The "Building a Healthy Armenia" Program

Campaign Info I Questions & Answers I Contribute

More than half the total population of Armenia lives in poverty1 and most of those families have children under the age of 5. Little money is available to buy food and children go hungry. With such widespread poverty, it is not surprising that 14% of Armenian children under the age of 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition. Malnutrition leads to health problems. The cycle of poverty continues.

Unlike many countries struggling to improve their healthcare system, Armenia is blessed with an abundance of dedicated health care professionals .   These hard working doctors, nurses, and administrators are committed to providing the best health care possible under challenging economic conditions.   SHARED is working to find ways to help Armenia's health care workers care for more people.

Why does a doctor prescribe a $5.00 injection rather than a $1.00 course of medicines? Is it because patients prefer a jab instead of pills?   Are the medicines unavailable but the injections plentiful?   These are some of the questions that SHARED is asking in Armenia as part of a program currently being conducted to increase the availability of medicines.   Based on the information we discover, we can create a plan to save substantial amounts of money – money that can be used to buy additional medicines.

In partnership with the Samariter Hospital in Gyumri, Armenia, SHARED is working with Armenian health care providers to find ways for doctors to prescribe the best medicines available to patients while saving money for the hospital.   Once we have identified ways to accomplish these goals, we plan to introduce our recommendations to hospitals throughout Armenia.

By working with doctors and patients as well as sources of medicines, we will continue to explore ways to get more medicines to more people until we have succeeded in “Building a Healthy Armenia”.

Please visit the following links to learn more about the project and how you can participate in Building a Healthy Armenia:

Mt. Ararat and the Armenian Christian monastery of Khor Virap

1 www.unicef.org/programme/highlights/cee/armenia/situation.htm