Infante Sano Announces New Partner Hospital!
We have added our sixth partner site! Infante Sano has begun work in Hospital Villa Fundacion in Fundacion, Dominican Republic. Hospital Villa Fundacion is a municipal hospital in the province of Peravia. It is a small, community hospital serving an estimated population of 20,000 with 40 healthcare professionals and community health workers and refers to one of our larger partner hospital sites, Nuestra Senora de Regla in Bani.
We have learned a great deal from our work to improve the health of vulnerable populations in the Dominican Republic and are excited to adapt our strategy with this new partner site. We'll be supporting Hospital Villa Fundacion in becoming a center of excellence for maternal, newborn and child health. We are focused on improving the quality of care provided at this site by making it more family-centered and more focused on prevention and detection of complications. In partnership with the hospital and community leaders, our goal is to transform the quality of healthcare provided at Fundacion by improving the facility, building staff capacity and involving the community directly in improving services.
Our hope is that Hospital Villa Fundacion will soon be known throughout the region as the safe, welcoming and comfortable space for women and children to seek care!
Childbirth is one of the most vulnerable times in a woman’s life; both the intimate moment of welcoming a newborn and of this life changing event of physical and psychological significance. Every woman has the right to a positive birth experience that is safe and clean, and should be treated with dignity and respect throughout the process. Women have the right to choose how and when they give birth and the right to be supported according to their wishes. Doctors and nurses need the clinical skills and equipment to meet a woman’s physical needs, as well as the skills to support a woman’s psychosocial needs. In recognizing the importance of involving a woman and her family in decisions about her healthcare, health outcomes for mother and baby, as well as patient satisfaction, are greatly improved.
In our work to provide women and their families with exceptional care, we hosted a three-day workshop on “El Parto Humanizado” (Humanized Birth) in the Dominican Republic. To read more about the training and how participants responded, follow this link: http://infantesano.org/blog/delivering-care-with-dignity-and-respect/
As a doctor-in-training, I am very familiar with the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” However, there may be no context more appropriate for this statement than the prevention of mother-to-child, or “vertical,” transmission of HIV. A prevented case of pediatric HIV infection saves more than mere pounds of resources. Stopping the transmission of HIV to a newborn allows him/her to avoid a lifetime of antiretrovirals, prophylactic medications, and HIV-related illnesses. In this manner, HIV prevention both improves health directly and saves scarce medical resources for other important uses—all making an ounce of prevention worth a veritable ton of treatment.
This summer, I joined Infante Sano in an exciting effort to empower Dominican women, their partners, and their communities with the knowledge and means necessary to stop vertical HIV transmission. To continue reading David's blog, click here: http://infantesano.org/blog/hiv-prevention-goes-local/.
David is a second-year medical student at Harvard Medical School who completed his undergraduate degree in Biology at Yale University. David spent this summer supporting our community HIV prevention initiatives in La Saona and San Jose. His work with Infante Sano was funded by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Harvard Medical School Office of Enrichment Programs.
Listin Diario, a major national newspaper in the DR, recently published an article about Infante Sano and our community health clinic in La Saona. The article highlights key achievements of our work, in particular the work of the health committee comprised of local members and the health promotor and doctor, both chosen by the community. The article also celebrates one of our biggest achievements: In the three years that Infante Sano has worked in La Saona, there have been no maternal deaths, neonatal deaths or infant deaths.
For the full article, in Spanish, click here: http://www.listin.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=111708.
We're pleased to share with you our 2008 Annual Report, now published online. Catch up on all of the developments in 2008 in time before we're on to publishing our 2009 report!
You can access your copy here!: http://infantesano.org/pdf/2008annualreport.pdf
If you have any feedback on the report, please email Jacque at jacquelyn@infantesano.org. Your thoughts and suggestions are always welcome!
Our August Supporter Spotlight was on Audrey Waugh from Colorado. Audrey hosted a fundraiser for Infante Sano, mobilized her local community in Golden, CO in support of maternal, newborn and child health and collected over $2500 in cash and in-kind donations! To see a list of the businesses supporting this event, click here: http://www.infantesano.org/upcoming-events.html
Thank you, Audrey!
Do you have an idea for a creative way to raise funds and support? You just might be our next Supporter Spotlight! Email Jacque at jacquelyn@infantesano.org.
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