Health and Hygiene Promotion

Doctors of the World’s “Health and Hygiene Promotion” project aims to complement the existing health service provision in Asylum Seekers’ Reception Centres and Isolated Roma Communities, filling the information and awareness gap in populations living in precarious sanitary conditions, with particular emphasis on health prevention in the groups of unaccompanied minors, pregnant women and/or women, newborns and infants, single-parent families, persons with disabilities, chronic diseases and co-morbidities, elderly – 60+, survivors of torture, gender-based and other forms of violence.

Project Goal

Ensuring the immediate vital needs of vulnerable persons seeking international protection or living on Roma settlements via medical screening, provision of health promotion and primary health care as well as distribution of hygiene items.

The intervention will lead to the improvement of the above as well as to the reinforcement of the right of affected communities living in harsh conditions, specifically:

• Refugees and Roma people get access to health and hygiene awareness within their communities.
• Essential health and hygiene needs of refugees and Roma people are covered.
• Distribution of personal hygiene items.
• Identification of very vulnerable cases and mainstreaming referrals focusing on vulnerable cases.

Health and Hygiene Promotion

Disease prevention and the prevention of epidemics are possible through coordinated health and hygiene education. In particular, the promotion of safe hygiene is particularly important in situations where people are more vulnerable to diseases and other health risks associated with the conditions of mass living. International experience has shown that where there is a high concentration of people, especially in highly congested conditions, it is extremely difficult to maintain healthy practices.

Infectious diseases transmitted through the oral/respiratory route pose a significant risk to such populations without consistent practice and promotion of personal and household hygiene.
According to the World Health Organisation simply washing your hands with soap can reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal diseases by almost half and respiratory diseases by almost a quarter, yet handwashing is practised by only one in five people in the world. Mothers who wash their hands regularly can reduce fatal infections in newborns. This practice accounts for 16% of all lives saved in children under 5 years of age.

The framework of the project includes a combination of educational and community-based support actions that contribute to improving the health of vulnerable asylum seekers on an individual and community level, facilitating their access to health services and improving their awareness of the health issues they face and the relevant factors that affect them in this intervention environment.

The units will carry out scheduled visits to the selected structures and will implement health promotion activities, distribute personal items to women and children, and systematically provide information to the community on the correct adaptation to the existing health service scheme. In addition, the teams can assist in health emergencies during periods of high influxes, including vaccination campaigns, mass information on health and hygiene issues, and the distribution of personal protective and hygiene equipment. At the same time, vulnerable groups such as unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, women in labourand victims of violence and torture will have the opportunity to register and be monitored by the services of Doctors of the World’s Open Polyclinics in Attica and Central Macedonia.