HOPE COVID-19

HOPE Vaccination

HOPE Mental Health

about it

Learn about Project HOPE

The Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian aid organization founded in 1958 that empowers health professionals facing the world’s greatest crises to build resilient communities and a healthier, more equitable world.

For over 60 years, Project HOPE has transformed the health and well-being of people and communities around the globe. Its work takes place on the front lines of global health challenges,in partnership with communities, health workers, and public-health systems, to ensure sustainable change.

Project HOPE trains health professionals confronting the most severe health emergencies to strengthen local capacity and promote equitable access to care. Whether it’s training midwives in Sierra Leone, equipping hospitals in Indonesia, or restocking clinics devastated by disasters, Project HOPE puts power in the hands of local health workers so they can save lives.

The organization also champions long-term solutions that transform lives and communities: ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths; eliminating HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis; strengthening health systems to withstand disasters; and advocating for policies that improve health outcomes.

When did the partnership begin?

To reinforce Project HOPE’s efforts, ProEpi, sharing a similar mission, partnered with Project HOPE and the Health Situation Room at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Brasília, in 2020. This collaboration focused on building the capacity of health professionals to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a special emphasis on vaccination strategies.

In 2021, ProEpi and Project HOPE extended their joint work to address the pandemic’s impact on the mental health of Brazil’s frontline health professionals. Facilitated by Project HOPE’s Washington, D.C. office, this initiative aimed to ensure everyone, including health workers, has access to quality mental-health care. In the state of Sergipe, Project HOPE’s project coordinator, Liudmila Miyar, worked alongside Brazilian health professionals to deliver mental-health training, reaching participants across multiple Brazilian states as well as in Latin America and Africa.

In 2021

Learn More about the Project HOPE – COVID-19

“COVID-19 Preparedness and Response” is a global training program for health workers developed by Project HOPE, Brown University, and the Watson Institute’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies (CHR&HS) at Brown University. Together, they created a COVID-19 training curriculum for frontline health personnel responding to the growing pandemic, later rolled out in Brazil by ProEpi and other national partners. Supported by the local Ministry of Health and key stakeholders, this program equipped participants with the critical skills and knowledge needed for a fast, effective response to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in their workplaces and communities while safeguarding their own health. The training comprised eight modules:

  1. Background
  2. Infection Prevention & Control
  3. Surveillance
  4. Contact Tracing & Screening
  5. Diagnosis & Treatment
  6. Stabilization & Resuscitation
  7. Operationalization & Outbreak Response Capacity Building
  8. Risk Communication & Message Development

What Did We Achieve?

Training Period: Two cycles held between September 9 and November 27, 2021.

CYCLE I: September 16–18, 2021 (150 participants)

CYCLE II: October 25–26, 2021 (26 participants)

We reached 455 total registrations across the cycles, with 176 active online participants on our streaming platforms, 57 of whom qualified as replicators.

This training was highly relevant, given the persistent uncertainty surrounding the pandemic’s spread. A large portion of our audience came from public institutions, health departments, and municipal governments, as well as university-affiliated academics.

This online format allowed us to extend our reach significantly. All sessions were streamed on our YouTube channel and remain available to anyone interested in the topic.

In 2021

Learn More about the Project HOPE – Vaccination

The HOPE Vaccination Cycle is an interactive virtual program designed to train frontline health professionals combating COVID-19, grounded in scientific evidence, and aimed at fostering a culture of best practices around vaccination in the context of the pandemic. Developed by Project HOPE, with dissemination support in Brazil by ProEpi, this training is delivered on the front lines of global health challenges, in partnership with communities, health workers, and public-health systems to ensure sustainable impact. The curriculum includes three modules:

  1. COVID-19 Vaccines
  2. Communication on COVID-19 Vaccination & Vaccine Hesitancy
  3. Access & Prioritization of COVID-19 Vaccines

What Did We Achieve?

Training Period: Three cycles held from September 9 to November 27, 2021.

Cycle I: September 9–11, 2021 (70 participants)

Cycle II: October 9–16, 2021 (84 participants)

Cycle III: November 20–27, 2021 (27 participants)

We reached 395 total registrations across the cycles, with 181 active online participants on our streaming platforms, 35 of whom qualified as replicators.

