The NGO Doctors with Africa CUAMM Ethiopia, is launching the present Flexible Simplified Procedure to select a contractor for the supply of medical drugs, medical equipment and hospital consumables in Ethiopia.
Annex II – Instructions to Tenderes
Annex IV – Technical Specifications and Technical Offer
Annex X – General ConditionsAnnex XI – List of documents to be submitted
“Once upon a time there was a little red bike that felt as fast as a racing car”. This is the story of a red bike with broken wheels unable to perform as it wish. Actually, it is more than this. This is the story of a child who suffers from undiagnosed health conditions and rides his red bike. Actually, it is way more than that. It is the story of a collaboration between the “A. Frattini” Arts High School in Varese and a little town in Mozambique, named Quelimane, where Doctors with Africa Cuamm works to tackle “Noncommunicable diseases”, with the support of the World Diabetes Foundation.
This story is about diabetes, especially type 1, that affects particularly children and the young. Maura Lucchini is an internist from Varese, she is 48 years old and mother of two. Previously, she spent two years in Uganda with CUAMM, three years in South Sudan, one year in Mozambique. Maura chose to invest her time and energies on this project because she thinks it is worth it.
“I started by training – says Maura, because this is a neglected disease. From August on, I have worked with doctors, nurses, nutritionists and psychologists both from Quelimane, in the province of Zambesia and Beira, Sofala province. I am now meeting the activists who works within the communities. We take care of the patients who get to the hospital when their health conditions aggravated. This is not enough. We have to go seek the patients in suburbs, villages and schools because type 1 diabetes is a hidden yet life-threatening disease, hence it is crucial to shed a light on it through the work of the activists”.
Africa is experiencing an increasing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases even though data are few and incomplete. In the sub-Saharan Africa region, less than one in 10 countries has published data on the incidence or prevalence rates of young people with type 1 diabetes. In Ethiopia, for example, the annual incidence was estimated at 2.1/100,000 (1995-2008) and in Tanzania and 1.8-1.9/100,000 (2010-2015).
Continuous and consistent follow-up of patients is limited, and many children and youth die before being diagnosed or accessing treatment, also contributing to the low incidence and prevalence rates estimated. This is where the commitment of Doctors with Africa CUAMM in providing health care and training comes from. Caring patients who seek treatment and training health workers and activists is a time-consuming effort that does not bring valuable results in a short time yet, it represents the commitment to the promotion of development for the future of the next generations.
What makes a difference, once again, is community outreach activities. And because good begets good, Maura dragged her friend Andrea and his students into this adventure.
“Andrea is a friend, says Maura, he is a teacher and member of both a theatre company and a band where also Alessandro plays, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 16”.
By telling them about my job, we came up with the idea of engaging his students from the class I H, in writing a play script. Performances are an effective mean to train and educate in Mozambique, that is why once I received the script about the red bike and the “Wheelness”, I had it translated into portuguese and scheduled the exhibition to perform both in Quelimane on January 27th and in Biera on 31st in occasion of two health fairs dedicated to diabetes. Hoping that one day at least Andrea and Alessandro, if not the students themselves, will visit us here to witness what we have done, together”.
On these two days, in addition to the play, a multidisciplinary team (pediatrician, general practitioners, nutritionists, psychologists, nurses) informed the children and personal kits with a backpack, glucometer, notebook, and colored pencils were handed out.
Beside, a radio commercial also designed by the Frattini High School students and translated into local dialects was broadcast by local radios.
Students from Varese claimed:
“We enjoyed participating in this project and it is nice that it is coming to fruition. We hope that we can be useful to someone in the world, in our own way. This experience tought us to better use words, as we knew we were addressing them to sensitive people far away from us. It’s good to try to turn sensitivity into strength, to care and to heal, to keep going and never give up.” Finally, Prof. Minidio concludes, “A school that is open to dialogue and debate with the world can enable us to achieve the educational goals set by the UN Agenda 2030.”
30 January marks World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, a group of infectious and parasitic diseases that mainly affect developing countries. More than a billion people in the world are affected, more than half live on the African continent. CUAMM and AMREF are turning the spotlight on this issue, focusing on Nodding syndrome, on which they work together in South Sudan.
The two organisations also make up the Nodding syndrome alliance (NSA), an alliance established with the aim of responding to the needs of people with epilepsy through integrated, multi-sectoral action to strengthen the resilience of patients and that of their communities.
«In a landscape where donors are increasingly reluctant to provide long-term funding – says Chiara Scanagatta, CUAMM’s head of projects in South Sudan – and cooperation between partners is more complex, the NSA is a really positive experience, because it allows us to unite our voices into a stronger one to do advocacy and promote more appropriate policies with local authorities and stakeholders».
Being chronic or long-term diseases, there is a need for continuity in treatment and care, which cannot only be clinical, but integrated with social and economic rehabilitation. From the need for constant resources to the involvement of families to whom dedicated support is guaranteed.
«From April 2020 to December 2022 – Chiara continues – 920 patients are regularly followed at the primary health care centre in Mundri and 300 at Lui. A challenging job, but one that we are determined to carry on, together and with dedication».
