Project HOPE delivers $21 Million in Medicines to Impoverished Communities in Tajikistan

International humanitarian aid organization airlifts medicines to hospitals struggling to care for critically ill

Communities struggling to survive life threatening illnesses like heart disease and influenza in Tajikistan are receiving $21 million in medicines from Project HOPE, an international humanitarian aid and health education organization.

The donated medicines were airlifted to the former Soviet republic in cargo planes chartered by the U.S. Department of State.  The medicines were distributed in an official ceremony in Kurgan Tube involving Project HOPE and officials from the U.S. Department of State, including the U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan, Ken Gross, and the U.S. Director of Humanitarian Programs in Europe and Eurasia, Gerald Oberndorfer.

Medical facilities receiving the aid will undergo a strict monitoring process conducted by Project HOPE to ensure that the medicines are received by the patients who need them most.

Since 2002, Project HOPE has worked to coordinate, select, deliver and monitor over $260 million in donated medical supplies to Tajikistan.  All transportation costs have been funded by the U.S. Department of State.  International pharmaceutical companies donating medicines in the latest airlift include GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. The airlift of medicines will combat illnesses including the influenza virus, heart disease and skin infections.

“Project HOPE is committed to working together with the Ministry of Health in Tajikistan to provide free medicine and help those struggling with illness and poverty. It’s essential that we continue vital health education programs to build stronger, healthier families here and throughout the region,”said Colin Credle, regional manager of humanitarian aid for Project HOPE in Central Asia.

Project HOPE has been addressing the medical needs of communities in Central Asian republics since the fall of the Soviet Union.  In 2002, Project HOPE led a group of international NGOs to implement health education programs in Tajikistan and other Central Asian republics in a large-scale maternal, child and reproductive health initiative.  It continued to focus on women and children’s health in 2007 with the introduction of health education programs which promoted breastfeeding and family planning/reproductive health.  Project HOPE has made tuberculosis prevention and treatment among at-risk populations in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan a top priority by reaching out to communities most at-risk of TB and HIV, by providing medical treatment and health education.

About Project HOPE
Over the past five decades, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) has developed and instituted long-term solutions to pressing health problems in 123 countries; distributed nearly $2 billion in medicines, supplies and equipment and trained thousands of health care workers and mobilized communities for better health.  Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now conducts land-based medical training and health education programs across five continents.