Masangane Case Study
The Vesper Society commissioned ARHAP to do research on the integrated Masangane HIV/AIDS programme affiliated with the Moravian Church in Eastern Cape, South Africa. Completed in 2006, this study aimed to understand the role of the religious health assets of the Masangane ART
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programme for public health, as a model for a replicable response to HIV/AIDS. A crucial aspect of this research involved teasing out what value is added to this programme by its faith-based nature. Field work for this case study consisted of more than 20 key informant interviews of various stakeholders: Masangane staff and management; church leaders; health seekers; donors and health providers. Health seekers also answered 77 questionnaires and were involved in two focus groups.
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There are indigenous communities at high risk in every country of the region. At stake are the lives of 45 million people who belong to more than 800 indigenous peoples. Of these, some 100 are spread across several countries, around 200 maintain voluntary isolation or are in initial contact, and nea
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rly 500 are at risk of disappearing due to their reduced numbers. Due to their lower immune resistance, their lack of access to hospital care and the increasing penetration of extractive activities in their territories, indigenous communities in voluntary isolation or in initial contact are cause for particular concern.
Far from hospitals and the news cameras, indigenous people in Latin American become ill and die without access to the means needed to protect themselves. They face the pandemic in conditions of social exclusion, racism and discrimination, which highlights historical inequalities and extreme precariousness in basic and health services.
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Previous pandemics have demonstrated that more people could die from the indirect consequences of an outbreak than from the disease itself. As the fight against the pandemic is pushing millions into poverty and hunger, COVID-19 will likely be no different.
Men are less likely than women to seek help for mental health issues and are much more likely to commit suicide. This scoping review examined recent evidence published in English and Russian on the role of socially constructed masculinity norms in men’s help-seeking behaviour for mental health iss
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ues. The key sociocultural barriers to men’s help-seeking pertaining to masculinity norms were identified as self-reliance, difficulty in expressing emotions and self-control.
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The results of a WHO survey conducted to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on up to 25 essential health services in countries show disruptions of essential health services in nearly all countries, and more so in lower-income than higher-income countries. The great majority of service disrup
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tions were partial, which was defined as a change of 5–50% in service provision or use.
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There is a crucial need to initiate and sustain fistula programs that increase access and strengthen the capacity of the health care system to provide high quality services for repair and care of women living with female genital fistula. Therefore, it is important to pay particular attention to the
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quality of training, and to proactively determine how this training fits into the health care system. Furthermore, the quality of training is improved by committing adequate resources to ensure competent trainers, able to train and follow-up their trainees. Women with genital fistulae, their families and the community need to have confidence in the health care system. It is therefore necessary to have pro-active discussions about the quality of training with relevant stakeholders. These fistula training guidelines and standards go towards harmonizing the training approach and to improving the quality of training and hence, service delivery.
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The package provides practical, concise yet crucial information about the impact of COVID-19 on daily teaching practices as well as tips and suggestions to improve safety, well-being and learning, with students in face-to-face or remote settings.
The package speaks directly to the teachers. It ca
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n be adapted to their context and can be completed at the teachers’ own pace. It includes quizzes and a self-evaluation and planning tool to help teachers reflect on what they learned and what they still need to learn, encouraging them to keep learning!
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Ethiopia saw a six-fold increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases between June and August, with 5,689 cases by end June compared to 34,058 cases as of 19 August. Ethiopia also registered more than 13,000 recoveries and more than 600 deaths. As of the last week of August, Ethiopia was leading eastern Afri
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can countries with the highest number of cases.
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The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and partners from 27 humanitarian and development organisations and governments are appealing for USD 84 million to provide life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of African migrants and host community members affected by COVID-19 in the Ho
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rn of Africa and Yemen. The many partners include the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children, among others.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of investments in public health, the persistence of profound economic and social inequalities and the fragility of many key global systems and approaches.
Palliative care for children with life-limiting illness is the active total care of the child’s body, mind, and spirit. It begins at diagnosis and continues regardless of whether the child receives treatment directed at the disease. It seeks to control all forms of suffering related to the illness
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, including pain. It involves social, psychological, spiritual, and legal support to siblings, parents, and other close family members. Effective palliative care for children requires health professionals trained to assess symptoms, care for children of different ages and developmental stages, and to provide medicines in pediatric formulations. Care may be provided in tertiary care facilities, community health centers, and at home. The child’s best interest must inform all aspects of the treatment andcare, and the child’s rights must be protected at all times.
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The WHO Academy’s mobile learning app was developed specifically for health workers and is designed to enable them to expand their life-saving skills to battle COVID-19. It delivers mobile access to a wealth of COVID-19 knowledge resources developed by WHO, including up-to-the-minute guidance, to
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ols, training, and virtual workshops to support health workers in caring for patients infected by COVID-19 and in protecting themselves as they do their critical work.
With content in seven languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish – the app focuses on providing health workers with critical, evidence-based information and tools to respond to the pandemic.
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This handbook is an adaptation from the WHO Clinical Handbook Health care for women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Women and United Nations Population Fund. The handbook draws on the work from professionals who are dedic
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ated to preventing and responding to Gender Based Violence.
The Handbook guides health care service providers to provide comprehensive services to survivors of intimate partner violence and/or sexual violence. It also guides health professionals with respect to relevant stakeholders for referral purposes. The purpose is to ensure that relevant authorities are informed timeously in order act and ensure that those affected by violence receive speedy service as required.
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sub-Saharan Africa has only 3% of the world’s health workers to cater for 11% of the world population, bearing over 25% of the global disease burden (WHO, 2014). With a steady increase in reported cases on the African Continent, the current COVID-1
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9 pandemic threatens to overwhelm our already taxed health infrastructure. It is, therefore, imperative to take serious and urgent measures towards disease management and monitoring especially as the need for self-quarantine and contact surveillance rises.
In view of the infrastructural and resource gaps, technology should be considered for remote management of healthcare deliver to patients during this period. As it is abundantly clear, even countries with more advanced healthcare infrastructure and resources have struggled to treat COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients during this pandemic.
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