Woman and Child

MdM-Greece continues the “Woman and Child” project by strengthening health prevention, awareness-raising and parental skills promotion activities

The scientific team of the Open Polyclinic of Athens, with specialized medical staff and volunteers, collaborates for the optimal support of the beneficiaries in a holistic framework of support, with a pediatric and gynecological clinic, as well as with an available social service. The aim is to provide both comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, including pharmaceutical coverage, medical supplies and medical examinations. At the same time, material assistance (baby wipes, diapers, personal hygiene kits for women) is also provided to the most vulnerable cases.

Meanwhile, in order to strengthen parenting skills and the protection of the health of mothers in labour, newborns and infants, Médecins du Monde enriches the action with group psycho-education programmes and individual counselling for new mothers, in the context of addressing psychosocial risks.

For this reason, as of December 2023, Médecins du Monde has upgraded the available gynecological clinic with special embryology equipment and by ensuring a constant volunteer presence of a gynecologist and a specialist embryologist, as well as a midwife. In the last two years, 887 unique women’s requests have been served and 300 of these cases involved women in labour or new mothers.

Moreover, during the same period of the last few years, the paediatric clinic that follows up cases between the ages of 0-16 years has recorded 4,133 visits for clinical examination and more than 2,563 unique individuals.

NETWORKING

MdM-Greece collaborates with the Athens General Hospital “Elena Venizelos – Alexandra” and the Municipal Infant Hospital of Athens, facilitating access to health and welfare services for vulnerable mothers, infants and children. At the same time MdM-Greece provides opportunity to conduct blood and other laboratory tests free of charge for the beneficiaries, in collaboration with a special microbiological laboratory.

MAPPING OF THE ISSUE

According to the recent 2023 report on country health systems published by the European Commission in collaboration with the OECD, it appears that the austerity measures imposed over the last 10 years have negatively affected the provision of medical services and the quality of public health in Greece. At the same time, it turns out that continued cutbacks in the health sector is a measure that not only does not contribute to improving the economic situation of the country, but instead causes increases in health inequalities, resulting in reduced economic and social productivity, while leading to an increase in the costs that households have to cover.

Per capita health expenditure in Greece (€1,874) is still half the EU average. Public spending is the main source of funding (62%), but remains significantly lower than the EU average of 81%. The remaining costs are covered directly by households, mainly in the form of co-payments for medicines and direct payments for services not included in the state benefit package.

In the last two years, Greece has been called upon to respond to emergency situations to meet needs within the country, both because of natural disasters: fires in the summers of 2022 and 2023, the floods in Thessaly in September 2023, and the mass influx of refugees from Ukraine from March 2022 onwards. At the same time, despite a relative decrease in refugee flows to the islands and Evros in 2022, from mid-2023 to the present, numbers have increased again, with an average of 100 new arrivals per day, a large proportion of which are women and children and Unaccompanied Minors.

RESULTS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT

During the two years 2022 – 2023, Médecins du Monde continued the activities of the “Woman and Child” project, covering the necessary costs with the Organization’s own resources, in order to support women and children belonging to vulnerable social groups of the population.

The project supports the existing action to promote the need for free access to healthcare for pregnant women, new mothers, infants and young children. Médecins du Monde, through its paediatric department, is committed to reaching out first and foremost to young unprotected children, most of them from single-parent or large families, who experience difficult daily living conditions and often with limited access to free health services.

The aim of the project is to provide healthcare to pregnant women and newborns belonging to vulnerable population groups living in the Athens area, through the Open Polyclinic of Médecins du Monde. In addition, through the project, families in need are supported with baby care items and personal hygiene items for mothers, in the form of in-kind provision.