The majority were nursing professionals, significant since they led the immunization process. We also valued participation from all professionals, as they would encounter vaccinated individuals in their work and gain better insight into the impact and importance of this measure in monitoring, effectiveness, and outcomes, especially with a new vaccine rolled out during such a sensitive period.

During 2021 and 2022

Learn more about the Mental Health Project

To address the mental-health impact of COVID-19, Project HOPE and ProEpi implemented mental-health and resilience training for Brazil’s frontline health professionals. This program aimed to equip participants to share what they learned with colleagues in their communities and workplaces.

Originally piloted in the Dominican Republic and Indonesia with support from the Abbott Fund, the training has since expanded across five continents,reaching some of the world’s most vulnerable countries and communities, thanks to generous support from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and the Medtronic Foundation.

The training modules were translated and adapted to local contexts and are based on the Healing, Education, Resilience & Opportunity for New York’s Frontline Workers (HERO-NY) instructor series developed by NYC Health + Hospitals in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense. The curriculum included five sessions:

  1. Stress, Trauma and Resilience
  2. Personal and Professional Well-Being
  3. Impact, Effect and Outcomes for Frontline Workers
  4. Seeking Help for Ourselves and Others
  5. Developing Resilience and Well-Being Programs

Delivered both in person and online, the trainings provide health professionals with stress-management and coping tools for self-care. Together, participants openly discuss burnout, exhaustion and compassion fatigue, an important step in reducing stigma and normalizing support systems that are often overlooked in clinical settings.

What Did We Achieve?

In 2021 and 2022, we trained over 1,005 professionals between August 2021 and February 2022. We conducted 12 training cycles to prepare professionals as multipliers focused on mental-health content, resulting in more than 2,000 registrations. Those who became multipliers went on to independently run over 10 additional cycles, reaching more than 380 health professionals in their communities and workplaces.

In December 2021, ProEpi welcomed three Project HOPE visitors to our Brasília office: Andrea Dunne-Sosa, Regional Director for North and South America and the Caribbean; Teresa Narváez, National Director for the Dominican Republic; and Project HOPE Project Coordinator Liudmila Miyar.

During the visit, ProEpi conducted an in-person Mental Health training cycle at the Health Situation Room of the University of Brasília, engaging students, faculty, and staff on the topic. A visit was also made to the Ministry of Health’s General Coordination of Public Health Emergencies (CGEMSP) to share our activities and partnerships with both the Ministry and Project HOPE. The visit was attended by ProEpi’s Project Coordinator, Patrícia Paiva; ProEpi’s Communications Coordinator, Mariana Lopes; CGEMSP’s Technical Consultant, Taynná Vernalha; and Project HOPE representatives Andrea Dunne-Sosa, Teresa Narváez, and Liudmila Miyar.

Sustainability Strategies

ProEpi recently launched a distance-learning course based on the training modules, delivered in four video lessons with quizzes after each module. The course has a total duration of eight hours and allows learners to access the material whenever needed, as well as the flexibility to complete it at their convenience.

Click here to access

Team Involved

Project Coordination

Patrícia Paiva – Executive Director of ProEpi & Project Coordinator

Sarah Mendes – ProEpi Project Coordinator

Andrea Dunne-Sosa – Regional Director, North & South America and the Caribbean

Teresa Narváez – National Director, Dominican Republic

Liudmila Miyar – Project Coordinator, Project HOPE

Rawan H.Hamadeh – Mental Health Project Coordinator

ProEpi Administrative-pedagogical Support

Mirella Jacinto 

Bruna Magda

Isla Novaes

ProEpi Trainers – COVID-19

Sarah Mendes

Ana Rita Cardoso

Mirella Santos 

Mariana Lopes

ProEpi Trainers – Vaccination
 

Sarah Mendes

Marcela Santos

Mariana Lopes

ProEpi Trainers – Mental Health

Katia Fonseca

Caio Capela

ProEpi IT Support

Guilherme Duarte

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