Project HOPE

Health Affairs Journal

Project HOPE was established in 1958 to bring improved medical care to developing areas of the world. It is best known for its hospital ship SS HOPE which sailed around the world from 1960 to 1974.

In 1989, the Russian medical staff at Moscow Children's Hospital No. 9 expected children with burns on more than 30 percent of their bodies to die. Today, trained by Project HOPE in the latest burn treatment skills and basic infection control practices, they have reduced the mortality rate by 29 percent and are now saving children with burns on 65 percent of their bodies. In the past five years, over 8,000 children have been treated at the hospital's burn unit and more than 400 Russian medical professionals, from throughout the Russian Republic have received formal training. The burn unit has become the principal referral center for severely burned children from not only Russia but Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Far North, Siberia, and Central Asia. Since 1994 HOPE has also expanded its educational efforts at Children's Hospital No. 9 to include rehabilitation therapy to combat the effects of scarring so common to burn victims.

In 1995, the Dean of the Faculty of Basic Medicine at Moscow State University invited Project HOPE to assist in strengthening the medical school and facilitate medical education reforms. To date, Project HOPE has donated more than 11,000 volumes of modern medical textbooks. It has also recruited a voluntary faculty of approximately 20 physicians and allied health professionals presently working in Western medical facilities in Moscow. These volunteers have agreed to give lectures and/or act as preceptors for Moscow State students undertaking clinical training at these Western facilities. Another American volunteer is providing an English language course for the medical school students, to enable them to communicate on a professional level with their colleagues around the world. Within the Dean's Council itself, Project HOPE's Medical Education Advisor has initiated a series of discussions and seminars on developments in medical education, as well as an introductory management course. These activities will enhance the organization and management of the medical school as a whole. Project HOPE has signed an agreement with the Russian Ministry of Education to implement a substance abuse prevention program in Russian primary schools.

In Ukraine, Project HOPE has implemented a tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment program in Odessa, which has TB rates five times as high as the U.S. The goal is to identify and treat 400 TB patients in a year and demonstrate the effectiveness of new therapies.

In Georgia, Project HOPE offers maternal and child health consultancy services to the government.

Last updated:    June 1999

A print version of much of the information contained in this NIS Third Sector Organizations section can be found in the The Post-Soviet Handbook (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1999).

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