Our objective
Our objective is to tackle two well-known diseases, leprosy and tuberculosis. We help government authorities, especially the local Ministry of Health to develop sustainable, responsible monitoring programmes for our patients. The services running under these programmes are accessible and high-quality. They meet international standards set by the WHO, the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations (ILEP) and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD).
Our priorities
Our first priority is for our personnel employed under the control programmes to develop their capacities. We prefer to work with competent local personnel and only recruit expatriates if we are unable to find suitable persons at local level. There are currently 10 expatriates employed in our projects. We are present in 15 countries and employ about 1,200 variously qualified, responsible staffers.
Our partners
Since Damien Foundation is not a native organization in the countries which we support, we work in partnership with the Ministry of Health and in coordination with our main beneficiaries. Our interventions intensity varies in accordance with the level of performance of already existing health programmes. Our interventions vary from giving advice at national level to executive tasks carried out by our own personnel under the anti-leprosy and tuberculosis programmes. We sometimes involve local NGOs in our support activities. However, we prefer to support large-scale programmes at national, regional or district level; so as to reach a large segment of the population and make a great number of patients benefit from our programmes.
Long-term action
Developing and implementing a high-quality, sustainable programme often requires a long-term effort. The Damien Foundation is prepared to work along these lines. We use a series of indicators to systematically assess our programme’s progress and our support activities. After consultation with our main partner, the results from these assessments help us define which support activity is the most appropriate.
International cooperation
The Damien Foundation always works in partnership with the Ministry of Health of the country concerned and with which the Foundation has made a written cooperation agreement. We work in coordination with all the main partners involved in the fight against leprosy and tuberculosis,
- ILEP (The International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations)
- IUATLD (The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease)
- WHO (The World Health Organisation)
- GFATM (The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria)
- Bilateral agencies involved in development cooperation such as the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the UK Department for International Development