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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Schecter, Kate
Program Officer
AIHA/Washington, DC
Tel. 202.789.1136
kschecter@aiha.com

Volunteers Honored for Their Health Education and Training Activity from 2003 to Present

WASHINGTON, DC, July 20, 2007 — The American International Health Alliance (AIHA) announces that members of the Center for International Health (CIH) consortium have received the President’s Volunteer Service Award in recognition of their outstanding volunteer service in Georgia, Armenia, and Zambia.

USAID Europe and Eurasia Chief of Staff, Brock Bierman, presented individual awards to the physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and nutritionists from CIH’s member institutions on July 13 in Milwaukee. AIHA Program Officer, Kate Schecter, spoke on the role of volunteerism and her experience in working with the Milwaukee partnerships during the past seven years.

Two AIHA/CIH partnership projects were conducted in Georgia. The Mtskheta-Mtianeti Project included the restructuring of the former polyclinic system of primary care to a family medicine and community health model. A new Family Medicine Clinic and Regional Training Center in Mtskheta was constructed – the first of its kind outside of Tbilisi that is licensed to provide family medicine physician and nurse training and whose Family Medicine Clinic serves as the practicum site. The second project follows the model of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti partnership, focusing on development of family medicine clinical and educational capacity, village ambulatory services, rural health, and an extensive community high blood pressure control program in Shida Kartli region of Georgia.

In Armenia, the Lori Marz rural primary healthcare development partnership was implemented to improve the health of village families and communities by building the educational training capacity of the Vanadzor Health Training Center, including the implementation of a training of trainers program.

The Zambia partnership, now in its first year, is designed to improve the quality of HIV/AIDS care provided by pharmacists at the Pediatric ART Centers of Excellence at the University hospital in Lusaka and the District General Hospital in Livingstone. The project will enable Zambian pharmacists to better organize and manage pharmacy services to enhance the delivery of quality HIV/AIDS care for mothers, infants, and children.

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. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), funded by the American people, provides economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries to provide a better future for all.

For more information about AIHA, visit our Web site at www.aiha.com.

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