PAHEF Projects
Since 2000, the Pan American Health and Education Foundation has made more than 250 grants to improve the health of children and families, to support medical and nursing education, to strengthen the capacities of health workers, and to advance research.
The Foundation makes grants consistent with its mission to improve the health of the people of the Americas . Specifically, grants are given for projects that focus on operations research, policy development and capacity building; develop models with high potential for replication; have a clear end point and measurable impact; have a high probability of success; and support lines of work that fall within the priorities of the Foundation.
FY2008
ARGENTINA
Institute of Development and Pediatric Research, Commission of Scientific Research of the Minister of Health, Buenos Aires :In partnership with the Food Assistance Programs, to evaluate integrated nutritional programs and community interventions to prevent children from becoming overweight and/or obese. ($49,840)
BRAZIL
Institute of Social Medicine - University of the State of Rio de Janeiro : In partnership with the university’s Josue de Castro Institute of Nutrition, to implement a health education program for public school adolescents living in Metropolitan Rio de Janeiro leading to reduction in consumption of carbonated beverages and sugar and increase physical activity in order to preventing excessive weight gain. ($50,000)
Post Graduation Program on Public Health Dentistry of the Health Sciences Center, Federal University of Santa Catarina : To develop an oral health education program for elders to encourage them to increase use of local oral health services in the City of Antonio Carlos. ($49,700)
CARIBBEAN
Case Western University, Ohio USA : To enhance health system approaches to healthy aging in St. Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad & Tobago by providing tailored interprofessional training programs for health care workers. Ultimately each country will host a regional training center on healthy aging ($50,000).
COLOMBIA
CES University : To help finance tuition for Mr. Manuel Valencia who is studying medicine at this university in Medellín ($900).
Onchocerciasis Program (Mectizan) : In partnership with Merck Inc., PAHEF donated Mectizan tablets to various health institutions in Colombia to treat river blindness (market value, $22,500).
University of Vermont : To incorporate the topics of medical equipment inspection, quality assurance, and other topics to enhance patient safety as well as advanced simulations into the on-line course developed under phase I. Other expected phase II benefits include student and faculty exchanges other opportunities for project collaborators to interact with other US and Canadian organizations. 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. ($8,500)
GUATEMALA
Onchocerciasis Program (Mectizan): In partnership with Merck Inc., PAHEF donated Mectizan tablets to various health institutions in Guatemala to treat river blindness (market value, $630,750).
JAMAICA
Epidemiology Research Unit, University of the West Indies : To design the Jamaican School and Home-Based Nutrition Intervention Pilot Project with the Northeast Regional Health Authority and the ministries of health, education, and agriculture of Jamaica. ($50,000)
MEXICO
Center for the Adolescents of San Miguel de Allende A.C. To design and implement the I Choose Healthy Project consisting of interactive tools and enter-educate initiatives to encourage healthy eating and exercise in order to reduce the incidence of obesity among Mexican teens. ($50,000)
National Institute of Public Health : To examine the links between policy, the legal framework of Mexico, and an obesogenic-built environment in order to create a legal and policy framework that contributes to the prevention of childhood obesity. ($35,000)
National Institute of Public Health : To link teachers to information about prevention of childhood obesity through a website. ($30,960)
PERU
University of Vermont : To incorporate the topics of medical equipment inspection, quality assurance, and other topics to enhance patient safety as well as advanced simulations into the on-line course developed under phase I. Other expected phase II benefits include student and faculty exchanges other opportunities for project collaborators to interact with other US and Canadian organizations. 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. ($8,500)
URUGUAY
School of Psychology, University of the Republic . To design and implement the Alzheimer’s disease Training, Prevention, and Assistance Enhancement Project in the university’s school of psychology resulting in qualified personnel to intervene and detect severe cognitive disorders. ($24,800)
VENEZUELA
Onchocerciasis Program (Mectizan) : PAHEF donated Mectizan tablets, developed and donated by Merck Inc., to various health institutions in Venezuela to treat river blindness (market value, $1,995,000).
FY2007
BRAZIL
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul: To address challenges and developing opportunities for health professionals and older people in southern Brazil . ($49,815)
Federal Foundation of the Medical Scientist Faculty of Porto Alegre: To conduct a randomized controlled trial in a primary health care setting of dietary advice promoting healthy feeding of infants. ($50,000)
Onchocerciasis Program (Mectizan): In partnership with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) andMerck Inc., to distribute Mectizan tablets to various health institutions to treat river blindness. (market value, $120,000)
CHILE
Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, University of Chile : To conduct a feasibility study as to whether a preschool welfare program can be adapted to ensure healthy growth of and long-term health for its preschoolers. ($49,960)
ECUADOR
Onchocerciasis Program (Mectizan): In partnership with PAHO and Merck Inc., to distribute Mectizan tablets to various health institutions to treat river blindness. (market value, $421,500)
GUATEMALA
Onchocerciasis Program (Mectizan): In partnership with PAHO and Merck Inc., to distribute Mectizan tablets to various health institutions to treat river blindness. (market value, $1,640,250)
JAMAICA
INMED Partnerships for Children (USA) and INMED Caribbean: To develop a replicable, culturally appropriate, integrated pilot program (Lyrics for Life) in two schools in Trenchtown among 1,000 students, ages 7-11 years and their teachers and families to reduce obesity and form a solid foundation for future healthy lifestyles. ($25,000)
MEXICO
Mexican Social Security Institute: To determine the cost effectiveness of an educational intervention to improve recognition of depression in older persons. ($50,000)
Onchocerciasis Program (Mectizan): In partnership with Merck Inc., to distribute Mectizan tablets to various health institutions to treat river blindness. (market value, $2,457,000)
Dr. Jorge Alberto Álvarez Díaz , Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juarez, Mexico : For the research project: “Opinions on the hypothetical donation of embryos in patients who participated in assisted reproduction techniques (TRA) in Hispano-America.” ($10,000)
NICARAGUA
Fondo Indígena: To support the Indigenous Health Training Scholarship Program to award five scholarships for first year training at the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua (URACCAN) leading to a specialization in intercultural management of health. ($15,000)
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
University of West Indies : To develop and evaluate a collaborative model addressing nutrition and healthy lifestyles to be incorporated in the national school curriculum. ($50,000)
VENEZUELA
South Florida Veterans Affairs Foundation for Research and Education, University of Miami : To implement screening and lifestyle interventions to reduce cardiometabolic risk in obese older persons in Maracaibo , Venezuela . ($50,000)
FY2006
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 Fundfrom 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)
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)
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)
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)
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 Fundfrom the People of Taiwan . ($158,500 to cover work in both Latin American countries.)
