• Improve the quality of and access to primary healthcare by women of reproductive age and their children.
• Improve the survival rates and health of newborn infants.

• "Day of Open Doors" was held twice to increase awareness of breast cancer.
• The Snezhinsk WWC was officially opend in October 2002.

Women's Health

• On October 23, 2002 Snezinsk opened a Women’s Wellness Center; attended by approximately 40 people including the vice mayor on social issues, executives from Central Medical Sanitary Unit (CMSU) #15, city administrators, Rotary members, and community representatives. The vice mayor, three US partners, the WWC director, and a WWC patient took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Children from the Snezhinsk Family and Youth Committee gave a performance and each participant received an AIHA women’s health pin and pen. A Snezhinsk printing house donated 100 registration books that will be used by pregnant women to track their pregnancies at the center. The opening was covered by local television, newspapers, and radio.
• The WWC represents the result of a three-year collaboration between US and NIS partners to improve the quality of primary health care offered to women and girls in Snezhinsk. The partnership provided $12,000 in medical and computer equipment. The Snezhinsk City Administration invested nearly $40,000 in site renovations and provided a state of the art mammography machine. The center provides a comprehensive range of services, including pre and postnatal care, adolescent health services, family planning, STI screening, and breast health, to a population of 26,000 women and 4,000 female adolescents.
• The US partners donated training models for breast self-exams and educational materials on breast-feeding, alcohol and drug use during pregnancy, osteoporosis prevention and contraception. US partners trained the Snezhinsk partners in Lamaze (childbirth) techniques. In addition, lactation specialists at LaLeche League provided training on breastfeeding techniques.
• Founded in November 2000 the help of a local NGO, the WWC’s breast cancer support group now has 23 members, 20 of whom have received breast prostheses donated by the US partners.
• WWC staff have participated in numerous AIHA sponsored workshops and conferences throughout the partnership. For example, four NIS partners participated in the Domestic Violence Conference in Samara in September 2001; Two other staff members attended a contraceptive technology workshop in October 2001, and the center’s director attended a management workshop in St. Petersburg in March 2002, sharing her experience with other department chiefs at CMSU #15.
• The WWC also participates in health promotion and community education, working with the Family and Youth Committee to provide peer to peer substance abuse and STI prevention education programs. A physician at the center also donates her time to be involved in a domestic abuse hotline.

Neonatal Resuscitation

• In November 2000, a physician attended the Neonatal Resuscitation Train the Trainer workshop sponsored by AIHA in Moscow. The training included a two day provider course, including knowledge and skills testing, an instructor course, and a basic neonatal lecture and skills building course. This physician then began to train other staff members at CMSU-15. To date, 18 midwives and five doctors have been trained in neonatal resuscitation through 6 separate training sessions given at CMSU-15. Each training session has included a final exam to evaluate the participants’ knowledge. Since 2000, partnership funds have provided several staff members the opportunity to participate in a three week neonatology training course at a children’s hospital in St. Petersburg.
• Staff at a Snezhinsk maternity house successfully resuscitated a premature newborn infant by using techniques taught by AIHA and the partners. It was the first successful delivery for the mother who had previously been pregnant six times. The staff prolonged the pregnancy at their facility and planned to move the mother to a regional perinatal center, but delivered the baby before the mother could be moved. Although complications after the birth occurred, the staff was able to resolve the problems and the baby has since been transferred to an intensive care unit where she had been gaining weight.
• During exchanges to Livermore in November 2001, Snezhinsk partners visited a Level III Intensive Care Nursery at Stanford University and met with pre-natal specialists. In July 2002, Snezhinsk partners attended two c-sections and labor processes to observe anesthetic and Lamaze techniques. Partners then discussed how the techniques they observed could be replicated at the Snezhinsk WWC.

