Grants Program 

Grant Awards FY2006

In 2006, PAHEF gave over $5.8 million for about 50 grants for health projects in 20 countries primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean for a broad range of health areas such as infection control, indigenous health, intestinal worms, nutrition, food safety, drug safety, healthy aging, river blindness, and health worker training.

PAHEF continues its support of the Pan American Network for the Drug Regulatory Harmonization (PANDRH) in 2006. PANDRH promotes harmonization of drug regulations in terms of quality, safety and efficacy thereby supporting improved quality of life and health care for the people of the member countries of the Americas. PANDRH also focuses on pharmaceutical quality at the laboratory, and helps assure that the best laboratory practices are implemented throughout the Americas. The PANDRH Professional Secretariat is located at the PAHO/WHO Headquarters in Washington, D.C. See below for PANDRH-related activities in 2006.

We are especially proud to announce the initial selections for funding of the 2006 Small Grants Program (see grants below marked by an asterisk [*]).

Latin America and the Caribbean

*Small Grants Program

BOLIVIA
National Institute of Health Laboratories in La Paz (The Taibol Project): To provide a framework for the creation of a national coordinated network of infection control and microbiology laboratory units for the Republic of Bolivia. This grant was made from the Fund from the People of Taiwan. ($88,209)

*Albina R. Patiño Pediatrics Center and School of Medicine, University del Valle in Cochabamba: To create an integrated course that teaches appropriate antimicrobial use with an emphasis on strategies to achieve optimum clinical efficacy in the treatment of common infections while reducing adverse events, antimicrobial resistance, and cost. ($31,100)

*FUND-ECO, La Paz: To support a study on ocular damage among the Aymara indigenous population in the Altiplano as well as changes in customs (traditional wide brim hat vs. other head coverings such as baseball caps) and habits among indigenous children and young adults as they apply to protection from exposure of ultraviolet rays (UVR). The results of this study will be used to develop a program focused on promoting preventive measures especially among children to reduce the adverse effects of UVR on human health. ($46,900)

*World Neighbors: To contribute to improved nutritional status and health of the Quechua and Aymara indigenous peoples in remote North Potosi by identifying and promoting healthy infant feeding and child care practices that lead to sustainable, long term behavioral changes. ($24,000)

PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in La Paz from June 12-16 2006. ($11,013)

PAHO Best Laboratory Practices: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Cuarta Reunión del Grupo de Trabajo de Buenas Prácticas de Laboratorios y Tercer Grupo de Buenas Prácticas para Laboratorios de Control Farmaceútico to be held in La Paz, from Nov 3-10, 2006. A very important contribution of the Pan American Network for the Drug Regulatory Harmonization (PANDRH) is the pharmaceutical quality assurance through the national drug quality control laboratory implementing the best laboratory practice throughout the Member countries of the Americas. The Professional Secretariat is located in the PAHO/WHO Headquarters in Washington, D.C. ($11,415)

BRAZIL
*Associação Saúde Sem Limites: To help support the analysis of the impact of the process of settling of the traditionally nomadic Hupd’äh indigenous peoples has had on their welfare and health conditions. The study will form the basis for developing strategies that will improve their health and quality of life with the full participation of the Hupd’äh. ($25,000)

PAHO Pharmaceutical Forum: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Congreso de la Federación Farmacéutica Internacional and Asamblea del Foro Farmacéutico de las Américas, in Salvador Bahía, from Aug 21-28, 2006. The Forum aims to strengthen pharmaceutical practices in the region through the promotion and coordination of activities and projects that involve pharmacists in national public health policies. The Professional Secretariat is located in the PAHO/WHO Headquarters in Washington, D.C. ($2,620)

CHILE
Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology of the University of Chile: To support the costs for the Fourth Leadership Training Workshop in Nutrition. The workshop provides an opportunity for young Latin American researchers in the areas of nutrition and food to strengthen leadership, communications, and advocacy skills as well as their ability for networking and team work. ($20,000)

PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in Santiag0, from July 31- Aug 4, 2006. ($10,600)

PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of the participation of Dr. Rosalba Alzate, a key facilitator, who attended the meeting of Curso de Buenas Prácticas de Laboratorios de Control Farmaceútico in Santiago from Nov 27 to Dec 2, 2006. ($2,825)