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)
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)
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)
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 Fundfrom the People of Taiwan . ($158,500 to cover work in both Latin American countries.)
LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN REGION
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 (Mectizan): PAHEF is a proud partner of this program. We in cooperation with our close partner PAHO to 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. (market value, $3,713,064).
UNITED STATES-BASED (REGIONAL EFFECT)
Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC : To support the CSIS 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)
Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC : To support the CSIS 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 completed research)
The Artesunate Programme for Malaria, Zambia: To support a Eurohealth / World Health Organization training and research study of a new rectal suppository delivery system for Artesunate. ($95,415)
FY2005
ARGENTINA
ProfessorPatricia Sorokin, Buenos Aires : To support the proposed work entitled “Treatment of personal data on genome research: bioethical, legal and social aspects.” ($10,000)
Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Posadas : To implement selective monitoring and screening for cervical cancer of women in Guarani indigenous communities of the Central Region of Misiones. ($13,200)
Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Adventista del Plata in Libertador San Martín : To develop manuals on infection control and an infection control curriculum for medical and nursing students and to integrate the work of the regional microbiology laboratory with infection control and antibiotic use among public and private hospitals in Libertador San Martín, Diamante, Ramirez, and Crespo in the Entre Ríos province of Argentina. ($15,000)
BOLIVIA
National Health Laboratory Institute (INLASA) in La Paz : To develop an integrated infection control and antibiotic utilization program in seven hospitals in the cities of La Paz and El Alto. ($45,895)
Elizabeth School of Nursing at the Catholic University in Cochabamba : To create a module for teaching nursing students about infections and how to control them and to integrate the module into the university’s curriculum ($16,700)
BRAZIL
Amazon-Africa Aid, Ann Arbor , MI : To support the development and implementation of culturally-appropriate methods to inform the Munduruku indigenous community in the central Amazon basin in Brazil about prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS in cooperation with Fundação Esperança based in Santarem . ($48,330)
ECUADOR
Fundación Metrofraternidad, Quito : To cover medical expenses for three emergency cases with complex pathologies. Fundación Metrofraternidad has created a partnership fund within PAHEF to sustain and expand its basic and vital health services for the neediest, especially those living in the periurban communities of Quito . ($9120)
GRENADA
Ministry of Health and the Environment: To repair the roof of the Richmond Home for the Elderly destroyed by a hurricane. ($2850)
LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN REGION
World Health Organization, Geneva , Switzerland : To design and implement country-level Communication-for-Behavioral Impact (COMBI) programs for the prevention and control of selected communicable diseases in at least four developing countries over the next 2 years. Parasite worm control is the focus in Brazil and Nicaragua . ($135,000)
Onchocerciasis Elimination Program (Mectizan): In partnership with PAHO and Merck Inc., to distribute nearly 4.3 million Mectizan tablets to various health institutions through 8 donations of Mectizan in Brazil , Colombia , Ecuador , Guatemala , Mexico , and Venezuela . (market value, $6.4 million)
MEXICO
Stella Maris School of Nursing, Zacapu: To provide scholarships as well as uniforms, books, and nursing kits for nursing students. These women will return to their villages in Michoacán State , where no health care is available, to provide health services to the Perupecha indigenous communities. ($20,000)
Dr. Gustava V. Barbosa-Cánovas: To sponsor Dr. Barbosa-Cánovas, the keynote speaker, at the annual food safety conference at the Universidad de las Américas in Puebla , Mexico through the Eduardo R. Mendez Memorial Fund. The speech was about pulsed electric fields (PEF) processing of milk and its implementation at the industrial level. The fund supports organizations and projects in the Republic of Mexico that improve health and nutrition, food science, and nutrition education while enhancing the well-being of the Mexican people. ($1500)
National Institute of Public Health in Mexico City : To improve the intake of a fortified supplement in indigenous children in Guerrero identified through the Oportunidades Program through a behavior change communication strategy. ($25,000) Read more
ASIA
World Health Organization, Geneva , Switzerland : To support psychosocial and mental health activities in the areas affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami and earthquake . ($58,158)
World Health Organization, Jakarta , Indonesia : To provide training to microbiology laboratory personnel and supplies to the public health laboratory in Aceh Province , Indonesia . The American Society for Microbiology partnered with PAHEF to support aid and reconstruction efforts in countries affected by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December 2004 ($30,000)
