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Netlink March 2006First thought: “… be transformed by the renewing of your mind” Romans 12:2 (b) This edition includes:
EPN Forum: The countdown begins! There are very few weeks left before the EPN Forum! Preparations are underway for what we hope to be an exciting time of celebration for our achievements and a planning session for the future. From 8th–13th May 2006, EPN’s registered members, friends and partners will convene in Tübingen, Germany for the Network’s 25th anniversary since the beginning of the pharmaceutical work at the World Council of Churches (WCC). The German Institute for Medical Mission (DIFÄM) who is one of the founder members of EPN and a major agency supporting church health services around the world will even celebrate its 100th anniversary. See you soon in Tübingen! EPN activities at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Brazil The EPN chairperson, the coordinator, and a Network member (youth) attended the 9th World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil from 14th–23rd February 2006. During the assembly the Network members made joint presentations with other participants at workshops known as “Mutirão.”, which means working together to make a difference. The first workshop was titled: “Religious Health Assets: The Key Role of Religious Values and Organizations in Fostering Health in all its Dimensions”. It was presented by Beate Jakob of Difaem (German Institute for Medical Mission) and Eva Ombaka of EPN. In addition to promoting a greater and more complete understanding of the role of religion and religious institutions in health promotion and service provision, the workshop’s aim was to point out what is already done by the churches in health especially by faith communities and care institutions. Other aims included to encourage religious congregations and leaders to recognize and to leverage their assets (potentials, strengths, resources) for promoting health and to address the crucial role of the churches in terms of multidimensional healing in the context of HIV/AIDS and stewardship of medicines. The workshop also sought to present the objectives of the African Religious Health Assets programme (ARHAP) as well as point out the benefits of religion in relation to health. This would then present an opportunity for expression of views on how to protect medicines within the religious health assets and beyond. The second workshop was titled: “HIV and AIDS: Promoting and supporting a leadership role for pastors, ministers and priests.” It was presented by Jonathan Mwiindi, an EPN member and the HIV/AIDS Community manager at Kijabe Mission hospital in Kenya, and Derek Bodell of World AIDS Campaign. This workshop sought to showcase the important role that faith leaders play in the support of HIV activities in their communities as well as give examples of good practice and identify challenges faced and how to address them. This would assist in broadening faith leaders involvement in HIV work. In addition to the workshops, the Network also had a display stand with the theme “Churches: Active leaders in medicines.” The stand had information on EPN’s work in the form of posters, brochures and other materials. EPN staff participate at EED seminar in Ghana The coordinator, the programme officer for Francophone Africa (who is seconded from EED) and the bilingual secretary for Francophone Africa attended the Regional seminar of the German Church Development Service (EED) in Elmina, Ghana from 18th–24th March 2006. The seminar’s aim whose title was “African youth in changing societies” was to have EED seconded staff and partner organisation to network and interact as well as to discuss youth issues. The network staff presented their EPN experiences in pharmaceutical issues, and as part of their action plan proposed to analyse how to incorporate youth issues in the Network’s work plan. How youth are to be involved in the Network is expected to be discussed at the EPN Forum scheduled for Tübingen, Germany in May 2006. Coordinator attends human resources for health forum The Coordinator participated in a human resources for health forum held at the Methodist Guest house in Nairobi, Kenya from 27th February–8th March 2006, organised by Interchurch Medical Assistance (IMA), The Capacity Project and Medicus Mundi Internationalis (MMI). The forum which was attended by members from Christian Health Associations (CHAs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) was an opportunity to raise awareness at a global level on the need for action in addressing human resources needs in health. Although she only managed to attend part of the meeting, she was impressed by the level of action by the participating CHAs who committed their staff time to follow up on the set activities. She hopes we can learn from this how we too can get time allocation for the contact staff in our CFP organizations. Tanzanian Network member conducts pharmaceutical services assessment The Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC), our CFP in Tanzania, conducted an assessment of pharmaceutical services with special emphasis on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in five Tanzanian hospitals from 3rd–13th March 2006. The hospitals were Selian hospital and St Elizabeth hospital in Arusha; Haydom hospital in Manyara; Muheza hospital in Tanga and Mvumi hospital in Dodoma. After the assessment, team members were identified to carry out monitoring and evaluation exercises. They will also conduct