PAHO Best Laboratory Practices: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Segundo Curso de Buenas Prácticas de Laboratorios de Control Farmaceútico in Santiago, from Aug 28 to Sept 1, 2006. ($25,500)

COLOMBIA
Asociación Colombiana de Gerontología y Geriatría in Bogotá: To support capacity building of health care physicians, development of an in-care service training program, and the development and testing of tool kits for management of chronic disease in older adults. ($22,000)
 
PAHO Strengthening the Teaching and Training of Geriatrics in Latin America: To strengthen and enhance the continuing education of medical professionals in geriatrics. This project is a continuation of the 2005 activities. ($48,410)

*Gender, Ethnicity, and Reproductive Health among the Indigenous Population at the Colombian-Ecuadorian Frontier: To help provide culturally–appropriate sexual and reproductive health services (education and care) to the indigenous population. ($24,998)

University of Vermont: To create an on-line course for Latin American and Caribbean engineers working in health care (course topics: medical equipment technology, patient safety, clinical engineering, and technology management). The university is working in close collaboration and sharing work with the Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud in Colombia and Universidad Católica in Peru. This grant was made from the Fund from the People of Taiwan. ($158,500 to cover work in both Latin American countries.)

PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in Bogotá from Aug 8-12, 2006. ($9,400)

COSTA RICA
University of International Cooperation of Costa Rica: To train professionals in the region about food safety, to achieve routine implementation of food safety policies and procedures, and to reinforce management of food safety programs through the funding of nine scholarships in the university’s Food Safety Master Program. ($38,250)

ECUADOR
PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in Quito, from Oct 16-20, 2006. ($ 8,893)

EL SALVADOR
PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in San Salvador, from June 5-9, 2006.($11,013)

GRENADA
* Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF): To conduct a review of the biomedical waste management infrastructure in the countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States with the intent of designing a standard training program on biomedical waste management. ($11,100)

GUATEMALA 
*Population Council Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico City: To help identify and propose feasible strategies that help make maternity waiting homes more widely and appropriately used, of higher quality, and more culturally acceptable to indigenous women and their families in Guatemala. ($ 47,985)

*Severe Psychiatric Disorders in Indigenous Population of Guatemala: To help support the second phase of this project that seeks to determine the symptoms and course of non-affective psychosis and stigma in a Guatemalan indigenous population within a traditional cultural context and with limited access to specialized mental health services. An intervention program will be developed based on the results. ($23,303)

HAITI 
*Konbit Sante Cap-Haitian Health Partnership: To reduce hospital-acquired infections, improve infection control, and develop antibiotic monitoring practices at the Justinian University Hospital in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. ($50,000)

HONDURAS
Fundación Maria: To help improve maternal-child health in the rural region of Olancho in Honduras through a three-year baseline pilot study that includes the integration of programs to control soil transmitted helminthes to two other programs (Componente de Salud Reproductiva and Componente del Niño Sano). This grant was made from the Fund from the People of Taiwan. ($44,000)

MEXICO
Stella Maris School of Nursing: To provide scholarships that include tuition, uniforms, books, and nursing kits for nursing students in Zacapu. These women will return to their villages in Michoacán State, where no health care is available, to provide health services to the Purépecha indigenous communities. ($16,788.47)

Dr. Osvaldo Campanella: To support an honorarium for his key note address entitled Mathematical Models: A Useful Tool for Food Processing Studies at the Second Annual Eduardo R. Mendez Magistral Conference at the Universidad de Puebla on March 23, 2006. This grant was made from the Eduardo R. Mendez Memorial Fund ($ 1,050)

Dr. Olga Martin: To support an honorarium for her key note address entitled Emerging technologies in the food industry: electric pulses applications at the Third Annual Eduardo R. Mendez Magistral Conference to be held in March 2007 at the Universidad de Puebla. This grant was made from the Eduardo R. Mendez Memorial Fund ($ 1,950)

PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in Mexico City, from Feb 5-9, 2007. ($10,215)

NICARAGUA
PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guía para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in Managua, from Sept 18-22, 2006. ($8,915)

