A Sustainable & Independent Healthcare & Empowerment Solution

HEPTO CONCEPT NOTE
A SUSTAINABLE & INDEPENDENT HEALTHCARE & EMPOWERMENT SOLUTION.

PROGRAM FOCUS:
Healthcare Extension Promotion and Training Organization, Inc. (HEPTO) is a 501(C) 3 non-profit, non-political, and non-faith-based humanitarian organization. The Non-Profit Organizations are registered with the U.S. Federal law in the State of Minnesota. Our non-profit organization specializes in upgrading healthcare systems by training medical workers and promoting the implementation of new technology in hospitals and clinics.

A sustainable healthcare program that trains local doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff can improve public healthcare access significantly. It will help raise awareness and focus on developing hospitals and clinics with appropriate medical and surgical equipment that can help save thousands of lives.

Improvements in healthcare at the ground level will also cut down costs for government and private hospitals by preventing the spread of diseases and pandemics like cholera, malaria, seasonal diarrhea, the Ebola virus, and COVID-19 at their initial stages.

We train the general public in disease prevention methods such as hand washing, sanitation, waste disposal, and water filtration & boiling techniques.

We will also help them improve early access to diagnostic assessments through local clinics. We aim to train workers in the planning, implementing, and evaluating of healthcare services. Our primary focus is to help manage and mitigate the spread of emerging and re-emerging diseases. The project will also build a support infrastructure for chronic disease, mental health issues, surgical services, maternity complications, proper nutrition, and environmental influences.

PROBLEM:
In Africa, healthcare systems are primarily in unworkable conditions with inferior health outcomes. There have been several studies that have looked at the challenges facing the healthcare sector in the region. These studies found that the leading causes of healthcare problems are;

• INADEQUATE HUMAN RESOURCES FOR HEALTHCARE
• INADEQUATE BUDGETARY ALLOCATIONS TO HEALTHCARE
• POOR LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN HEALTHCARE

These three main problems account for most of the perceived issues in the healthcare sector in Africa.

Even if we looked at the healthcare sector from the larger perspective of the six WHO pillars of any healthcare system, the leading problems still need to be more leadership and governance, a local healthcare workforce, and obsolete health service delivery and financing methods.

LACK OF LOCAL MEDICINE PRODUCTION
Less than 2% of overall medical drugs consumed in the region are produced on the continent. This limits health access for many sick patients who cannot afford to buy imported medicine.

More than 50% of children worldwide that die due to pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria are in Africa. This is largely due to the lack of local healthcare workers, equipment, and medicine.

Many remote patients seeking medical attention are told that they cannot get medicine at local clinics and hospitals. They are told to go to a handful of big hospitals in urban centers, which is an expensive endeavor that most people need help affording.

LACK OF MEDICAL EDUCATION
Lack of medical knowledge and understanding is a significant cause of a higher mortality rate. There is a shortage of doctors and other paramedical staff in all fields of medicine throughout Africa. As a result, millions of patients die due to preventable diseases and injuries
unnecessarily.

In many parts of the country, nurses give pain-relief medication to patients as a ‘treat-all drug’. Pain is only a symptom of a disease, and the underlying medical condition could be entirely different. The medicine suppresses and even hides the condition for a while until it returns in a
much worse condition beyond treatment.

INSUFFICIENT HEALTHCARE WORKERS
The need for more trained medical staff is the biggest challenge in the health sector. This is both evident and difficult to address, reflecting this problem’s complexity.

Healthcare education centers in Africa need more government funding to incentivize enough people to take up this profession. There is also a lot of brain drain to Europe, America, and Asia as qualified medical doctors prefer to move abroad for a better salary and life. Government policy and funding have not been enough to convince qualified professionals to take up practice in their region.

The doctors and healthcare workers that do stay in the country often feel neglected and sidelined in favor of other expenditures. The average salary for local healthcare workers is quite low, leading to strikes. Most medical professionals prefer to open their own private practice instead of working at public hospitals. Private clinics charge a very high fee, limiting medical attention only to the rich.

LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURE
Different regional governments usually need more funds to dedicate to the healthcare sector. Medical facilities are not considered a top priority. This is why the healthcare infrastructure is very outdated and relies on decades’ old technology. The number of new hospitals built in the
country is quite low.

Generally, two types of facilities are used to provide medical care: dispensaries and health centers. Dispensaries are small clinics that provide essential consultations, diagnostic services, treatment for routine conditions, and referrals for more advanced treatments. Health centers offer
these services as well as certain more advanced surgeries and medical care. Africa has a shortage of both types of facilities, making it very difficult for people, especially mothers and children, to access primary care conveniently. Furthermore, the effectiveness of these facilities is compromised by significant shortages of medical supplies and skilled staff, frequent power outages, and a lack of clean water.

