About Us
  Our Mission
  Our History
  Our Achievements
  Who We Are

About Us

HealthProm is an international development non-profit organization working with local communities to improve health and social care for vulnerable women and children in the countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

We give priority to prevention and early intervention in the life of mother and child by working through partnership projects with local community groups and non-profit organizations, healthcare administrations and training institutes

Our Mission

HealthProm is primarily focused on the health of mother and child, with priority given to prevention and early intervention. Through infection control, safe childbirth, and child mental health projects, HealthProm advocates high-quality practice in healthcare rather than a reliance on technology.

Multidisciplinary teamwork, including midwives, obstetricians, epidemiologists and hospital specialists in infection control and child mental health, constitute the core of our partnership projects. Our partners develop strong ties across what have been rigid boundaries within the regional healthcare system.

HealthProm's projects are always created with sustainability in mind. Special attention is paid to resources beyond training, to ensure that projects can be replicated in the future. HealthProm, for example, provides basic equipment where needed. If possible we include local materials into the undergraduate trainings of medical and midwifery students in the area.

Our History

Since 1984, HealthProm has been working with regional health administrations, hospitals, academic institutions and non-profit organizations in the former Soviet Union (FSU) to enhance the delivery of health and social services in the region. With the help of a great team of Trustees, volunteers and project people, HealthProm has created an intricate system of partnership projects throughout Eastern Europe and has spread projects into Central Asian.
 
Because HealthProm does not deliver health services directly, we have, since 1984, drawn upon an extensive network of British specialists in health and social care. Most of these individuals come from National Health Services consultant posts and volunteer their time within our organization.

Our Achievements

Safe Childbirth Project in Azerbaijan
HealthProm works to improve the health of women and their babies and to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity in the refugee communities in the country. Together with our Azerbaijani partner NGO "Family and Society" we trained more than 300 doctors and midwives in more than 6 regions in the country and provided necessary medical equipment to local hospitals in Sheki and Kizhi regions. The project is funded by GlaxoSmithKline and started in 2003.

Inter-regional League of Midwives of Russia
HealthProm helped develop the first professional association for midwives for Russia, which acts as a voice for Russian midwives and advocates for a defined professional role for midwives based on international definitions and standards of midwifery education and practice.

Bologoye Hospital Project (Tver region, Russia)
HealthProm provided essential medical equipment and professional training for the Bologoye Hospital Maternity Department.

Reducing Hospital Acquired Infection in Togliatti (Samara region, Russia)
Together with Togliatti Municipal Health Department HealthProm worked to provide more effective microbiology laboratory services to improve the care of patients in Togliatti hospitals.

Newborn Care in Uzbekistan
HealthProm has provided training of trainers in resuscitation of newborn babies in Uzbekistan in partnership with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF, which will roll out the training. Our trainers, from Lithuania and Latvia, are moving to provide training of trainers with the same partners in essential care of newborn babies. The Headley Trust and the British Embassy in Tashkent fund these trainings.

Film
With the St Petersburg Early Intervention Institute and EveryChild we are making a film to raise awareness in Russia of the harm to small children of institutionalisation. This is supported by the British Government's Department for International Development, UNICEF, the World Bank, IREX, the Karl Mayer Foundation and many others.

Children with Disability in Altai
The aim of the project is to encourage the social inclusion and rehabilitation of disabled children in the Republic of Altai, one of the most remote regions in Siberia, through the creation of a sustainable model of community-based care and support to disabled children and their families.
HealthProm and our Russian partner NGO Revival work together to establish two day care centres for disabled children and their families, which will provide community based care, support and, where necessary, rehabilitation service for disabled children and their families.

Training in Neonatal Resuscitation (23-27 February 2004)
The training provided by HealthProm's partner provided an improved knowledge base and clinical skill of the course participants in an aim to reduce stillbirths and deaths in the neonatal period. The project's success included the proper training in neonatal resuscitation and recognition and monitoring of fetal distress.

Early Detection of, and Intervention Depression in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia (2003-2004)
The project implemented by HealthProm was reported by midwife trainers to have made a huge difference in the way that they communicate with and respond to mothers. Approximately 50 healthcare professionals have been trained in which it became an integral part of the midwifery course at Oblast's Medical College. Finally, the project has raised awareness to perinatal depression, which commonly went undetected in the past.