South Sudan, protagonist of one of the worst humanitarian crises of all time, is one of the countries most affected by neglected tropical diseases. Most of the population lives in extreme poverty with limited access to basic health services. The conditions of insecurity and political instability that accompanied the civil war have further compromised the country’s ability to cope with NTDs.
These include NS, a degenerative epileptic syndrome, endemic in South Sudan. It mainly affects children between 5 and 15 years of age and is characterised by episodes of sudden and repeated head jerks (hence the name “nodding syndrome”), with devastating effects on physical and neurological development.
Why they are called neglected diseases
They are called neglected diseases because they do not receive the necessary attention and funding for their prevention and treatment. These diseases can cause irreversible damage to people’s health and productivity and contribute to endemic poverty in affected countries. There are twenty NTDs currently recognised by the World Health Organisation, among them dengue, leishmaniasis, rabies and onchocerciasis, known as “river blindness”, associated with the development of Nodding syndrome.
Doctors with Africa CUAMM Ethiopia is launching the present Local Open Procedure to select a Construction company for the rehabilitation of Health Facilities in Amhara Region.
ANNEX I – Declaration of Honour
ANNEX II – Legal Identity form
ANNEX III – Financial Capacity
ANNEX V – Financial Identification
ANNEX VI – Administrative Compliance Grid
«I want to remember the story of a mother, with two different endings. Memunatu is a 26-year-old woman in her second pregnancy who lives in Bonthe, a remote village in Sierra Leone. With her husband, she was very scared because two years ago, in her first pregnancy, she had gone into labour at home and when she arrived at the hospital to give birth, the doctor was not there. Therefore, she had first been sent to the UBC hospital in Muttru, an hour and a half away both by boat and by car. Then, due to the lack of a dedicated resource person, she was referred to the hospital in Serabo, another hour by car. When they arrived there, it was too late and the twins she was expecting died during the caesarian section. When I met her, I saw the fear of that woman and her husband, almost their resignation that they would also lose their next baby.
Seeing that, again, something was wrong, the husband urgently called the Red Cross operator, saying that his wife was about to give birth and needed help. The Red Cross operator called me on the private line because the husband could not get to the hospital directly and, in the end, we managed to send a boat to pick her up. She arrived at the hospital after a three-hour journey, we had already prepared the operating theatre and thirty minutes later mother and baby were fine! That is precisely why the outcome of this story means so much to me. It is an expression of CUAMM’s commitment in the field and carries a message of hope. We cannot save everyone, but even one makes a difference».
People and skills
«Let me recap my experience. I spent the last 4 years in Sierra Leone. This was my first long professional mission outside of my country. A different and challenging context and therefore an intense experience but always with a strong willingness to “get in the game” and learn. I started working in Bonthe as medical doctor focused on maternal and child health; then I moved to Pujehun and Freetown where I held a more advanced role with more responsibilities. I’ve definitely learnt and grown a lot and I want to thank CUAMM for this because it has always believed in me and invested in my training. Whenever I was faced with a complex situation or had doubts about how to manage it, I could always count on the support of doctor Enzo Pisani who was based in Freetown.
I’ve become an EmONC Advisor, an Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care advisor, and I’ve trained 37 clinical mentors across the Country who are now mentoring 292 healthcare workers in the 16 districts of Sierra Leone on the seven “signal functions” as per WHO standard, seven key obstetric services that has been identified as critical to basic emergency obstetric and newborn care. It has been a capacity building pathway and I am proud of it.
Sierra Leone consistently ranks as one of the deadliest places on Earth to have a baby, particularly in some districts such as Bonthe, a remote island in the south of the Country. It can be reached by boat and during the rainy season it is all flooded with water and mud. Therefore, access to health services in this area, particularly to assisted deliveries, is very complex due to its location and the characteristics of the context. So personal life is not easy there: we were the only expats and my wife was the only one with white skin, besides the fact that we didn’t speak local languages. In Pujehun the accessibility to services is “easier”, however the maternal mortality rate is still very high. Several factors determine this: firstly, the lack of qualified human resources and the few that do exist live in the biggest cities. Many health workers are volunteers, meaning that they do not receive a salary, or at least not regularly, and this severely undermines their motivation and their commitment to work. Moreover, mainly for cultural reasons, people in the villages tend to rely on traditional healers».
This is the meaning of CUAMM’s commitment to give mothers and children another chance.
© Photographs by Valeria Scrilatti
Doctors with Africa CUAMM, under its projects implementation in Gambella Region, is launching the present Flexible Simplified Procedure to select service providers for vehicle rental services in Gambella Region of Ethiopia.
01 Vehicles Rental_Tender announcement
ANNEX I – Instruction to participants
ANNEX II and III – Specifications and Technical Offer
ANNEX IV – Tender Submission Form
With our heart in Africa, at the outbreak of a war on our doorstep, Doctors with Africa CUAMM has offered support to healthcare facilities in Ukraine by sending medicines, equipment and consumption material. In addition, food, essential goods and equipment to cope with the low temperatures were also delivered while psychological support was offered to the most vulnerable. These are CUAMM’s main levels of commitment which was later extended to Moldova, where medical personnel was sent to serve in two refugees shelters and Poland, where training activities were delivered in UNICEF “Blue Points”. A solidarity that involves many people and goes beyond borders.
