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Kosovo is the backdrop of a centuries-old tension which erupted into violent conflict in the mid-1990s. To end the escalating crisis and a campaign of ethnic cleansing NATO led air strikes in 1999 against targets in Kosovo. Roughly one-third the size of Belgium, Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations out of the capital Prishtina since the war. On February 17, 2008, Kosovo’s parliament declared independence from Serbia.
During the war and in its immediate aftermath (1999 and 2001), AmeriCares delivered 19 shipments of medical and humanitarian assistance to the people of Kosovo. In all, we have provided over $14 million in relief for survivors of the war and post-conflict reconstruction efforts.
Read More About Kosovo:
Global Medical Assistance Programs
Healthy Newborns in Post-Conflict Kosovo
AmeriCares remains committed to post-war reconstruction of Kosovo's health care system. In 2006, we began providing medical commodity assistance to improve mother and child health at the Prishtina University Hospital Center. This hospital, consisting of 3,000 beds and 18 clinical departments, is the only tertiary care center in the region and serves a catchment population of roughly 2 million inhabitants. Joined in partnership, AmeriCares, Dartmouth Medical School, Abbott, USAID, Weber and Company, and the University Hospital Center comprise the Kosovo-Dartmouth Global Alliance for Healthy Newborns.
Specifically, the Healthy Newborns program aims to assist mothers in delivering healthy babies, while concurrently preparing obstetric and gynecologic staff for all facets of perinatal care, which spans the period of 5 months prior to birth and one month following. The results to date have been dramatic. Infant mortality rates in some weight profiles have dropped by 50%.
The Power of Partnership
Each partner organization brings a complementary set of resources to the program. As the lead institution, Dartmouth implements the program, has designed the curriculum and provides medical professionals for the training program. AmeriCares has helped develop resources for surgical and inpatient care with contributions of x-ray equipment, anesthetics, analgesics, syringes, gloves and surgical supplies including sutures, bandages and iodine. To treat respiratory distress, long-time AmeriCares donor Abbott has funded the procurement of four CPAP machines to provide Continuous Positive Airway Pressure and an eighteen-month supply of their surfactant replacement therapy, SurvantaÒ.
Help AmeriCares save lives in Kosovo and around the world »
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