PANAMA
PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in Panamá City from Oct 23-27, 2006. ($8,108)

PARAGUAY
PAHO Blood Safety: This is the second phase of this project that started in 2005. Its goal is to contribute to the reduction of health inequities by promoting the deployment of tools and technologies that improve availability and safety of blood for transfusion in Latin America and the Caribbean. The current phase aims to initiate the blood services reform needed for the efficient increase in the collection of safe blood and its appropriate use in Guatemala and Paraguay. ($71,712)

PERU
University of San Martín de Porres: To support capacity building of health care physicians, development of an in-care service training program, and the development and testing of tool kits for management of chronic disease in older adults. ($20,000)

PAHO VIII Regional Meeting of the Observatories of Human Resources for Health; Action Plans for a Decade of Human Resources: Toward a Common Vision: To help cover project expenses for 101 participants of the conference held in Lima. Its purpose is build on current country experiences and activities to solidify individual country strategies and to outline specific actions plans for achieving the countries' health human resources development goals over the next 10 years. ($264,324)

*Education and Health Institute-IES: To help expand and enhance the supply of sexual and reproductive health services for indigenous adolescents in the Apurímac area. The Apurimac region is one of the rural areas where the problem of teen pregnancy and maternal mortality is a priority for the health sector. ($25,000)

University of Vermont: To support the creation of an on-line course for Latin American and Caribbean engineers working in health care (course topics: medical equipment technology, patient safety, clinical engineering, and technology management). A close collaboration and shared work assignments between the, University of Vermont, the Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud in Colombia and Universidad Católica in Peru is expected. This grant was made from the Fund from the People of Taiwan. ($158,500 to cover work in both Latin American countries.)

PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in Lima, from Dec 4-8, 2006. ($10,062)

URUGUAY
PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To help support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in Montevideo, from July 7-14 2006. ($9,500)

VENEZUELA
PAHO Drug Regulatory Harmonization: To support the costs of participants that attended the Curso Nacional sobre el Uso Adecuado de la Guia para la Verificación de Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura in Caracas, from Oct 23-27, 2006. ($9,973)

Organizations / Projects with reach across Latin America and the Caribbean

Global Links: to help purchase life-saving nebulizer equipment and supplies for shipments that will support public hospitals in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guyana, Cuba and Jamaica. Nebulizers deliver medication in forms of a liquid mist to the airways. ($2,082.00)

Onchocerciasis Elimination Program in Latin America: PAHEF is a proud partner of this program. We in cooperation with our close partner PAHO help distribute Mectizan, a drug used to treat river blindness provided by Merck, inc. to six endemic countries in Latin America where river blindness remains a significant cause of morbidity. In 2006, Mectizan was distributed to Ecuador, Guatemala, and Venezuela for a market value of $3,713,064.

UNITED STATES-BASED (REGIONAL EFFECT)

PAHO PRO VAC Workshop: To support project expenses for the PRO VAC Workshop that  introduces decision analysis and economic evaluation methods to vaccine managers and  improves the ability of managers to frame, conduct, and interpret economic studies for the introduction of new vaccines. ($290,127)

PAHO Creation of a Regional Disaster Response Team in Latin America and the Caribbean: To create a health disaster response team in the LAC region that can be rapidly deployed when a major disaster strikes. ($159,500)

PAHO ETHOS IV: To support the translation into four languages and the production of a CD of the publication ETHOS IV, a publication dedicated to the discussion of ethics in policy making that relate to public health. ($52,948)
 
Responding to an Influenza Pandemic in the Americas: To support the Center for Strategic and International Studies Americas Program Proceedings on "Responding to an Influenza Pandemic in the Americas" in Washington, DC on May 26, 2006. The conference was jointly hosted by CSIS and PAHO, and was attended by professionals in public health, communicable diseases, economics, foreign affairs, veterinary public health, emergency preparedness, epidemiology, and the like. ($16,033)

AFRICA (Latin America and Caribbean application of the completed research)

ZAMBIA
The Artesunate Programme for Malaria: To support a Eurohealth / World Health Organization training and research study of a new rectal suppository delivery system for Artesunate ($95,415). The overall project which began in 2002 is being executed in 7 developing countries.