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World Bank Representatives visit Khmelnytsky OMNI-Center
Nataliya Zymak-Zakutnya, M.D.
Head of Khmelnytsky OMNI-Center
On July 3, 2006 in the frames of monitoring the grant winner projects of Ukrainian Social Investment Fund (USIF) Second Microproject Contest, the representatives of USIF and the World Bank, USIF co-funder, visited the Khmelnytsky OMNI-Center.
The Informational Consultative Center for families having children with birth defects and congenital pathology "Veselka" (ICC "Veselka") is being created in the Khmelnytsky OMNI-Center.
The group of visitors included representatives of the World Bank Menahem Prywes, Senior Economist, Human Development Department, East Europe and Central Asia Region (Washington DC), Katerina Rybalchenko, Consultant, Human Development Sector (Kyiv, Ukraine), and the representatives of USIF Natalia Shkuratova, Coordinator of Innovative Social Services (Kyiv, Ukraine), Svitlana Demchenko, Head of Development Department (Kyiv, Ukraine), Tetyana Derkach and Lesya Stanchak, Consultant-Coordinators of Innovative Social Services and Potential Development (Khmelnytsky, Ukraine), Viktor Hnylytsya, Technical Consultant, USIF regional office (Khmelnytsky, Ukraine).
Working meeting in the Khmelnytsky OMNI-Center
In the course of the meeting the guests were introduced to the basic directions of the newly created center activities. There was underlined that the idea of ICC creation logically and subsequently appeared in course of the implementation of BD monitoring according to international standards. Providing medical specialists and parents with up-to-date science based information on BD and congenital pathology, complex multidisciplinary support (by psychologist, social worker, developmental pediatrician, lawyer, information specialist) as well as spreading up-to-date information on BD prevention, such as folic acid fortification and measures on FAS prevention, is of extreme importance.
These problems acquire special significance in the light of the Chornobyl disaster.
The guests also acquainted with the articles of Prof. W. Wertelecki, Chair of the Medical Genetics Department of the University of South Alabama (USA), Head of the Supervisory Board of the International Children's OMNI-Net Not-For-Profit Organization, related to birth defects monitoring in Ukraine and found highest rates of neural tube defects in Chornobyl affected Polissya rayons.
The meeting participants
During the meeting the representatives of the World Bank and USIF were also introduced into the OMNI-Net activities regarding early intervention programs implementation and the "I.B.I.S. - International Birth Defects Information Systems" web-site which is an essential mother-and-child health resource.
The meeting participants discussed the main future ICC activities and wished the OMNI-Net to continue successful activities regarding social projects introduction in Ukraine.
Date of report: July 6, 2006
