The Doctors on the Move 2005 project is made of one unit, composed of doctors and specialized personnel, equipped with medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. The unit travels, thanks to special all-terrain vehicles, into the most rural areas of Eritrea (one of the poorest countries of the world) where sanitary services would otherwise be inaccessible.

The unit’s principle objective is to provide a variety of healthcare services to the most disadvantaged segments of the Eritrean population that usually have difficulty gaining access to the appropriate national services.

Activities are carried out independently, while methodologies were coordinated with local authorities, the Ministry of Health and the Embassy of the State of Eritrea. The input of these entities will also be essential for the preparation of the healthcare plan of action.

Our operative unit will travel to villages identified in collaboration with the above-mentioned entities. Our association will also request that government authorities guarantee the availability of local paramedical personnel to accompany our staff in their travels.

The main target areas of our activities are internal areas of the regions of Anseba (Northern Eritrea), and Debub Keith Bahri (Southern Eritrea).

Anseba is home to many refugees of the recent conflict with Ethiopia as well as those returned from Sudan who fled during the war for independence between the 1970s and 1991, when the SPLF led the country to independence from the Ethiopian troops and the government of Colonel Menghistu.

Debub, one of the least hospitable regions on Earth, is highly rural. The majority of the population is of nomadic origin and of Afar ethnicity.

The philosophy behind our activities entails for short-term itineraries, which permit cyclical medical assistance, in the order of at least three visits within the same community, during the entire mission. This methodology allows our medical personnel to go beyond merely providing first aid to local populations to offering preventative care.

Our team is composed of an internist and orthodonist assisted by Eritrean heathcare personnel, and make up create a fully functional mobile clinic, passing through villages in the preestablished districts.

The dental specialist will use portable medical equipment designed specially for this type of humanitarian mission in developing countries, allowing for complete operability in extreme climactic and environmental conditions.

The general practitioner will provide care in minor first aid and triage cases. Dental personnel, will be equipped to perform dental extraction and fillings. Dental problems are the untreated pathologies in the target area.

One important aspect of the project is be the “on-the-job” training of local healthcare personnel and cultural/professional study-visits to Italy, organized by our Association.

The length of the project will be approximately 6 months which has been evaluated as sufficient time to adequately carry out the assistance activities included in this project. Roughly eight thousand patients should receive care in this time.

The Capuccin Sisters of Mother Rubatto, have promised their facilities to our personnel for logistical support. These facilities include a health clinic through the Feledareb and a dental clinic in Asmara, where our physicians will be able to work during the breaks in the itinerary of the project (in the second and fourth months).

A file will be created and maintained for each patient containing biographical data, type of pathology, and healthcare services provided, to provide a point of reference for any potential follow-up visits on subsequent missions.

During this healthcare tour the Erythros personnel will be required to collect data regarding the types of pathologies to build an argument for increased ad hoc healthcare services (such as preventive vaccination campaigns) on the part of international humanitarian organizations.

Finally, for cases deemed the most serious or incurable for local healthcare facilities, Erythros will dedicate its resources, thanks to the Foreign Citizens’ Office of the Policlinio Umberto I Hospital in Rome and the Italian Diplomatic Representative in Asmara to allow for treatment within Italy.