Mozambique: Mozambique Mobile Clinic Project
A New Model: RMF Partners Directly with the Ministry of Health: June 2016
July 29, 2016
Background
Reaching Underserved and Remote Communities
In 2008, RMF designed the first-ever Mobile Clinic for Mozambique, with financial support from Medical Mission International, in partnership with the Zambézia Provincial Directorate of Health (DPS), and with Vanderbilt University’s Friends in Global Health (FGH) as Implementing Partner. This Mobile Health Clinic is particularly valuable in reaching underserved and/or remote communities because it provides a versatile, flexible platform for primary healthcare services, education, and counseling. Since 2008, RMF’s Mobile Clinic has been providing extensive services in some of the most remote areas in Zambézia Province. In subsequent years, based on the success and impact of this first Mobile Health Clinic, numerous other mobile clinics were built, providing a network of mobile outreach for some of the most remote areas of Mozambique.Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD, Chief Manager, Friends in Global Health, LLC, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Global Health of Vanderbilt University, says:
The Mobile Clinic has been a ground-breaking innovation for Mozambique. We are very grateful for our partnership and we are proud to note that the RMF investment served as a pilot for the nationwide expansion of mobile units in one of the world’s least capacitated nations. We thank you, your staff and your donors most sincerely.
Progress
A New Model
In June 2016, as a new RMF model to work directly with the Ministry of Health as Implementing Partner, RMF’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Martina Fuchs, handed this first Mobile Clinic over to Dr. Hidayat Kassim, Head of the Provincial Directorate of Health, Provincial Government of Zambézia. RMF will continue to support operations of the Mobile Clinic as it now supplements government health services in Zambézia, the most populous province of Mozambique.Photos of RMF Mobile Clinic being handed over in June 2016
Dr. Hidayat Kassim signs paperwork to accept the Mobile Clinic from RMF.
RMF Founder and CEO, Dr. Martina Fuchs, inspects the Mobile Clinic with government officials.
Joyful handover of the Mobile Clinic
Dr. Hidayat Kassim tries out the driver’s seat. Background
RMF’s Mobile Clinic in Mozambique is a new model of healthcare provision for our organization, conceptualized to reach remote and rural communities with no prior access to health care. Since its inception in 2008, our Mobile Clinic has been hugely successful and remains the only mobile clinic in all of Mozambique. The clinic, a collaboration between RMF, Vanderbilt University’s Friends in Global Health, and Medical Mission International, is currently deployed in one of the most populous provinces of Mozambique, Zambézia Province, located in the central coastal region with a population of almost 4 million.
Objectives
- To improve the quality of life and provide access to health services, particularly access to maternal-child healthcare and anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for people living with HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and other diseases.
- To provide access to healthcare in remote areas of Zambézia Province, Mozambique.
- To reinforce the expansion of HIV care and treatment services initiated by the Zambézia Provincial Health Directorate (DPS), by providing temporary reinforcement in terms of staff, training, and space for peripheral health units initiating implementation of ART until such time as the DPS can organize the infrastructure and resources necessary for these sites to function independently.
Mozambique Mobile Clinic Project
Country Page: Mozambique
Initiative Page: Mozambique Mobile Clinic Project
