Donations Rev Up Communications for Health Care Advocates
Some of the greatest challenges in the Romanian health care system are drug shortages. From ordinary painkillers to lifesaving drugs for HIV/AIDS, cancer, hepatitis, and tuberculosis, and even morphine to ease the pain of the dying, drugs are frequently out of stock across Romania.
Romanian Angel Appeal has been fighting with the medical system for more than 20 years to help people in need: unemployed women, children with autism and their parents, TB patients, drug addicts, and people with HIV. Today, the organization helps more than 40,000 individuals — the population of a medium-sized Romanian town.
The organization's latest project, www.lipsatratament.ro (Romanian for "lack of treatment"), is an online tool that allows medical professionals, NGOs, and patients to report when their prescribed treatments are unavailable. This is the first centralized, transparent, and freely available system for monitoring treatment availability in Romania. This project was one of the winners in the ReStart Romania Challenge in 2012.
But Romanian Angel Appeal develops many other national projects of social inclusion for women, people with autism, and children with HIV/AIDS. Cristina Enache, regional coordinator at Romanian Angel Appeal, says technology plays a vital role in the organization. The Microsoft donated software received with the help of TechSoup Romania enabled the organization to build its server network. "The technology is essential because in almost all the projects — which are really complex in terms of budget and their national coverage — you need a lot of information for these projects and for the reporting activity that follows," says Enache. Completing an internal network and server setup has helped the staff communicate and have access to information throughout the team.
