Wellshare International

“Reviewed by board of directors prior to filing.”

“Monitored and enforced by board of directors annually.”

“Approved by board of directors annually.”

“Governing documents are made available to the public upon request.”

“The mission of wellshare international is to improve the health of women, children, and their communities around the world. Wellshare international focuses its resources where it can have the greatest impact on the health of women and children living in developing countries and on refugee and immigrant programs in minnesota, where its headquarter office is located. Wellshare international works in close partnership with communities and health care providers to ensure that their joint efforts are defined by local needs and are sustainable. Because of its extensive overseas community health experience, including 30+ years in east africa as well as significant experience in southeast asia and central america, wellshare is uniquely positioned to work both internationally and domestically with the growing immigrant and refugee communities in minnesota.”

“Somali child spacing (family planning) program - the somali child spacing program provides culturally appropriate reproductive health education and resources to the somali community and to health care providers. Primary activities include: 1) home visits and community dialogues conducted by somali community health workers (chws) to discuss and educate about the benefits of child spacing and referrals to reproductive health services; 2) development and distribution of various reproductive health materials; and 3) in-service trainings and community forums for health care professionals, educators, and other social service professionals working with somalis. In 2013 the somali child spacing program expanded its educational outreach to men by continuing to employ a male chw. The project disseminated thousands of copies of educational resources and materials to local community agencies, hospitals and clinics, including an annual somali health calendar. The calendars were distributed to over 6,000 somali community members. The project also explored family planning practices in a new refugee community - the karen community from burma. Programming is planned to begin in the karen community starting in the summer of 2013. The reproductive health program wellshare's reproductive health program includes two projects: the somali child spacing program and the karen family planning program. The somali child spacing program provides culturally appropriate reproductive health education and resources to the somali community and to health care providers. Primary activities include: 1) home visits and community dialogues conducted by somali community health workers (chws) to discuss and educate about the benefits of child spacing and referrals to reproductive health services; 2) development and distribution of various reproductive health materials; and 3) in-service trainings and community forums for health care professionals, educators, and other social service professionals working with somalis. The karen family planning program provides the same primary services in the karen refugee community through different activities. In 2013, staff from wellshare and the karen organization of minnesota (kom) worked to develop a holistic reproductive health curriculum that will be piloted with small groups of karen women in 2014. Additionally, wellshare is partnering with health care professionals and community members to create tools that will help to facilitate dialogue among karen patients and their providers around the subjects of reproductive health and family planning methods. Smoke free riverside plaza riverside plaza is the largest multi-unit housing facility in the midwest, and is home to more than 6,000 people, 70% of whom are ethnic somalis. In 2011, with funding from the city of minneapolis, wellshare worked with the management and residents of riverside plaza to pass a smoke free policy for the entire complex, which went into effect at the beginning of 2013. In 2013, wellshare continued to support the management and residents to ensure the success of the policy by creating informational videos on smoking cessation resources and the harms of incense smoke. These videos are now being played on the building closed-circuit tv. Wellshare also provided a smoking cessation group for residents and conducted a survey with residents in order to get their feedback on the new policy. Minneapolis statewide health improvement program - healthy living program wellshare partnered with the city of minneapolis to promote healthy resources (including healthy eating, physical activity, smoking cessation, and preventative care) in several northeast neighborhoods of minneapolis in order to increase access to the services by east african residents. In 2013, wellshare completed the following activities: assessed the cultural appropriateness of healthy living resources in the community for east africans published an east african version of the healthy resource list di”

“Members in community-based distributions of injectable contraceptives and provided technical assistance (through a structured learning visit and other technical assistance) to four organizations around setting up community-based family planning programs. Wellshare also hosted a "lessons learned" meeting for 31 national family planning stakeholders which focused on scaling up community-based access to injectable contraceptives. The project achieved total cumulative couple years of protection of 13,548.96 between march 2012 and february 2013. The proportion of community couple years of protection during the same period increased from 10 to 346.1. Uganda hiv/aids program the scaling up hiv/aids prevention services project (shap) focuses on hiv combination prevention among most-at-risk populations in arua district, uganda. Funded by the civil society fund (csf), shap reaches discordant couples (married couples of unknown hiv status), truckers and boda boda cyclists, fisher folk, commercial sex workers, and out-of-school-youth. Started in september 2012, the project works to reduce new hiv infections working with key partners, the arua catholic diocesan health department, rural initiatives for community empowerment west nile, and the arua district health team. The project implements the following key activities: creating demand for hiv services including: couples, safe male circumcision, prevention of mother to child transmission, sexually transmitted infection testing, condoms, and anti-retroviral therapy. Partners create linkages through community mobilization and education interventions and services at health facilities. Targeted outreaches are carried out in known "hot spots" and referrals are provided for related prevention and care services. Trained resources persons and trainers of trainers work at the parish level to: a) refer clients to services, b) improve risk perception, and c) promote demand for and use of preventative services. Developing and implementing a behavior change communication strategy including targeted messages through media (radio) and interpersonal communication channels and distribution of information, education, and communication materials at outreach events. Emphasizing testing and disclosure among all target populations. Outreach is coordinated with providers and infotainment techniques are used to elicit interest in services. Addressing cultural and social issues that drive the hiv epidemic in the district through a series of community dialogue meetings and following the stepping stones model. Community dialogues reach the target populations and others (community development officers, local opinion leaders, religious leaders). Gender, sexual violence, male dominance, cross- generational sex, stigma and discrimination, and lack of women's decision- making around sexual and reproductive health decisions, among others are addressed. Dialogue meetings are reinforced with radio talk shows and call-in shows on specific topics. From september 2012 to june 2013, this project reached 2,853 beneficiaries with behavior change communications messages on hiv, trained 222 community resource members in monitoring and evaluation, conducted 18 outreach sessions and reached 3,748 beneficiaries with key hiv/aids transmission messages and information on sexually transmitted infections, established 51 condom distribution points, provided condom education and male and female condoms to 84,956 beneficiaries, and held 4 quarterly joint work plan development meetings. Between july-september, 2013, 222 community resource members and 18 train-the-trainers have been trained in the stepping stones model for facilitation of community dialogues.”

“TANZANIA, UGANDA, KENYA”