Our Work
Our work takes various forms to meet the diverse and evolving needs of our partners. But whether it is providing expert personnel for a long-term capacity building mission, helping partners better define the local burden of disease, or supplying funds and materials to allow specific patients to receive needed treatments, our ultimate goal is always the same – to improve the health of children unfairly disadvantaged by circumstances beyond their control. Our current projects include:
Rehabilitation Initiative
Years of civil unrest and violent conflict in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in staggering numbers of children with traumatic injuries and undiagnosed congenital disabilities. The Rehabilitation Initiative is a comprehensive training and clinical care program that aims to help our partner organization care for these disabled children. Learn more about what this program accomplished through the remarkable field service of two IPOP physical therapists.
Nursery Project
For decades, forcibly displaced people have migrated to Goma from the surrounding conflict-ridden areas of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. As a result, our partner providers in Goma manages a constantly increasing number of newborn babies and children who come seeking safe shelter and medical care. Learn more about how IPOP has helped establish a special-care nursery and is now expanding this "center of excellence" model to the pediatric ward and remainder of the hospital.
School Health Program
In the southern region of Karnataka State, India, most children have never had a physical examination by a pediatrician. Our partners there asked for our help to develop an innovative outreach program that would both provide health screening exams for individual school-age children and capture much-needed epidemiological data for use in future public health interventions. In 2008, IPOP launched the School Health Program, providing volunteers, technical support and funding to a program that has screened over 10,000 children. Learn more about this initiative.
Educational Seminars
From the day our partnerships began, our colleagues in Africa and India have requested our assistance in operating high-quality continuing medical education programs for providers in their communities. IPOP believes health care education outreach is essential to any effort that seeks to build local delivery capabilities. Learn more about our on-going educational seminars in Goma and Saragur.
Programs in Development
Pediatric and HIV education in Liberia
In Septmber of 2011 Mark Corden arrived in Monrovia, Liberia to began a year of service. In partnership with Global Strategies for HIV Prevention, IPOP is supporting his work to improve pediatric care and develop pediatric HIV and mother-to-child transmission prevention programs there. Check back soon for more details.
Pediatric Residency Training for Congolese Physician
Addressing one of our primary goals to build the long term pediatric capacity in Goma, IPOP has developed a scholarship program that supports the advanced clinical training of a physician from Heal Africa. In September of 2011, Dr. Serge Hangi enrolled in the Masters of Pediatrics program at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Makerere University is recognized to be the premier medical unversity of central Africa . A degree from Makerere here not only ensure Dr. Hangi has the best possible clinical education in pediatrics, but also grant him the privilege to become a professor in the DRC. As part of this scholarship, Dr. Hangi has committed to return for at least 4 years to work at Heal AFrica. This important program is entirely made possbile by a recurring grant from Global Healing.
Neonatal Outcomes in Saragur, India
Over the past several years, our partners in Saragur, India have noted a higher number of infant re-admissions to their nursery for sepsis evaluations than would be expected based on local comparative epidemiological data. They asked for our help to investigate the causes and outcomes of these admissions, in order to refine their admission criteria and improve the clinical management of this high-risk population. In the spring of 2010, IPOP sent two UCSF Global Health scholars to perform a systemtic chart review of admission practices to answer their questions and implement a new patient documentation system. In 2011, IPOP sent Suni Kaiser to follow up on the program. In 2012, Melissa Morgan will go to complete the follow-up period, and launch a new study investigating hyperbilirubinemia in their patient population.
IPOP has been working with its partners in Africa and India since 2002. Learn more about our prior accomplishments.