The war that broke out in February 2022 shows no sign of ceasing. Destruction, violence and atrocities are under everyone’s eyes every day. There are approximately 5 million displaced persons and 8 million refugees. Launched in Chernivtsi city, on the Romanian border where CUAMM collaborates with the local association VRB, the intervention has now been extended to 42 hospitals in 9 different Oblasts. The intervention consists in providing a broad logistic and healthcare support by distributing medicines, medical equipment and kits, food and essential goods, as well as tents, clothing and equipment to cope with the cold winter. In addition, throughout the intervention psychological support was offered to the population harshly hit. The Ukrainian healthcare system was also reinforced with the provision of 4 ambulances for the referral of patients to hospitals and mobile clinics. VRB volunteers, involved in material distribution to the most at-risk areas played a key role along with institutions and companies such as AICS, OCHA, UNICEF, UHF, Caritas, Veneto Region, Gilead and many citizens who offered their time to help the Ukrainian population.
Moldova is one of Europe’s poorest nations and struggles to give adequate response to the crisis of refugees fleeing Ukraine. CUAMM’s work, in accordance with the Ministry of Health and the WHO, focuses on 2 reception centers in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, were over 300 refugees are accomodated. Thanks to doctors and nurses who alternate from Italy, basic health screenings are performed also in mobile clinics and drugs are distributed, especially to chronically ill patients.
Of the 8 million Ukrainian refugees seeking asylum in European countries, more than 1.5 million were accomodated in Poland. In the cities of Warsaw, Krakow and Przemysl CUAMM has offered UNICEF volunteers working at the “Blue Points” some training activities. A total number of more than 100 operators took part in the activity focusing on psychological, healthcare and legal assistance.
As the war started, CUAMM offered support to young boys and girls housed in the Minor Seminary in Rubano, in collaboration with the Diocese of Padua. A group of CUAMM volunteers has also been active at the Immigration Office at the Police Headquarters in Padua where a increase in Ukrainian requests and accesses was registered after the Russian invasion. Throughout the year, about about 6.800 hours of volunteering were spent to respond to over 22.000 asylum requests.
The NGO Doctors with Africa CUAMM Ethiopia, is launching the present Flexible Simplified Procedure to select a contractor for the supply of medical drugs in Ethiopia.
Annex II – Instructions to Tenderes
Annex IV – Technical Specifications and Technical Offer
Annex VI – Administrative Compliance Grid
Annex XI – List of documents to be submitted
We must fight the inequalities that hold back progress in HIV prevention and treatment. This is the message, a strong call to action from the United Nations, on the occasion of World AIDS Day, which happens every first of December.
Doctors with Africa CUAMM is committed effectively to contributing to the fight against HIV infection, first of all by making testing accessible even in the last mile. Many activities have been organised during the two weeks, from 21 November to date, in some of CUAMM’s eight countries of intervention.
«In Tanzania – explains Chiara Didonè, project manager of programme on HIV financed by AICS, led by the University of Florence – in particular, in the district of Shinyanga, in synergy with local institutions, as is CUAMM’s practice, we have promoted three days of awareness-raising on HIV in the villages of Tinde, Ihalo and Didia. Each activity began by recalling that World AIDS Day is celebrated on 1 December, an opportunity to raise awareness about a problem that is still widespread. Since the target groups are heterogeneous – mothers, children, adolescents – we chose to focus on a few key messages for greater effectiveness: prevention, the importance of testing and treatment, and combating social stigma. In all three information campaigns the Tanzanian authorities participate, together with the representative of the “Konga group”, an association of HIV+ patients. On the day in Tinde 300 people took part, in Ihalo 150 and 170 were tested. Today in Didia we expect 300 more».
«I thank CUAMM – says a young villager from Ihalo – for coming so far to offer a very important service, such as HIV testing, to the entire population. The closest health facility is half an hour away by car and the road is not always easily accessible, especially during this period, the rainy season, so having the possibility to be tested at home is a salvation».
«Also in Mozambique, in the province of Tete – reports Laura Villosio, CUAMM doctor – we participate in the World AIDS Day with various initiatives, together with the authorities of the country, the provincial service and civil society. This is an opportunity to address sexual health among adolescents, the target group of our activities. In Mozambique, according to 2017 estimates, there are five new infections per year per 1,000 inhabitants. In addition, 38 per cent of infections between 15 and 59 years of age fall in the 15-24 year old population. Therefore, many young people are HIV-positive and many children are born HIV-positive. Today, CUAMM in Tete takes part in a health fair where our activists, together with the technical team, promote information sessions and plays. Of course, everyone has the opportunity to be tested for HIV; we also offer an invitation to take the Covid-19 vaccine. Today’s Day was preceded by fifteen days of activism in remote villages, also on the topic of HIV».
