Mobile Health Care in Romania

Social and Medical Services Integrated in the Rural Area
Quarterly Report
April - June 2007

SHORT DESCRIPTION

In this period we continue to offer social and medical services in those seven rural communities in NE Romania. Our beneficiaries (children, old people, chronically ill people, pregnant women, newborn babies, children from disadvantaged families, persons who are socially marginalized or who are at risk to be marginalized, medical and social assistances, and representatives of local communities) receive currently the following kind of services:

· Home visits from GP and from FSC’s facilitator through our activity of mobile medical assistance,

· Releasing the prescribed medicines through mobile pharmacy

· Contraceptive treatment and counselling (family planning );

· Social help and support (social assistance).

The most important actions of the period were:

· Inaugurating “Clubului cu Lipici(Glue Club)”- educational centre from Panu village (Stanisesti)

· We received positive answers from District Council to our request of financing, and that means we will reedit the community newspaper, we will open a new educational centre in Vultureni, and will organize three summer schools.

· Receiving visits from Holland and UK in order to support The Day Centre from Podu Turcului

OBJECTIVES FOR THE REPORTED PERIOD AND EVALUATION OF THE ACHIVEMENTS

· To continue to offer all the activities of the program
Objective achieved

· To open a new educational centre „Clubul cu lipici(Glue Club)” in Panu Village from Stanisesti – inauguration will be on 12 April 2007;
Objective achieved

· Collaboration with Vultureni Town Hall in order to reactivate communitarian centre from the village;
Objective was not achieved; it will be opened in July.

· Supporting some events regarding 1 June for the children in the area.
Objective achieved

BENEFICIARIES:

A. Direct beneficiaries:

VILLAGE Mobile medical assistance Mobile Pharmacy Family planning Social services EDUCATIONAL CENTRES TOTAL
April May June April May June April May June
HURUIESTI 71 67 63 84 75 61 0 0 0 421
TATARASTI 21 0 0 0 21
DEALU MORII 48 51 54 75 82 52 0 0 0 362
VULTURENI 38 48 52 95 86 62 50 28 36 42 537
GAICEANA 47 57 51 78 73 51 23 13 24 3 420
STANISESTI 34 62 58 99 92 83 30 14 39 5 120 636
PODU TURCULUI 0 0 0 2 56 58
TOTAL 238 285 278 452 408 309 103 55 99 10 218 2455

B. Indirect Beneficiaries:

-Doctors, medical and communitarian assistances, teachers in the area, families of the direct beneficiaries, local authorities

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

1. Mobile medical assistance
The activity continued and there weren’t major changes or meaningful aspects.

2. Family planning
We still supply contraceptives for free; the activity is unfolded without problems.

3. Mobile Pharmacy
The van was implicated in a small car crash at the beginning of June – and this stopped for two weeks the activity because it was necessary to repair the van.

4. Social support:
Those four community workers from Podu Turcului, Tatarasti, Stanisesti and Gaiceana continued the activity of support for the families in difficulty. Everyone can see that there is a lack of supervising and coordinating from….

OTHER ACTIVITIES

1. Clubul cu Lipici (Glue Club)

On 12th of April 2007 we launched a new project, „Clubul cu Lipici’ in the poorest village in the area. The club will be opened on Saturdays and Sundays and in holydays as well in a classroom. Teachers, parents and specially the children were very pleased with this initiative.

The activities are unfolded very well, but the demand is big and the space quite small and the children are willing to spend as much time as possible in the centre. The activities from the centre are: thematic clubs: music, dance, drawing, manual training, initiating in using the PC, watching the TV and video programs etc.

The project was adopted by the whole community and everyone support the activity in their own way. For the 1st June, the International Day of Children, the whole community prepared to celebrate this event. On a special stage from the centre of the village, the little artists from the centre presented to the parents and teachers aspects of their activities.

2. „The Day Centre for the children in difficulties” Podu Turcului

In 2002 it was opened in Podu Turcului a day centre for the children coming from families in difficulties. After the financing was finished the problems started: the space where the activity is unfolded was claimed by another institution, and the centre received a summons so they have to move their activity in another place, the staff looked for other jobs etc.

The activity from the centre gradually decreased, and for the moment is offering just a few services which are financed by the Local Council from Podu Turcului. Among the communitarian workers, FSC noticed the needs of this kind of services and contacted the authorities in order to make a partnership so this project can be developed.

For this there were done the following activities:

o signing a partnership with Town Hall from Podu Turcului;
o identifying a possible place and contracting district authorities so they can provide the building;
o identifying a potential partner from abroad who can support the repair and fitting out the new headquarters.

We hope that this summer to realize this project so at the beginning of the scholar year the children coming from disadvantaged families to benefit of services suitable for their needs.

Meetings/ visits

o In this period we received the visit of two missions:

i. 27-30 April we received the visit of a team of firemen from UK which wants to implicate in fitting out of the Day Centre from Podu Turcului

ii. 18 May and 23 May we have been visited by volunteers from Holland who offered gifts to the children from Podu Turcului

ASPECTS REGARDING THE STAFF

We would like to thank the whole team which mobilized themselves in order to promote and attract 2% from income taxes towards FSC. Our project was the one with the most 2% forms which were collected.

Valilica Iacob and Edy Grosu were implicated for a month in repairing a car and we hired for a determined period another facilitator.

PROBLEMS, CONSTRAINS, SOLUTIONS

A very important need of the team is regarding a qualified social assistant – but even though we placed two advertise in the newspaper for vacancies we did not find anyone and the job is done for the moment by Razvan Panica, jurist.

The very hot weather affected the work in the fields especially, the cars where with no air conditioning. More serious is people’s despair because of the drought which destroyed the crops; this fact will increase poorness which people are confronted with.

OBJECTIVES FOR THE NEXT PERIOD

- to continue all the activities of the programme;

- To collaborate with Vultureni Town Hall in order to reactivate the communitarian centre from the village;

- Editing three issues of the community newspaper
- Doing Summer School in three villages in summer time
- Opening Educational Centre in Podu Turcului village

Danut Darie
Project coordinator