Capacity Building for a More Effective Russian Midwifery Profession in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Russia (2002-2004)
HealthProm successfully integrated more effective techniques and skills into the Russian Midwifery League for a more effective midwifery profession. The information was bestowed to Russian midwives by a visit to the UK to observe the Royal College of Midwives. In addition, the Russian midwives now distribute a free booklet by HealthProm entitles "Your Pregnancy and Your Newborn Baby". Lastly, the programme has provided computers, fax machines and printers for the league including an anticipated website so all league members are aware the aims of the league and how to access information and obtain membership.

Infection Control in Togliatti, Russia (May 2002-May2004)
HealthProm has improved diagnostic microbiology services and this patient care by improving pilot sites evidence base practice. This was completed by a systematic review of case notes and a successful one day conference in which partners in Togliatti gain continued support on an informal basis.

Learning Resource Centre in Tashkent and Uzbekistan (July 2000-May2004)
A self-sustaining centre was established that made information on good practice in mother and child health accessible and available to practitioners, trainers and students in Uzbekistan. The centre, by 2004, is self-sustaining

Safe Childbirth in Baku, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan (2000-2003)
Glaxo Wellcone and Headley Trusts funded projects to launch the development of new Safe Childbirth projects in the above countries.

Sexual Health Education in Lviv, Western Ukraine (December 2000-June 2001)
HealthProm and the Ukrainians NGO Salus ran a highly successful Sexual Health Education training programme in Lviv, working with tracher and doctors to raise awareness of sexual health issues.

Disabled Children's Project in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan (2000)
Paediatrician and child psychotherapist training was given in care and mobilisation of disable children at the Samal Centre for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Children. This centre provides care, treatment and societal reintegration for 200 children with mental and physical disabilities who would be isolated, neglected and otherwise abandoned.

General Practitioner Training in Tengiz, Kazakhstan (October 2000)
HealthProm was sponsored by Chevron Oil to carry out in March 2000 a one-week training programme for their GP's working at the field hospital at Tengiz to include the development and usage of clinical guidelines and consultation skills.

Institue of Advanced Medical Education and Tashkent, Uzbekistan (October 2000)
HealthProm was sponsored by The Health and Life Sciences Partnership (DflD) to supply a trainer to teach General Practitioner Trainers the World Health Organization (WHO) Safe Motherhood Protocols as part of the over DflD/World Bank Primary Health Development Project.

Cancer and Palliative Care in Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Russia and Kyiv, Ukraine
Continual support for senior healthcare professionals was continually delivered through seminars and site visits. This eventually led to the successful organisational and logistical development of the local NGO 'Ulyanovsk Women's Health Centre'.

Infection Control Programme in St. Petersburg/Sverdlovsk, Russia
Our partner in this project reported a fifty percent reduction in post delivery infection rates in babies. They attributed this to the implementation of new procedure such as rooming-in. For example, nurses were no longer feeding wards of babies with the same bottle, and therefore no longer promoting the spread of infection.

Child Mental Health in Sverdlovsk, Ukraine
Working with the regional health administration, HealthProm improved training for professionals, reformed services, opened day centres and established teams of caregivers using the expertise of psychologists, educational specialists, psychiatrists and social workers. An audit revealed that 2 of the 6 centres received approximately 6,300 and 14,000 total visits in the year 2001 and indicated that parents, children, teachers and care teams felt the new services were very successful.

Safe Motherhood Programme in Togliatti/St. Petersburg, Russia
In partnership with the Togliatti Health Administration, HealthProm provided a series of training seminars and study visits within the Safe Motherhood program to senior healthcare professionals within the maternal and child health sector. The educational series resulted in a 50% decrease in neonatal infections at the selected maternity hospital compared to a 1.8% increase at another maternity hospital in the city.

Who We Are

Patron: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill

Staff

Programmes & Partnerships Manager: Tanya Buynovskaya
Interpreter: Olga Lassman

Volunteers

Research Volunteers:
Dickson Alfred
Elva Bova

Communications Advisor: Alexander Teddy

Translation Volunteer: Phyllis Elajo

Office Volunteer: Nataliya Kim

Finance & Administration Manager: Theresa O'Neill

Finance Officer: Yuliya Tkacheva

Kyrgyz Administrator: Inna Selest

Coordinators

Safe Childbirth Programme:
Greta Beresford

Infection Control: Judith Sedgwick

Uzbekistan: Dr. Stewart Britten

Trustees

Dr. Elena Tkatchenko-Schmidt, Chair
Mrs. Judith Sedgwick, Vice-Chair
Mr. Robert Scallon, Hon. Treasurer
Mr. Tim Unmack, Company Secretary
Dr. Stewart Britten
Mrs. Greta Beresford
Mr. Ralph Land CBE