Mission Algeria

An unstable social environment, still very high unemployment and a lack of transparency in the use of oil resources make Algeria a fragile country where there are many inequalities. Despite the start of a programme aimed at containing the housing and infrastructure crisis amongst other things, many Algerians continue to live in harsh conditions. Problems withaccess to healthcare are real, especially for chronic diseases.

Constantine (El Gamas district) Community health project

Activities: The project involves assistance for two local organisations: the Constantine local committee of the Social Development Agency (ADS) and the El Gamas district residents' association. After consulting the local population and health workers and after an epidemiology survey, the demand that emerged was for asthma treatment, which had been neglected for essentially economic reasons.
The following happened in 2005:

• February 2005: an agreement was signed between MdM and the Algerian Republic's ADS in Constantine;
• June 2005: training on asthma was given to two local committee doctors in Grenoble;
• a spirograph was supplied to the district polyclinic;
• two health educators worked amongst the population;
• a booklet explaining asthma was produced;
• basic drugs for chronic asthma were bought and supplied;
• swimming pool sessions for asthmatic children were organised;
• in October 2005, a seminar on community health was organised in Constantine.

Outlook:
The project is going to run for two years and will only require follow-up work. This will allow us to focus our efforts in 3 directions:

• getting the health and political authorities to take full charge of treating chronic asthma to ensure the work continues;
• asthma prevention and housing improvements in the district;
• work with the Constantine health monitoring centre on harm prevention campaigns,campaigns against addiction to smoking and HIV/AIDS