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4 results
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Article
29 November 2022
How a pair of spectacles changed one girl’s life
https://www.unicef.org/eca/stories/how-pair-spectacles-changed-one-girls-life
3484 refugee and migrant children accessed health checks and referrals to public healthcare services, including to immunization, with UNICEF support – almost 3 times the number targeted for the Initiative. 3338 refugee and migrant children accessed mother, and child healthcare, including infant and young child feeding counselling, with UNICEF support – more than twice as many as originally targeted. Implementing partners: Danish Refugee Council, Fenix, Medicins du Monde, Save the Children International, World Vision. An independent evaluation of the ‘RM Child-Health’ Initiative has taken stock of its impact in Bosnia and Herzegovina. [1] This impact was driven, in large part, by close collaboration between the Initiative and other UNICEF programme areas, particularly health, early childhood development and social inclusion, and by strong relationships with implementing partners: the Danish Refugee Council, Fenix, Medicins du Monde and World Vision. Refugees, migrants and service providers have valued the Initiative, with surveys carried out by UNICEF’s implementing partners finding that the activities responded to needs. The beneficiaries were highly satisfied with both the paediatric services provided and the awareness raising and training delivered. The Initiative was swift to adapt to new and emerging needs, including the COVID-19 pandemic, modifying its information and training materials and approaches to keep health services going. UNICEF and its partners obtained official approval for health workers to work in other cantons and organized transport to get them there, helping to provide cover for health workers who were infected with COVID-19. [2] Partners also held more frequent meetings with fewer participants to maintain social distancing. In response to requests from refugees and migrants, the Initiative added nutrition information as well as mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services for children. Prior to the Initiative, MHPSS services had focused on adults only. Similarly, the Initiative led to the expansion of routine immunization to refugee and migrant children who had not previously been covered – with obvious benefits for the wider population as this critical immunization gap was closed. In addition, the work of the International Organization for Migration in Bosnia and Herzegovina now follows UNICEF’s protocol on the provision of baby formula milk. [3] Cantonal health institutes in Bosnia and Herzegovina are now better informed regarding the health conditions of refugees and migrants. UNICEF has also succeeded in integrating Roma and host communities in awareness-raising efforts on health delivered to refugee and migrant populations.   This story is part of the Project ‘Strengthening Refugee and Migrant Children’s Health Status in Southern and South Eastern Europe’, Co-funded by the Health Programme of the European Union (the ‘RM Child-Health’ initiative). It represents the views of the author only and is her sole responsibility; it cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) or any other body of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains. *Names changed to protect identities. [1] IOD PARC , Evaluation of the UNICEF Project: Strengthening Refugee and Migrant Children’s Health Status in Southern and South-Eastern Europe. [2] UNICEF ECARO staff. [3] UNICEF CO staff.
Article
01 February 2021
Strengthening the implementation of health policies
https://www.unicef.org/eca/stories/strengthening-implementation-health-policies
The initiative also promotes and supports multi-disciplinary approaches and teams to address the complex causes of health problems among refugee and migrant children – from trauma, anxiety and over-crowded conditions, to lack of hygiene facilities and immunization. As a result, support from the ‘RM Child-health’ initiative builds trust between refugee and migrant families and health providers. At the Centre for refugees and migrants near Bela Palanka in south-eastern Serbia, for example, the needs of refugee and migrant women have shaped the development of the Community Centre run by ADRA, with its Mother and Baby Corner for women with infants. Here, women can take part in language classes, sports activities and, crucially, in workshops about their own health and rights. “ The most important thing is that all the advice from our doctor is in line with their economic circumstances and current living situation [in Reception centres],” explains social worker Andja Petrovic. “The advice is tailored to their life and I think they particularly like that, because they can see that their situation is acknowledged. Because when they go to a doctor [in other facilities], they get advice that they can’t follow because they don’t have the living conditions for it.” Also in Serbia, funding from the ‘RM Child-health Initiative’ supports work by UNICEF and the Institute of Mental Health that looks beyond the provision of basic health care to assess the scale and nature of substance abuse among refugee and migrant communities. This cutting-edge field research will guide the development of materials and capacity building specifically for health and community workers who are in regular contact with young refugees and migrants, helping these workers to identify and tackle substance abuse by connecting children and youth to support services. As one researcher involved in the research commented: “Most of those children have spent several years without a home or any sense of stability. They can't make a single plan about the future since everything in their life is so uncertain. I can't begin to imagine how frightening that is.” By building greater rapport between frontline workers and children, and by equipping those workers with the support, skills and resources they need, the ‘RM Child-health’ initiative is helping to transform health policies into health practice. This vital work has been particularly crucial in 2020, as frontline workers have had to confront – and adapt to – the greatest public health crisis in living memory: the COVID-19 pandemic. Logo This story is part of the Project ‘Strengthening Refugee and Migrant Children’s Health Status in Southern and South Eastern Europe’, Co-funded by the Health Programme of the European Union (the ‘RM Child-Health’ initiative).It represents the views of the author only and is her sole responsibility; it cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency or any other body of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.
