When Avi Kenny graduated from Brown University in 2011 he did what most recent Ivy League grads do—he headed straight for rural Africa. Part of a new, adventurous and innovative generation of global health leadership, Avi heads up the monitoring and evaluation efforts for Tiyatien Health (TH), a start-up non-governmental organization (NGO) health project in the remote district of Konobo,
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Seventeen years ago, Episcopalian Reverend, Pascual Torres, was approached by a few courageous, HIV-positive members of his local community in Honduras. Uninformed about HIV/AIDS at the time, Rev. Torres sat down to talk through end-of-life issues with them. Little did he know, this was the start of Siempre Unidos, a coalition of medical providers, counselors, pastors, business leaders and community
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Three million Haitian children were vaccinated for measles, rubella, and polio in a campaign established by Haiti’s Ministry of Health and supported by Direct Relief. The campaign’s success comes as the country looks back on the introduction of cholera two Octobers ago, which quickly grew to an epidemic. The rapid, tragic spread of cholera in Haiti is a sharp reminder of the
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Today marks historic milestones for Abbott, The Abbott Fund and Direct Relief. Partnering together for over 10 years, 20 million rapid HIV tests have been distributed free of charge to HIV testing and counseling programs serving pregnant women and their families in 43 developing countries and more than 150,000 HIV cases have been prevented in children. Expanding HIV testing for pregnant women is an
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Direct Relief International is playing a major role in a historic campaign to vaccinate 2.5 million Haitian children under 10 years old. Working with global medical technology company BD, Direct Relief is supplying BD syringes and needles to make these immunizations possible. The vaccination will be provided without cost, and the initial focus will be on measles, rubella, and polio.
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Today the NY Times ran an article about Haiti’s cholera epidemic, a disease that’s spread through fecal contamination of water. Before Haiti’s devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010, only 12% of the country had access to piped, treated water and after that number declined rapidly. That set up Haiti as a prime candidate for a cholera outbreak. From the article: “…cholera has killed more than
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