World Vision Romania

012167 Bucharest
7th Rotasului Street, District 1
Telephone: +40 21 222 91 01
Fax: +40 21 224 29 72
Email: rom_office@wvi.org
www.worldvision.ro

Dr. Cornelia Paraschiv (Scarlatescu) - Project Manager

Email: cornelia_paraschiv@wvi.org
Mothers for life. Life for mothers.

Merck Sharp and Dohme Romania SRL*

Bucharest Business Park, Building C, 3rd floor
Bucuresti-Ploiesti Drive, no 1A, District 1, Bucharest
Telephone: +40 21 529 29 00
Fax: +40 21 318 52 37
www.msd.ro

Gabriela Trifon - Communications & CSR Manager

Email: gabriela.trifon@merck.com

*Subsidiary of Merck&Co., Inc, Whitehouse Station, N.J. S.U.A. Our objective: No mother should die giving birth
 PROJECT

Mothers for life. Life for mothers.

Project goal:
“Safe Womenhood: An integrated model to improve reproductive and maternal healthcare services in rural
Romania” project goal is to pair public driven healthcare services for women, by implementing an integrated
model of family planning services and maternal care in the most exposed to poverty rural communities in
Romania.

The project aims to improve the quality of maternal healthcare services and increase women's access and
adoption of family planning methods through an integrated, patient oriented program.

The project will pilot a set of evidence - based, innovative interventions targeting 15,000 fertile women in
vulnerable communities by addressing the lack of services adapted to women' needs in rural Romania.

Although maternal deaths in Romania have decreased since abortion liberalization, in the early 1990s, significant
challenges still need to be addressed, as the maternal mortality rate in Romania is more than double compared
to the European Union- 27 average.
The project aims to
(1) facilitate access to family planning and maternal care services
(2) strengthen healthcare professionals' technical capacity
(3) empower local authorities and central authorities in order to reduce maternal mortality in the most
vulnerable rural communities, while reducing the unmet need for family planning services.

Preventing unintended pregnancies and supporting access to quality maternal services for the desired
pregnancies represent essential interventions in order to reduce avoidable maternal mortality cases.

At the same time, the project will increase the delivery of integrated maternal health services and family planning
through awareness and education, facilitate interaction with medical staff and innovative usage of mobile phone
technology.

Target group

15,000 vulnerable women from rural areas, 15-40 years old, from 30 communities , three counties – Dolj,
Valcea and Vaslui

225 healthcare providers (family doctors, nurses, community nurses, mid-wives) from rural areas

Local authorities from the three counties (30 communities)

 Mothers for life. Life for mothers.
Activities:

Ÿ 1.Perform a formative research study in the project area aiming to identify barriers met by women aged 15-
40 in accessing family planning and maternal care services, using a standard barrier analysis methodology.The
study will be carried out in a representative sample of 30 project communities. From all identified barriers,
Project objectives: those that can be addressed through training of health services providers will constitute the basis for the
development of the project training program.

Objective 1. Increase competencies and knowledge base for the healthcare professionals from targeted rural Ÿ 2. Develop a training program for medical staff through an online platform based on the results of the study.
communities by development and delivery of three e-learning courses delivered via an online platform, The proposed e-learning courses included in the training program are: Effective communication with women
leveraging the existing digital infrastructure. from vulnerable groups; Stigma and discrimination – how to overcome while providing health services; and
Understanding the needs of mothers from vulnerable groups will be certified for doctors and nurses.

Objective 2. Increase target group's access to integrated family planning and maternal care services through
deployment of awareness and education sessions, interaction with trained community educators, along with Ÿ 3. Organize round table discussions at county level to analyze study results and present the training program
usage of innovative internet and mobile technology.

Ÿ 4. Organize workshops for healthcare professionals who completed e-learning courses, in order to reflect on
Objective 3. Strengthen local and central authorities' capacity to provide health services adapted to vulnerable training material effectiveness and identify potential need for adjustment, sharing best practices and lessons
women needs. learned, through this participatory and collaborative approach.
Ÿ 5. Train 60 community educators and provide them with educational kit designed to be used within
informative sessions attended by rural low educational status vulnerable women.The community educators
will initiate behavioral change campaigns through information and mediation of access of rural women to
medical care during pregnancy as respect of their rights.

Ÿ 6. Increase access to Prenatal and Family Planning services for rural women through two web based
applications for mobile phones:
Ÿ
Ÿ one application for family planning assistance , aiming to leverage correct use of contraceptive methods
helping individual women to practice fertility control
Ÿ
Ÿ one application for pre-natal care and delivery preparation by automatically reminding mothers the
scheduled medical visits and providing them with recommendations for delivery preparation. The
application will be accessed by pregnant women during the first visit to the family doctor office, where
the online platform is available
Ÿ
Ÿ
Ÿ 7. Facilitate access of vulnerable pregnant women to the closest medical facility, providing pre and post natal
care. Financial support for accessing obstetrical care during pregnancy (transportation).

Ÿ 8. Informative activities for local and central authorities. Elaboration of a sustainable plan of action for each
district, implemented and monitored in partnership with local authorities.
About WorldVision Romania

World Vision Romania is part of the World Vision International Partnership, active in more than 100 countries
worldwide. World Vision Romania is a Christian foundation which implements emergency humanitarian aid
interventions, along with advocacy and development programs, focusing in the children well being. The
foundation works with children, families and local communities in order to overpass poverty and injustice.
Inspired by Christian values the foundation works with most vulnerable persons, regardless their religion, race,
ethnicity and gender. During 27 years of work in Romania, the Foundation supported over 500.000 children and
adults within 400 communities from 8 counties.

About the project MSD for Mothers

MSD for Mothers (project known as Merck for Mothers in USA and Canada) is a 10 years initiative that
implements the scientific and business expertise of MSD, using the financial resources of the company and its
experience in approaching worldwide medical challenges, to decrease maternal mortality worldwide.

MSD for Mothers provides sustainable solutions to increase the quality of maternal and reproductive
healthcare services.The efforts of this project contributed to increasing the quality of FP and antenatal services
to over 4.8 million women within 30 countries. For more information, please access:
www.merckformothers.com