Central European Center for Health and the Environment : private volunteer organization-Newly Independent States (PVO-NIS) project -- final report

Faced with this challenge, the Central European Center for Health and the Environment (CECHE), a U.S. PVO, initiated in October, 1994 the Support of Indigenous HealthCare NGOs project, aimed at stimulating a health movement at the grassroots level in Russia as a necessary first step to public health policy reform. At the hub of the project were two Russian NGOs -- the Health and Environment Foundation (HEF) in Moscow and the Association of Physicians of the Don (ADP) in Azov. Over a 2-year period, with CECHE"s financial assistance, technical support, and training in the rudiments of survival, HEF and ADP strengthened their organizations, launched health promotion programs, cultivated the support of decisionmakers, developed media relations, and mobilized health care NGOs throughout Russia to form a cohesive network. A direct outcome of this effort is the creation of the Russian Public Health Association (ROZA), an association spanning half of Russia"s 89 oblasts and patterned after the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA). ROZA has assumed HEF"s and ADP"s agenda and leadership for public health education and policy reform -- measures that potentially affect some 120 million people throughout Russia. (Author abstract, modified)