CHILD-CENTERED HEALTH CARE
An inservice training course for pediatric health care workers
Serbia, May 3-7, 2010

Too often, hospital experiences are more traumatic than necessary for children and their families. A new trainer course for pediatric hospital staff has been created to help children deal better with medical interventions and hospitalizations.

Partnerships in Health Switzerland and Serbia, together with staff from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Child Life Department in the United States, have launched a new initiative for health care workers to help them apply child development principles and effective psychosocial interventions in the care of their young patients. The foundations of this training course are the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child, and The European Child-friendly Health Care Initiative, which have affirmed that children have rights in the hospital sector that must be respected. This approach is not demanding in technical resources but requires a shift in attitudes and practices.

This first course in Serbia is based on a pilot training course conducted by FPH with the Johns Hopkins partners, at the Institute for Respiratory Diseases in Children, Kozle, Macedonia, and brings together the evidence and expertise developed by many colleagues and organizations.

Following their enthusiastic approval for such a training, the Ministry of Health Serbia sent out a hospital needs assessment to hospitals with pediatric beds and the first 5-day trainer course is being conducted in Serbia during May 2010 for participants from 8 major pediatric hospitals in Serbia and Macedonia.

This course will equip pediatric staff with the knowledge and skills to integrate child- and family-centered approaches into their daily practices and contribute to transforming their health care facilities into child- and family- centered institutions and reduce the potential psychological harm that can be caused by the hospital experience.

The fifth Balkans Conference on
HIV and AIDS was held in Zagreb, Croatia
on March 25-26, 2010

Organised in partnership with UNDP Croatia, the fifth regional conference was held to share and celebrate the important work undertaken by its various partners during the Western Balkans HIV and AIDS programme. The Western Balkans HIV and AIDS programme, so generously supported by Sida, was implemented by FPH in 2003.

This year's Conference was attended by more than 160 participants, bringing together stakeholders from the region representing government, policy makers, civil society, international agencies, members from vulnerable populations, PLHIV, donors and advocates. The theme of the Conference  “A decade of responding to HIV in the Western Balkans Region: What have we learned and where are we going ?”  held another key objective, to promote regional exchange, networking and planning for the next decade, to increase collaboration to enhance HIV vulnerability reduction.

For more details of the Programme and to view the presentations, click here
To link to the UNDP Croatia website, click here

Adolescent Reproductive Health

A Reproductive Health Programme for youth in rural Tajikistan, in partnership with Mission East, was initiated in 2009. It educates youth in Penjikent in reproductive health through peer counseling and school-based education and refers them to youth friendly reproductive health services. 

To read more click here

Visibility Board for villages and schools, depicting 8 trained peers

Publications

To read the most updated info about our activities and programmes, please click here