Drug Abuse Among Youths

• During exchanges to Livermore, the Snezhinsk partners received training on STD treatment and prevention at public health departments and private clinics. Livermore partners had several posters translated into Russian, including fact sheets on cardiovascular disease, facts and figures on tobacco use, the tobacco industry, and other educational posters such as, “Mind if I smoke…mind if I die?”
• At the Committee on Youth and Family Affairs, adolescents participated in a train the trainer course on topics such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sexual behavior, mental wellbeing, and family issues. The teen advocates then worked to provide information and prevention techniques on these topics to their peers.
• Approximately 36 parents and students attended sessions given by narcologists on substance abuse and addiction. According to the Snezhinsk partners, a significant decline in the number of new registered drug users has been noted, as well as a decline in the number of drug users in general. Within the teenage population, a sharply negative attitude toward drugs started to predominate. The Livermore partners were not provided with specific data to collaborate these findings.

Dentistry

• The partners’ goal was to develop a dental hygiene prevention program in the Snezhinsk schools as well as to implement a dental sealant program for school children. With the help of Livermore dental professionals, the partners worked to develop a training program for children, their parents, teachers, medical personnel, and pregnant women at the women’s consultation clinic on the benefits of good dental hygiene and preventive dental care. The Livermore partners provided the information needed to create lectures and seminars and had fliers, questionnaires, and video materials translated.
• Snezhinsk partners have reported that 208 children received dental sealants in 2001; in the first 9 months of 2002, 377 had received sealants. Partners continue to provide exams and apply sealants. Approximately 318 parents and teachers have attended 7 lectures on good dental hygiene for children.
• Approximately 1,231 children have attended 64 lectures and practical trainings on maintaining health teeth at their schools.
• Four local newspapers printed articles such as “Nutrition and Caries Development” on the dental project and preventive maintenance of dental diseases. Two articles on the dental project were published in the MSU-15 medical digest.

Infection Control

• Although infection control was no longer a specific objective in the last two years of the partnership, the partners believed there was a need to address the lack of knowledge regarding proper infection control among medical staff. NIS partners received training on the correct techniques for handling medical waste and treating patients with infectious diseases. Medical staff attended a conference on disinfecting and sterilization, at the invitation of a specialist from the regional AIDS Prevention Center in Ekaterinburg. Medical staff at CMSU-15 tested their infection control knowledge (results not reported) and concluded that there are several areas that still need to be addressed, including the acquisition of packaging materials for waste disposal, sterilization of equipment, and annual training on effective techniques.

Community Mobilization

• Three Snezhinsk community stakeholders participated in the AIHA sponsored four-day community development workshop, Resolving Public Health Problems through Community Involvement, in November 2001. Participants developed plans for new programs and/or changed business practices as part of the workshop. Within the year, a program titled “Our House, Our Courtyard” drafted during the workshop received funding from the municipal government and is being carried out throughout the city. Two peer-to peer educational events on STI prevention in adolescents took place in February 2002, and the NGO psi-Soft, directed by one of the workshop participants, formulated and published its mission and goals for improving children’s health and social support. Using the small group skills acquired at the workshop, working groups were formed at the city’s department of education, resulting in two methodological publications for pre-school teachers and psychologists.
• In September 2002, three Snezhinsk partners attended a smoking cessation conference in Moscow. They were introduced to a systematic approach to tobacco cessation through the instruction and practice of intervention techniques. Partners created community-specific action plans for smoking cessation that would be implemented through the CMSU-15. It gave the partners the opportunity to work in small groups and brainstorm ideas for how to tackle smoking in Snezhinsk. Examples were presented for effective population based treatments, including clinical and community treatments.
  

Other Accomplishments

• An oncologist from Snezhinsk attended AIHA’s conference Breast Cancer: Our Challenge for Today and Tomorrow in Romania. The conference encouraged attendees to share their experience and challenges faced in promoting breast cancer awareness and meeting breast health needs in their communities. The conference was cosponsored by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, John Snow International, and USAID.
• US and NIS partners signed a new Memorandum of Understanding in October 2002 to outline ways they can continue to collaborate after the partnership officially ends.