016, thanks to the support of the World Diabetes Foundation, CUAMM has launched a vast and innovative three-year program to fight Diabetes (DM) and Arterial Hypertension (HTN) in 3 provinces of Mozambique: Maputo, Sofala, Cabo Delgado. The program was unique as it was the very first of this kind piloted in the country. The intervention targeted 17 districts, covering 81 health units and one central hospital, reaching a population of about 3.600.000 people and screening about 903.244 people for DM and HTN.

Doctors with Africa CUAMM is committed to continuing its efforts towards expanding and strengthening the integration of NCDs screening and treatment into quality existing services, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and local associations.

 

Anthropology, the science that brings us closer to the other

Posted on by Redazione Cuamm

«To better understand reality take a step back and observe it with a distant glance. You will thus understand that diversity, as such, cannot be inferior», wrote the renowned anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Understanding diversity is an integral part of our work, because even before offering health care, it is necessary to ask ourselves what the needs of the population are – to learn about them, with respect and attentiveness.

It turns out that in a fertile place like Ethiopia, children suffer from malnutrition and the problem is not the lack of basic ingredients, but the fact that they all eat from one dish and the youngest of them remain behind. The need to look after large families where accompanying a child to hospital means leaving many others alone, or the desire to give birth in the traditional position of one’s own population, preferring to stay in the village rather than in a safe health centre, are just some of the challenges we face in the field: cultural challenges, which we are called on to undertake as doctors on a mission to another continent.

It is a human relationship, made up of observation and knowledge, but also a professional approach – that of anthropology. “We could define it as the science that “removes the veil” – says Edoardo Occa, Cuamm anthropologist in Mozambique – because anthropology reveals behaviors that are distant from us and enables us to read reality in a way that brings us closer to the other“.

This is how targeted interventions in the field are developed: an innovative pillow prototype that guarantees to Ugandan women that they can give birth in a safe way while maintaining traditions; direct medical visits to the villages in order to reach everyone; training for mothers on the importance of food and the proposal that they be the ones who share meals with the youngest children.

Bonadio and Girardelli, Cuamm doctors in the 1980s, already said how “it is essential to increase the channels of real communication with the local population as much as possible, so that they can be the protagonists of their own development (…) in the name of mutual respect between people belonging to different peoples that work and grow together”.

A “distant glance” of observation, then, which allows us to get up close, understand, find solutions and bring help in ways that peoples can welcome. As doctors in the field, this vocation towards the knowledge of the other is strong; it is part of our missionary spirit and, even more so, also of a human vision of medicine and cooperation.

We will also talk about it in Milan next Saturday, on February 22nd, where Anthropology Day will be celebrated and, as Cuamm, we will reflect on ways of “Fighting malnutrition by promoting a cultural change”

WORLD CANCER DAY

Posted on by Redazione Cuamm

Today marks the 20th anniversary of World Cancer Day organized by UICC, the Union for International Cancer Control, and supported by the World Health Organization. Today focuses attention on a major issue that affects everyone’s life, inviting us to make a personal commitment to the fight against cancer, starting from prevention.  You may not know that in 2018, 9.6 million people in the world lost their lives to cancer; 70% of these people live in lower/middle-income countries. But at least a third of common cancers are preventable, making prevention key. There is still much to do on this front, especially in Africa, to ensure access to prevention and treatment. Cervical cancer is the most widespread cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and mortality remains high, because women come too late for diagnosis, as has been seen by Helena Dinis, a CUAMM nurse who works in the Sofala Region of Mozambique. The WHO has reported that in this country that, despite diagnosis, 6 out of 10 women lose their lives.

The Ministry of Health of Mozambique introduced mandatory screening in health centers in 2009. But after 10 years, in 2019, only 1,267 health centers at a primary level (76% of the total) did screenings and only 233 health centers (18.4% of the total) did cryotherapy to treat precancerous lesions.