trainings on Drug and Therapeutics Committees (DTC) to revive the hospital therapeutics committees and facilitate trainings on drug management, development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and stock management tools. CFP Niger facilitates HIV/AIDS workshop for Christian health personnel Our CFP for Niger, Doctor Jérôme Wolo, facilitated a training workshop for Christian health personnel from the private and public health sector in Niger. The training which took place from 23rd–26th February 2006 in the Siloe Centre in Karégorou near Niamey attracted 30 participants among them doctors, nurses, midwives, radiologists and laboratory staff. The theme of the workshop was “The attitude of health workers towards people living with AIDS / The need for a change of mentality to offer the best possible care for patients”. Father Ives Bernard assured the spiritual animation of the workshop, and Doctor Tatiana Sanda the epidemiological aspects of the HIV/AIDS disease. The workshop was organised by the “Catholic Action to fight against AIDS in Niger”, and financed by CARITAS Italiana, a long standing EPN partner. Network partners are part of a new PEPFAR approach to drug supply Some of the Network’s partners are part of a 17 organizations team led by the Partnership for Supply Chain Management who have come together to form a unique Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) for the American PEPFAR project. This new SCMS is expected to work with local supply chains to form integrated systems serving both at national and regional level to strengthen existing supply chains without forming parallel supply systems. The main focus of its healthcare delivery will be in the areas of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. The exact mechanism of how the faith-based Drug Supply Organizations (DSOs) will be involved and strengthened is not yet clearly understood by Network members. Therefore a session to discuss this system is on the EPN Forum agenda scheduled for Tübingen, Germany in May 2006. Network members who have not received the write up on this system in the Netlink Special Edition, March 2006 should get in touch with the secretariat at epn@wananchi.com Access baseline study started in Tanzania Tanzania is next on the list of countries after Malawi, Cameroon and Ghana to conduct the access baseline study to determine the level of implementation of church pharmaceutical services to the EPN guidelines. The study is scheduled to take place from 30th March–5th April 2006 and 18th April–28th April 2006. Ten mission hospitals namely Berega and Turiani in Morogoro, PASADA and Ukonga in Dar es Salaam, Mvumi in Dodoma, St. Raphael and Muheza in Tanga, Selian and St Elizabeth in Arusha and Machame in Kilimanjaro have been selected for the study. Regular updates on the progress of the study will be available in subsequent editions of Netlink. EPN’s Country Focal Point (CFP) in Tanzania Marsha Macatta-Yambi will be running this project and we wish her well! Access baseline feedback meeting held in Malawi Following the first access to medicines baseline study held in Malawi in May 2005, a feedback meeting to report back the study findings was held from 12th–15th March 2006 in Lilongwe, Malawi. The study falls under the Network’s second programme of Maximizing access to essential medicines for church health services and their clients. The study in 2005 was conducted to establish the level of implementation by Malawian church health services of the EPN guidelines for effective and efficient pharmaceutical services. In addition to reporting back the study findings, the meeting was also used to identify activities to be undertaken to ensure the implementation of the guidelines in the church health institutions and to identify a mode of operation for these activities. The participants at the meeting included the chairperson of the Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) board who opened the meeting and three members of the drug committee of CHAM. In addition to participants from partner organizations, there were 17 participants from Christian health institutions, seven of whom were the heads of their various institutions. Potential new members were also given an introduction to the Network. Due to a communication breakdown, there were fewer participants than expected at the meeting. Nevertheless, their level of participation was high and the meeting ended on a high note. There have already been several requests from those who were not able to attend the meeting for invitations to the next similar meeting. A report on the Malawi baseline survey is available at the Secretariat. The report on the feedback meeting will be available in the next few weeks. EPN joins e-forum on Universal access of health resources The network has joined an e-forum discussion and contribution session on scaling up universal access of health resources. The e-forum which is facilitated by Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) currently has four simultaneous discussions with participants choosing to follow all or select specific topics only. An e-forum moderator is present throughout to guide the process and provide content-specific feedback to contributors in all four discussion topics. The four topics are:
Network members willing to join the forum should write to universal-access@unaids.org with the word 'e-Forum' in the subject line for immediate attention. They can also visit: —end— ( categories: About us )
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