Health Horizons International Foundation
Health Horizons International Foundation

Health Horizons International Foundation

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Health Horizons International Foundation (HHIF) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve community health by strengthening primary care services in the Dominican Republic.

As the first Center of Excellence in Diabetes Care in the Dominican Republic, and impacting a universal number of almost 1.2 million people through our combined programs, we are the only organization in the country specialized in addressing noncommunicable diseases from the community health approach in vulnerable, underserved, rural communities.
https://hhidr.org/

About Health Horizons International Foundation

Our programs are based on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The target population consists of medically underserved individuals living in rural villages facing: Lack of access to quality medical care, gender disparities, structural violence , the strained class-ethnic relations, the inaccessibility to sustainable housing or primary education, the shortage of public services such as clean water and sanitation, institutionalized discrimination, migration gaps, unemployment, among other determining factors of the health under a changing profile that increases the burden of chronic diseases in people in socioeconomic vulnerability. Notoriously, the lack of proper nutrition, safe places to exercise, and community investment in health education, are the biggest barriers for individuals to live a healthy, happy and dignified life.

HHI’s model empowers young local leaders, strengthens primary health care quality, and is a bridge between health services, systems, and disadvantaged populations. By addressing the social determinants of health, including education, employment, access to clean water, lack of sanitation, sustainable housing, democratic participation, access to resources, and gender disparities, HHI strives to ensure that healthcare is an affordable, accessible, and universal human right for primarily low-income Dominicans and Haitian immigrants/their descendants in isolated communities.

Health Horizons International Foundation's work on NCDs

  • Demonstrated our malleability with a nationally-recognized program in partnership with the World Diabetes Foundation to strengthen and improve education, prevention, and integral management of Type 2 Diabetes and arterial hypertension in over 170 units of primary care under the country’s public health system.
  • Our programmatic activity ranges from the empowerment of health promoters to offer primary care services in the community, education and prevention, delivery of medications, referral to specialists, family medicine consultation, vaccination, gynecology, maternal and child health, pediatrics, to the formation of support groups for health education and prevention, the strengthening of primary care systems and services, and development projects related to the construction of water filters in remote communities, sanitation and hygiene projects , sustainable housing and home gardens.”
  • Launched the Sano y Feliz Program (Healthy and Happy Program), a community support group model for further and continuous education on incorporating health habits to decrease the risk of developing chronic diseases in people at risk.
  • Implemented the first pilot that provides integral support for people living with diabetes and HIV ensuring access, availability, and reachability of the target population to services and systems for prevention, education, and comprehensive management of NCDs and HIV/AIDS.

Address

CALLE EL SILENCIO #18
Puerto Plata, 57000
Dominican Republic

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