This is why in January 2019 CUAMM launched the project “Prevention and control of non-communicable diseases,” financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation with Dream Sant’Egidio and AIFO, committed to reducing mortality in Mozambique caused by diabetes, hypertension, and cervical cancer. The project aims to increase the availability and quality of services for diagnosing and treating these three diseases in 12 health centers and 2 hospitals in 3 different regions of Mozambique: Maputo, Sofala, and Zambézia. The greatest challenge is having a team of trained technicians to educate about the importance of prevention. Women need to be encouraged to get screenings at their closest health centers. This is one of Helena’s goals. Every day she works to make the health center services more efficient through a training program for health personnel working in the clinics. A key role is played by community activists who raise awareness in the population living in rural villages. Many initiatives and activities aim to inform them about the screening service that can be done out in health centers. “When we are in rural villages, I use a small leaflet with photos and ask some simple questions to get women to listen to me.  This takes a lot of patience. You can’t be in a hurry and need to take the time to get to know each other and build trust. When I see an opening and see that a woman is listening, then I can give her information that is essential for her health,” says Assuema Manuel, a CUAMM nurse in the Zambezia Region. “My working days are long and hard, but I am proud to work on this project with CUAMM because through better access to prevention and treatment, we can save the lives of many women like me.”

As reported by Paolo Massaro, project manager for “Prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.”

CHILD FIRST Let us reduce stunting!

Posted on by Redazione Cuamm

Doctors with Africa CUAMM Tanzania, together with the local partner organization TAHEA, hosted the annual consortia meeting of “Accelerating Stunting Reduction Programme” from the 29th to 31st of January. Among local and international partner organizations, UNICEF and Regional and District Nutrition officers participated in the meeting.

Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation, as explained by the World Health Organization (WHO). Especially the first years of a child’s life, the first 1000 days from conception to the age of two, is a crucial period for timely intervention. “Accelerating Stunting Reduction Programme” aims to reduce stunting prevalence in the southern highlands regions of Tanzania: Iringa, Njombe, Mbeya and Songwe, where the needs are greatest among other regions of the country. With the coordination of UNICEF Tanzania, the programme has been implemented by three consortia, each one of them covering different regions; in particular, CUAMM and TAHEA are intervening in Iringa and Njombe.

As entering the 5th year of the programme, the final year, the main agenda of the meeting was to review the progress of handing over the activities to the respective local government bodies in order to ensure sustainability of the programme impact.

«The programme has gained its momentum. It is not only the partner organization who is leading the programme, but also the local government bodies have been deeply engaged, taking their ownership in nutrition issues. It has been a great team play» – claimed Ruth Nkurlu, UNICEF Southern regional programme coordinator, distinguishing the programme with other nutrition interventions around the country -. «Furthermore, because of the holistic approach of this programme implementation, meaningful behaviour changes are witnessed from the community level to the local government authorities».

Even though the programme is approaching its end, the need is still very high. The fight against malnutrition is not over yet. The Iringa Regional Nutrition officer appreciated CUAMM-TAHEA’s interventions in the region highlighting how it has strengthened the nutrition management system from the community level to the district and the regional level, sensitizing and empowering the local government authorities, which is the key to sustainability.

Sustainability cannot be achieved by working alone. Doctors with Africa CUAMM will continue its journey fighting against malnutrition alongside the local government and the local and international partners.

GET READY FOR THE ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON

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Sunday, 11 October 2020

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Hyde Park, London

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One of the UK’s most popular half marathons, taking place right in the centre of London.

Starting and finishing in Hyde Park, the race takes a scenic route past Green Park, St James Park, the Houses of Parliament, and Victoria Embankment.

A big race, a flat course and an amazing atmosphere; all wrapped up in the centre of London. You couldn’t ask for anything better!

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Join Doctors with Africa CUAMM team!

Join our team today and help us raise funds to tackle maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. By running and fundraising for Doctors with Africa CUAMM you will contribute to improving both access and quality of maternal and newborn health services for mothers and children. Out team works every day close to the most vulnerable populations and to local health authorities to strengthen health systems and to guarantee the right to health for all.

You can be part of all this! Register today to join our team, we’ll ask you for a registration fee of £30 and a pledge to raise £350.

Support for you

Join our team and you’ll benefit from:

  • a great Doctors with Africa CUAMM T-Shirt
  • the best cheers en route
  • a fundraising support to help you take your challenge to the finish line
  • post-race treats, refreshments and a place to rest
  • a friendly team here to support you all the way.

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Or Join us on race day

You can also support our team on the day by volunteering to cheer our runners on. If you would like to help out on race day, please register here.