Article
29 January 2021
Strengthening national health capacity for refugee and migrant children
https://www.unicef.org/eca/stories/strengthening-national-health-capacity-refugee-and-migrant-children
“This collaboration is helping to stimulate public demand for strong national health systems that work for everybody and that rise to new challenges, such as disease outbreaks.” Afshan Khan, UNICEF Regional Director The ‘RM Child-Health’ initiative has supported work across five European countries to enhance and strengthen the capacity of national health systems to meet the health needs of refugee and migrant children. This work recognizes that a health system that works for such vulnerable children is a health system that works for every child. At first glance, helping a 10-year girl from Iran, now living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, get a new pair of glasses might seem a simple thing. For Maisa, however, this is the end result of a continuum of intensive support, from identifying a girl who struggles with an eye condition, to connecting her to a skilled ophthalmologist. And now Maisa stands in front of a mirror, trying on the glasses that will enhance her life, learning and play. Such a momentous day is only possible when an established health system is equipped to accommodate and respond to the complex needs of refugee and migrant children. Support from the ‘RM Child-Health’ initiative aims to reinforce and enhance health systems across five European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Serbia) so that these systems can deliver the high-quality services that are the right of every child – and that every child needs, regardless of their origins. The aim: to ensure that health systems catch every refugee and migrant child who is in danger of slipping through the gaps. And there are additional benefits: a health system that works for these vulnerable and excluded children is a health system that works for every child, and that can reach those who are so often the very hardest to reach. This 24-month, €4.3 million initiative, which was launched in January 2020 by the European Union Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, aims to strengthen the capacity of health systems to deliver health care to refugee and migrant children. That means ensuring access to life-saving immunization, to mental health and psycho-social support, and services to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, as well as maternal and new-born health care and nutrition. Stronger health systems are needed to overcome the bottlenecks that confront so many refugee and migrant families when they try to access health care. “ The profound challenges that often confront populations – especially children – on the move can include cultural and language barriers, stigma and discrimination on the part of health providers, and a lack of detailed medical records or paperwork,” says Dr. Basil Rodriques, UNICEF Regional Health Advisor. “They may also have their own reasons to distrust state-provided services, including fears of deportation.”
Article
31 May 2021
Making the European Child Guarantee a Reality. Insights from testing the European Child Guarantee
https://www.unicef.org/eca/stories/making-european-child-guarantee-reality-insights-testing-european-child-guarantee
MARGARETA MADERIC State Secretary, Ministry of Labour, the Pension System, the Family and Social Policy European Union Margareta Mađerić was born on 2 July 1977 in Zagreb. After finishing high school, she enrolled in Zagreb School of Business where she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Communication and worked as a marketing and communications manager before entering into politics. In 2005, as a member of Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Mađerić was elected to the Zagreb City Assembly, where she served three consecutive terms and served as president of the Deputy Club of the Croatian Democratic Union. In the 2013 local elections in Zagreb, she ran as the HDZ candidate for mayor, and in the 2015 Croatian parliamentary elections, Mađerić ran as a candidate for the Patriotic Coalition, led by the HDZ. She was a member of the Croatian Parliament and was named president of the Parliamentary committee for mandates and immunity, before she assumed the position of State Secretary in the Ministry for Demography, Family, Youth and Social policy. Following the 2020 parliamentary elections she continued to serve as State Secretary in the new Ministry of Labour, Pension system, Family and Social Policy. SAILA RUUTH Personal archive

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