Published in World Health Organization·Jul 19“The Centre gives us inspiration — it makes me feel my life is important”How a civil society organization in Kyrgyzstan provided a lifeline for older people during the COVID-19 pandemic — Seventy-year-old Valentina Podgaichenko, a regular visitor to a care centre for older people in Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan, found COVID-19 quarantine tough. At the beginning of the pandemic she was isolated and missed her children. Her normal contact with health services was disrupted and reliable information was hard to come by.Covid 194 min read
Published in World Health Organization·Jun 3How support from ECHO helped contain COVID-19 in KhartoumMohammed Hassan gets really excited about garbage. On a recent visit to Omar Ibn Khatab Primary Health Centre in Khartoum, Sudan, the World Health Organization (WHO) infection prevention and control (IPC) specialist watched as a health worker carefully donned protective gear and threw away medical waste in a special blue…World Health Organization3 min read
Published in World Health Organization·Apr 1WHO delivers life-saving health supplies and expertise in UkraineThe health care system in Ukraine is bearing a heavy burden from the ongoing war. As hostilities continue into their second month, people’s access to health services is increasingly impeded. …Ukraine4 min read
Published in World Health Organization·Mar 25“We fight for every patient here”Portraits of resilience from health workers and patients in Kyiv, Ukraine — Anastasia, a 24-year-old intern and volunteer, has hardly left Kyiv’s Hospital 17 since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February. She and many of her colleagues across Kyiv decided to move into the health facilities where they work to avoid taking long and dangerous trips home across the city.Ukraine4 min read
Published in World Health Organization·Mar 23Kenyan farmers break free from tobacco farmsFarmer Reginald Omulo walks between rows of healthy maize and beans, stopping to admire what he has planted. Like many farmers in Uriri Sub-county, Migori County, Kenya, Omulo used to cultivate tobacco. But no longer. He is now passionate about his family’s shift to grow alternative crops, confident that their…Health3 min read
Published in World Health Organization·Mar 23WHO launched a tool to track outbreaks in real-time in 2019. Then came COVID-19.Here’s a look at how Go.Data has been used, and how the lessons from those experiences are helping countries better prepare for future outbreaks. In the early days of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2018, contact tracer Léa Kanyere spent much of her…World Health Organization6 min read
Published in World Health Organization·Mar 18The impact of war in Ukraine on children with cancer — ensuring care continuesAs the war in Ukraine intensifies, hundreds of children with cancer have been forced to flee homes and hospital beds all over the country and undertake dangerous journeys in the hope of reconnecting with the treatments they need to survive. Undergoing chemotherapy treatment for a bladder tumour, 8-year-old Leonid had…Ukraine5 min read
Published in World Health Organization·Mar 8Poland offers safe haven for Ukrainians fleeing warHealth workers and volunteers are providing food, medical attention and physical and mental health support to refugees — The central train station in Rzeszów has long been a busy transit point in south-eastern Poland, not far from the border with Ukraine. …Ukraine6 min read
Published in World Health Organization·Mar 2Running a hospital while your country is under attack — a story from western UkraineFor patients at Novovolynsk Hospital in western Ukraine, the sound of air raid sirens has suddenly become a common reality amid the military offensive in the country. …Ukraine3 min read
Published in World Health Organization·Sep 14, 2021Supporting kangaroo mother care in EthiopiaKeeping mothers and babies together after birth improves survival rates for babies born early or small — Around the world, 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 weeks) and 21 million are born low birthweight (under 2.5kg) each year. These infants face significant health risks. Prematurity-related complications are the leading causes of death of newborns and children under 5.Health3 min read
