ICEHA in the News

National Medal of Honor Awarded by Vietnamese Government

Hanoi, Vietnam - 5 June 2007 - Dr. Marie Charles, Chair & CEO of The International Centre for Equal Healthcare Access (ICEHA), received the National Medal of Honor from the Vietnamese government for her global leadership in sustainable healthcare development in emerging nations and specifically her organization’s enormous impact on the Vietnamese healthcare system.

ICEHA (ICEHA.org) has been working in Vietnam since 2002 at the invitation of the Vietnamese government. Prior to any other international aid organizations understanding that developing countries are in dire need of trained healthcare workers, and as the now global leader in clinical skills rapid transfer to emerging nations, ICEHA decided to tap into the abundance of medical expertise in the West and make it available on a pro bono basis to the developing countries.

“I cannot tell you how many Vietnamese lives ICEHA volunteers have saved. We are so grateful for the clinical mentors you have sent to Vietnam,” says Dr. Peter Vu Ngoc Son who as a Program Officer for Family Health International is assisting his government with making AIDS care available in his country.

Drawing on its pool of > 550 of the most highly qualified infectious disease medical professionals in the world, ICEHA deployed into 11 countries within just 3 years of commencing operations and is now transferring over 6,000 aggregate man years of the highest level professional medical expertise to emerging nations on three continents. This international charity works by recruiting HIV specialist medics from all over the world to work with local medics. Some of the world’s top HIV/AIDS experts work for free for Marie.

“I recently went back to visit the clinics I mentored in Lesotho. Patients were chasing me down in the streets, coming to my door and approaching me at church to show me how well they were doing. I didn't recognize most of them except for their eyes because their bodies had regenerated into another (healthier) form! When I was there as a mentor at the start of treatment, most of what I saw was tragic. I was so blessed to go back and be able to see the positive results of all the work,” comments Julie Ahlrich a nurse practitioner and former ICEHA Clinical Mentor.

A serial social entrepreneur, Marie has worked on some of the toughest AIDS programmes in the world. She started her charity at a time when the attention of the world was merely focused on drug costs and dollar amounts as the solution to the AIDS epidemic, ignoring the vast lack of healthcare delivery systems with millions of people dying as a result. “Our job is to give developing countries access to some of the most invaluable yet unutilized resources available in the west (medical expertise) so that they do not have to rely indefinitely on donor help, but instead can run their own systems, providing healthcare to their own populations, not needing the constant presence of foreign medics,” says Marie. “Ultimately ICEHA’s goal is to put itself out of business, having created access to care for millions when none existed prior. It looks like that’s exactly what we are doing in all the settings we have worked, although much more remains to be done for now.”

In presence of the Chairman, the prime minister of Vietnam, the minister of Health and the minister of education, Dr. Charles received the National Medal of Honor at the opening ceremony of the National Assembly meeting on 5 June in Hanoi.

ICEHA’s work with the Government of Vietnam and the Highland Education Development Organization (HEDO) has brought new HIV/AIDS expertise to the public healthcare system. Over the past 5 years, ICEHA has conducted HIV training programs for over 700 Vietnamese physicians. The training was held in Langson, Lao Cai, Ninh Binh, Bac Giang, and Hoa Binh provinces. In addition, ICEHA clinical mentors provided hands-on clinical mentoring to an additional 125 healthcare workers in nine clinics for more than 90 weeks. As a direct result of ICEHA’s work the attitudes of healthcare providers towards HIV infected patients have changed radically and HIV care is being provided.

“ICEHA’s training program taught us – infectious diseases doctors - not to be afraid any longer of our HIV-infected patients! You have given us the tools that we can apply to our clinics tomorrow, even if we may not yet have the antiretroviral medication available,” says Dr. Nguyen Van Ngoc, M.D., Vice-Director, Hoa Binh Provincial Hospital, Vietnam.

Prevention messages are being delivered to the public, the incidence of unsafe medical practices has decreased, and HIV care and treatment have been greatly enhanced. This program has been highlighted extensively in local and international media.

As the world’s leading fourth generation NGO (4NGO), ICEHA also uses a unique empowerment-sustainability funding model, whereby Western funding catalyzes a 300% matched funding by the recipient developing countries themselves.

The ceremony was broadcast on national Vietnamese TV.

Left to Right: Mr. Nguyen Minh Triet, President of Vietnam; Dr. Marie Charles, Chair and CEO of ICEHA; and Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan, Minister of Education of Vietnam