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CBM and CUAMM together in the fight against eye defects in Northern Uganda

Posted on by Redazione Cuamm

Christian Blind Mission (CBM) Uganda in partnership with Doctors with Africa CUAMM have launched a new project for eye care in Northern Uganda: “Foreseeing Inclusion: Eye Health and Disability Inclusion in Northern Uganda”. This three years’ project, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, will be implemented in three districts of Arua, Kitgum and Lamwo. The launch was officiated by Dr. Joyce Moriku Kaducu, the State Minister of Health-Primary Health Care, and the Italian Ambassador H.E Massimiliano Mazzanti, along with other local government and districts officials.

According to the Uganda national census 2014, Northern Uganda accounted for 32% of all individuals with visual impairment with 75% avoidable blindness. Poor coverage of basic and secondary level eye care services largely contributed to this. The situation worsened even more in 2017, due to the increase of South-Sudanese refugees and the consequent overcrowding of the existing eye health facilities. The project, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, arose from the need of the communities in the 3 districts and aims at contributing to the reduction in the prevalence of avoidable blindness by 2021, in line with the 4th Eye Health Action Plan 2016-2020.

«Awareness raising activities and primary prevention on eye defects are essential and they should be the key pillars of the project – the Minister Hon. Joyce Moriku Kaducu emphasized –. I support the decision to implement the project into those districts where the burden is really high among the locals and the refugees from South Sudan».

Dr. Peter Lochoro, CUAMM’s Country Representative in Uganda, gave a highlight of the work of CUAMM in Uganda especially in West Nile for over 50years: «I am grateful to the Ministry of Health for giving CUAMM the platform for implementing our projects and the local governments for integrating our work for better service delivery». «West Nile region remains a priority for the Italian government and I hope this project is just the beginning of many other bigger projects supported by the Italian government» concludes the Italian Ambassador Massimiliano Mazzanti, highlighting CUAMM’s long-lasting intervention thanks also to the welcoming nature of the locals.

 

 

A NEED FOR CONCRETE ACTION AND COMPASSION

Posted on by Redazione Cuamm

Dear Friends,

As of yesterday we are back in lockdown, most of us here in Italy once again living in a so-called “red zone”. The numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19, intensive care unit admissions and deaths from the virus continue to rise. Schools have closed and families have been brought to their knees. There is much pain and fear, and pandemic fatigue is setting in. Worse, we no longer even have the energy to envision a better future.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel, and its name is vaccines. Availability is limited: we don’t have enough doses in Italy, and the situation is far worse in Africa. We need more, enough for everyone. This is why COVID-19 vaccine patents must be suspended, so that production can be ramped up. This must be done urgently if we want to prevent the development of new variants that could jeopardize all the progress made up until now. Yet unbelievably, not even during the World Trade Organization meeting last week was an agreement reached on waiving intellectual property rights for the vaccines. India and South Africa continue to press their case while the United States, United Kingdom and European Union Commission argue against it, despite numerous appeals – including one by the World Health Organization signed by CUAMM and many others – asking that these rights be suspended even just temporarily.

Despite all of this, vaccines have begun trickling into Africa thanks to the COVAX initiative and donations from China. While still too few given the size of the continent’s population, they are beginning to arrive – to Sierra Leone (100,000), Mozambique (200,000), Angola (600,000), South Sudan (700,000), Uganda (900,000) and Ethiopia (2,200,000).

CUAMM is now making available our on-the-ground human and logistical resources (personnel, pickups, motorbikes, refrigerators and so on) to local vaccination systems, but these systems are very fragile, and the needs are infinite. We need to do more, devoting every last bit of energy to strengthening logistics, personnel and communities, and providing tools and training; and all of this has to be done right away. That’s why we’ve launched our A Vaccine for Us All initiative, because when greater quantities of the vaccines finally arrive to Africa, distribution mechanisms are going to have to be ready to go and effective. We’ve already seen the challenges faced in Italy; just imagine the situation in the vulnerable countries where CUAMM maintains a presence. They need our hard work and support, and we need everyone’s help in order to provide it. The challenge is daunting, and will require both hearts and minds, but we won’t back down. We need to transform vaccines into actual “shots in the arm”, starting with our local doctors and nurses, who are at especially high risk of infection, and then moving on to everyone else. From Mozambique, where the number of cases is soaring because of the country’s proximity to South Africa, our own Giovanni Putoto puts it in a nutshell, reminding us how “Alongside the appeals, there is so much concrete work that needs to get done”. As always, CUAMM is on the ground ready to do its part, side by side with our local partners.

Thank you for joining us in the enormous challenge called A Vaccine for Us All. Only by working together will we be able to save ourselves from this pandemic.

Father Dante