Press Releases

News & Events › Press Releases › 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: 
Fedullo, Emily
Program Officer
Washington efedullo@aiha.com
 
USAID-funded partnership program comes to a close after 14 years

Astana, Kazakhstan, and Washington, DC, July 11, 2006—The American International Health Alliance (AIHA) will pay tribute to the dedicated volunteers and collaborating organizations that have contributed to the success of its healthcare partnerships and programs in Central Asia for the past 14 years at a conference scheduled for July 11-12 in Astana, Kazakhstan. This event, which will be held at Okan InterContinental Hotel, marks the close of the Health Partnerships Program in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which was funded by the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by AIHA.

The conference, titled “Partnerships as a Strategy for Health Professions Development,” will focus in particular on the impact of key AIHA projects designed to strengthen the region’s system of education and training for healthcare professionals. The accomplishments of individual partnerships—including the regional medical education and nursing partnerships, community-oriented primary care program, and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV program—will also be highlighted. Partners will have the opportunity to plan for future programs at their institutions and discuss the ongoing role of the Central Asia Council of Rectors and Central Asia Region Council of Nurses.

Representatives from the ministries of health of all five Central Asian countries along with USAID Regional Mission Director Christopher D. Crowley and officials from the United States Embassy in Kazakhstan, the Astana City Administration, WHO, and the World Bank are expected to attend this event. Additionally, US partners from the University of South Florida, the University of Kentucky at Lexington, the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, and the University of Nevada will join their counterparts from the region at the conference.

In addition to the formal sessions, conference participants will also have the chance to visit Family Medicine Center “Demeu,” a model community-oriented primary care center established through the efforts of AIHA’s Astana/Pittsburgh partners. Demeu offers a unique combination of medical and social services to the community and its comprehensive, client-centered approach is being replicated at other sites throughout Kazakhstan.

AIHA’s program of volunteer-driven, peer-to-peer partnerships has been an important and successful component of USAID’s support to healthcare reform efforts in the countries of Central Asia. More than 100 institutions, communities, universities, and schools have been involved in the healthcare partnership program; each one has played a critical role in building health sector capacity at both the national and regional levels. Key issues addressed through AIHA’s programs include women’s health, emergency and disaster preparedness, primary care, neonatal resuscitation, infection control, HIV/AIDS, and evidence-based clinical practices.

Created in 1992 by a consortium of major healthcare provider associations and professional medical education organizations, AIHA establishes and manages twinning partnerships between health-related institutions in the United States and their counterparts in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, and the Caribbean. Since its inception, AIHA has supported more than 125 partnerships linking dedicated volunteers in the United States with communities, institutions, and individual colleagues overseas in a concerted effort to improve health service delivery in countries with limited resources. Operating under various cooperative agreements and grants from US and international donor agencies including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); the World Health Organization (WHO); the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), AIHA, its partnerships, and complementary programs represent one of the US healthcare sector’s most coordinated responses to global health issues.

Support for the HIV/AIDS Twinning Center is provided by HRSA, a leading provider of HIV/AIDS care and treatment services to underserved populations in resource-poor settings in the United States and, more recently, throughout the world.

« Go Back