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MOZAMBIQUE

Partners for Pediatric Progress established its first partnership in 2008 in in the capital city of Maputo, Mozambique. Since then we have been working closely with our friends and colleagues at the country’s main medical school, the Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, and its adjacent 1500 bed teaching hospital, the Hospital Central de Maputo.

“When we started our activities in Mozambique, there were only 10 pediatricians and no pediatric surgeons in a nation where 52 percent of the population is children - that's over 10 million children in the hands of only 10 pediatricians!” -Lee Todd Miller, MD

We’re proud to have an In-Country Program Director, Dr. Chris Buck, overseeing all of the activities of Partners for Pediatric Progress in Mozambique.

Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest countries and is thus a country of greatest need. It ranks 180 out of the 188 countries on the United Nations Development Programme’s 2018 Human Development Index.  Nearly 61% of the population lives below the income poverty line of US $1.25 per day. However, income poverty alone only tells part of the story as many individuals living near or above the poverty line suffer deprivations in health, education, and living standards, bringing the true percentage of people living in the conditions of poverty to over 70%. Of these deprivations, lack of resources in the health system plays a significant factor contributing to overall poverty and has an overwhelmingly important impact on children who are the very foundation and future of the country.

 
 
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Through close collaboration with our colleagues at the Eduardo Mondlane School of Medicine and the Pediatric Department at the Hospital Central de Maputo, we implemented our capacity-building program to train the local healthcare workforce. 

As of 2019, there are now 90 Mozambican pediatricians.

Of particular note, our faculty contributed to the training of the first pediatric surgeon in the country, and now there are four trained pediatric surgeons.

the needs in Mozambique are immense

With approximately 13 million citizens under the age of 15 (46% of the entire population) and extremely high neonatal and childhood morbidity and mortality rates. When Partners for Pediatric Progress started its activities in the country, there were only 10 pediatricians and no pediatric surgeons. Through close collaboration with our colleagues at the Eduardo Mondlane School of Medicine and the Pediatric Department at the Hospital Central de Maputo, we implemented our capacity-building program to train the local healthcare workforce. As of 2019, there are now 90 Mozambican pediatricians. Of particular note, our faculty contributed to the training of the only four pediatric surgeons in the country.


As of 2017, Partners for Pediatric Progress has extended support to additional post-graduate training programs in Mozambique in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. We now also support Pediatric residencies at Hospital Central de Beira in the central region of the country and Hospital Central de Nampula in the northern region of the country. This support is key to help improve the skewed distribution of pediatric specialists in the southern capital, Maputo. We also now support a Family Medicine residency program at Hospital Geral Polana Canico in Maputo.

We could not be grateful enough for the partnership and support that we have received for our work in Mozambique from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the Mozambique Ministry of Natural Resources.

Some of the past Partners for Pediatric Progress’ projects in Mozambique have included:

  • Training and support of care in various HCM wards including the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, general pediatric wards, and the pediatric HIV clinic

  • Support of the graduate medical education program for Mozambican Pediatric residents in Maputo, Beira, and Nampula

  • Hospital Infection Control Project to decrease the risk of hospital-acquired infections.

  • Ongoing training and support of pediatric surgical and pediatric surgical subspecialty programs.

  • Technical assistance to the Mozambique Ministry of Health in the areas of pediatric HIV, TB, and drug-resistant TB

 

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