2003 Press Releases

Project HOPE/USAID Turkmenistan TB Program Pilot Site Opened in Mary City

June 27, 2003

The Ministry of Health of Turkmenistan (MOH) and Project HOPE/USAID Turkmenistan launched a third Project HOPE TB Pilot Site in Mary city on May 21, 2003. Officials from the Health Ministry, Mary welayat health authorities and representatives from USAID, Project HOPE and other international partner organizations attended the opening ceremony, which took place at the Welayat TB Hospital.

Prior to the Pilot Site's opening, 21 TB doctors, 13 health administrators and five lab specialists were trained in Directly Observed Therapy Short Course (DOTS) Strategy. Project HOPE, with financial support from USAID, equipped a laboratory of the Mary TB hospital with a binocular microscope, lab supplies and reagents, lab furniture, and refrigerator. TB drugs for full treatment of 160 TB patients were delivered on-site. A learning center located within the TB Hospital was supplied with a computer, a printer and a copy machine.

Project HOPE/USAID started its activities in Turkmenistan by launching a first Pilot Site in Ashgabat in November 2000 and another one in Turkmenbashi City in August 2001. As of now, both sites are fully equipped by Project HOPE with binocular microscopes, incubators, centrifuges, refrigerators, medical supplies, lab reagents and computers. Project HOPE specialists have trained 675 healthcare providers and 34 healthcare administrators in Ashgabat and Turkmenbashi in DOTS strategy.

Project HOPE works in close co-operation with the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan (MOH) based on a Memorandum of Mutual Understanding and Cooperation, signed between the U.S. Government and the Government of Turkmenistan in 1993, and a Memorandum of Mutual Understanding signed between MOH and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2000.In Central Asia, Project HOPE implements DOTS for Tuberculosis, Mother and Child Healthcare/Reproductive Health and Child Survival programs.

Project HOPE is an international humanitarian, not-for-profit organization established in 1958, with headquarters located in Millwood, Virginia. The Project HOPE mission is based on the idea of "Helping People to Help Themselves" and "Health Opportunities for People Everywhere." The organization's primary focus is on providing long term health education, training and humanitarian assistance.