Improving health care as a community service

Working collectively to protect the most vulnerable | Improving health care as a community service | United in education for peace and tolerance | Joining forces to provide emergency assistance

UN agencies are important partners in initiatives related to immunisation, safe motherhood, HIV/AIDS and resource mobilisation. SOS Children's Villages Angola carries out an annual anti-polio campaign with UNICEF, SOS Children's Villages in South America have built up an ambulance for young women in co-operation with the Red Cross and the EU. The SOS mother and child clinic in Mogadishu, Somalia, holds a co-operation agreement with UNICEF and is supported by the Humanitarian Aid Office of the European Commission, ECHO. SOS clinics in Peru, Swaziland or Zambia collaborate with WHO or UNICEF on drug supply, facility provision and cold chain. SOS medical facilities in Lesotho, Mali, Senegal, Swaziland and Togo carry out training for teachers, health staff or the local population jointly with NGOs and UN partners on hygiene and health care education, family planning, health counselling and malnutrition prevention. SOS Children's Villages supports the "Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation" (GAVI), a global partnership which aims to immunise children in low-income countries against vaccine-preventable diseases as a key to fighting poverty. We support this initiative run by UNICEF, WHO and the Gates Foundation through participating in awareness-raising, information sharing and assisting vaccination campaigns in SOS Children's Village facilities and SOS Medical Centres. Tackling HIV/AIDS together HIV/AIDS, a major threat particularly in southern Africa, has also mobilised co-operation efforts: AIDS education programmes and home-based care models for orphan-headed households are developed in co-operation with local partners. National associations engage actively in developing national AIDS programmes and actions plans, particularly home-based care policies, e.g. in Namibia or Botswana. Local NGOs, ministries and UN agencies, particularly UNICEF, are partners in workshops for staff, teachers and youth in AIDS counselling or training on HIV/AIDS and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and prevention in countries such as Lesotho, Mali, South Africa or Swaziland. The outstanding work of SOS Children's Villages Malawi on HIV/AIDS at the SOS clinic in Lilongwe includes co-operation on training, curriculum and booklet development and community outreach programmes. The centre also facilitates a national network, which cares for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.