The equipment, machinery, and medical kits available in both types of health facilities are also much lower in quality than internationally recommended standards.

PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT:

In East Africa, multi-dimensional political unrest, a lack of knowledge, a poor economy, and prolonged droughts have all contributed to the current worsening of environmental conditions and their implications for public health.

The present situation regarding public and environmental health, arising from the inadequate water supply, lack of waste management, poor sanitation, and unhygienic living conditions, appears applicable across East Africa.

Given that the public health problems in East-Africa are mainly infectious diseases due to insufficient disease management and control, poor sanitation, and lack of hygienic living conditions, there is an urgent need for immediate and effective interventions to scale up, contain
and control some of the health problems, and to introduce new initiatives, policies, and guidance for better water supply and waste management and control systems in urban and rural areas.

HEPTO will intervene immediately about this issue by reaching out to all stakeholders to tackle these environmental destructions. Hepto will educate and orient the communities with a clear message and language they can understand. There is no middleman between HEPTO and the
communities it serves, no loopholes, and no corruption; therefore, its interventions will reach targeted communities without delay or interruptions.
One of our fundamental roles is to direct and coordinate healthcare education and training by promoting collaboration, mobilizing partnerships, and stimulating the efforts of different actors to respond to the need for healthcare education.

WOMEN’S HEALTH:

Mothers and infants face an astonishing rate of death due to a lack of accessibility to regular and emergency obstetric care and pregnancy complications such as hemorrhage, gestational diabetes, eclampsia, and infection. Lack of Accessibility and affordability of attention during the
childbearing period leads to fetal mortality, stillbirth, low-birth weight, and premature births. Hepto will intervene in these problems through education and training for women’s healthcare workers in our communities. We clearly emphasize the root of the issues and demonstrate the
long-lasting solution to the significant problems. Hepto will support safe delivery, including access to emergency obstetric care, especially for high-risk pregnancy patients. Hepto will introduce profound health programs encompassing all women’s health issues to underrepresented
communities in East Africa.

MENTAL HEALTH:

Physical scars tell stories and mental health patients in Africa face difficulties on daily bases. Mental health conditions in Africa are deteriorating at a shocking rate. Governments have abandoned, aid communities forgotten, and societies neglected and abused many of those sufferings. Places where there is war, drought, or famine are the most vulnerable and suffer the most. Some have suffered trauma leading to illness. Others were born with mental disabilities. In countries where infrastructure has collapsed and mental health professionals have fled, treatment is often the same—a life in chains. HEPTO gives great concern for mental health by training mental health workers, informing the administration of the importance of mental patient care, and strengthening public outreach.

CHILD PROTECTION AND YOUTH EMPOWERMENT:

Homeless children in East Africa, like in other parts of the world, face a myriad of problems,
including:

• Narcotics and drug abuse, alcohol and khat; they become glue suckers, inhaling drugs in their noses to escape the responsibilities of life.
• Child labor: because they have to find some form of livelihood, they do heavy labor on the streets from morning till evening. It is the universal right of every child to be protected from abuse and neglect.
• Poor health: because of the environment in which they live and their struggle to get food, they are predisposed to bad health, making them develop sickness from time to time.
• Exposure to sexual abuse
• Exposure to terrorist activities.

HEPTO INTERVENTION MECHANISM

1. HEPTO will seek to work with community-based organizations in East Africa to offer
   free medical outreaches in parts of the country and support local medical health centers
   with medical supplies and equipment.
2. Develop a continuing intervention program with the government to ensure sociopsychological support for homeless children, providing community outreach programs for children.
3. To start a social service program in East Africa that addresses rural healthcare issues and access to clean and hygienic water, empowering women and young people with new approaches for vulnerable children, such as supporting families to reduce poverty and keep children off the streets.
4. With the help of facilitators, offer non-formal training to homeless children to gain skills in tailoring, mechanics, medical assistants, doulas for young females (birthing coach/labor assistant), driving, agribusiness, or setting up small retail businesses.
5. Offer affordable transitional and emergency shelter programs to rid children off the streets and create safe and conducive shelters where children can live happily.

PROGRAM ACTIVITIES:

• Establishing a robust operational chain of command.
• Program to support and assist the health sector in clean water supply, personal hygiene, and environmental sanitation.
• Training of healthcare providers native to communities, they will.
• Programs for public economic development and education.
• Partnerships with local community leaders to promote the development of trade opportunities among neighboring villages.
• Assistance for children, women, the disabled, and elders.
• Community training and the provision of equipment and supplies.
• Partner programs for establishing clinics and healthcare providers.
• Project Management.

DELIVERY METHOD: