FIRE’s community health programs promote and protect the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play. We focus on prevention, and promote wellness by encouraging healthy behaviors through screening and vaccination activities, educational and awareness campaigns, and connecting participants to care. In Mongolia, these programs include liver health, medical waste management and health safety training and supply distribution and oral health for children. In Nepal, FIRE’s medical mission trips utilize the compassion and expertise of experienced medical professionals for building bridges of cross-cultural understanding with remote communities. Each trip is carefully researched and prepared to assist communities where they need it most—in a responsible, sustainable and empowering way.

Since 2011, FIRE has worked with the Mongolian Ministry of Health, rural governments, health departments, and health care facilities, and local stakeholders in seven provinces, conducting comprehensive liver screening events for 8,526 people. Participants are tested for hepatitis B and C, vaccinated against hepatitis B as needed, screened for various cancers and liver issues including cirrhosis and fatty liver, examined and counseled by specialists, given an ultrasound and FibroScan examination, and are connected to treatment. This project prioritizes impoverished individuals living in rural communities without access to these services. 35% of participants are given some sort of positive diagnosis, giving them lifesaving time and information. This project is most often done in conjunction with training health care workers, community awareness activities, infection prevention and control activities, and advocacy meetings with the community.

FIRE has conducted training for rural health care providers across Mongolia in their local facilities since 2005. These trainings are currently conducted by visiting specialists from Ulaanbaatar and include multi-day classroom lessons and half-day hands-on “shadow training” sessions. Shadow training means that specialists from Ulaanbaatar work side by side with local doctors, teaching them techniques through a hands-on approach. Our efforts have proved the most successful when done in conjunction with our Viral Hepatitis and Liver Cancer Screening Project while visiting rural communities. The classroom training sessions followed by the hands-on shadow training allows health care workers to put the training into action under the supervision and further guidance. FIRE’s two training objectives include: Training Liver Specialists This training teaches local health care providers to assist their patients in making healthy lifestyle choices, to detect early stages of liver disease, and to treat liver disease. To supplement this training, FIRE has created educational material in conjunction with our program partners. These materials include toolkits complete with a hepatitis treatment manual created by the National Center for Communicable Disease, and the “Physician’s Guide for Hepatitis B” written by the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University. Health Safety and Medical Waste Management: To prevent the risk of disease transmission to health care workers and eventually to the general public, FIRE has developed a systematic training program for healthcare workers. Since 2009, in accordance with the National Strategy for Improving Health Care Waste Management in Mongolia, FIRE has supported every state health care facility in 10 out of 21 Mongolian provinces in improving their medical waste management and health safety practices. These improvements include training health care workers and providing on-site technical support and supply distribution. Training materials and supplies include instructional videos, posters, pamphlets, and necessary medical waste management tools including biohazard waste bags, sharp boxes and medical waste containers. Please visit our Infection, Control, and Prevention page for more information.

The health care environment is one of the leading forms of transmission for infections, including blood borne viruses such as hepatitis. Poor medical waste management and health safety practices are largely attributed to being the cause of this transmission. Since 2009, FIRE has conducted health safety training for health care workers along with with distribution of medical waste management supplies.

Our community development programs in Nepal focus on heritage programs and supporitng the most vulnerable members of the community with food, clothing and supplies.