WiRED COVID-19 Education in Armenia
Ongoing Programs to Improve Health
By Allison Kozicharow; Edited by Jessie Crowdy
All over the world, WiRED International is providing free-access education about COVID-19 to organizations, schools, students and healthcare professionals via our module series — The Coronavirus Threat: Key Topics in Infection Control.
According to the World Health Organization, from January 3 to May 18. 2021, there have been 221,139 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Armenia and 4,346 confirmed deaths. Out of a population of 2,968,096 as of May 18, only 565 vaccine doses have been administered. This stunning statistic underlines the enormous issue of vaccine inequality.
WiRED health sessions on COVID-19 began last year in Armenia and are ongoing throughout localities there. WiRED – Armenia Director Sebouh Baghdoyan reported that the most recent lecture on the coronavirus took place at their Centre in Etchmiadzin, which is located near the capital of Yerevan. The Centre gave the course using the recently translated WiRED coronavirus module, and they hope to undertake a series of lectures on the disease in the future.
If conditions on the ground permit, WiRED – Armenia in partnership with Caritas Armenia will test WiRED’s Community Health Worker Training Program and Vaccinator Training Program. The testing requires additional translation work on modules designed to train a cadre of health workers to assist medical professionals throughout Armenia and to prepare citizen vaccinators to distribute and administer vaccines as they become more readily available.
WiRED already offers many health education modules in Armenian, covering topics of concern such as diabetes, polio, quitting tobacco, asthma and dental hygiene. Last year, WiRED created a Thyroid Diseases Module in response to a request from our partners in Armenia because of an alarmingly high incidence of thyroid issues, especially among women, in that region of the world.
WiRED looks forward to continuing our ever-expanding partnerships in Armenia to help improve the health of that nation’s people.
WiRED in Armenia
Since 2012, WiRED has worked in Armenia to provide programs that allow doctors, healthcare workers and community members access to critical education to combat health issues relevant to Armenia’s underserved population. Health learning events, employing WiRED’s training modules, have been sponsored by WiRED – Armenia, its close partner on many critical community education projects. Today, poverty and the lack of reliable medical information are creating a healthcare crisis for the people of this Eurasian country. For information on WiRED’s work in Armenia, go to the WiRED International – Armenia Facebook page. WiRED – Armenia operates under the guidance of Director Sebouh Baghdoyan.
WiRED’s Partnerships in Armenia
Last July, WiRED announced the receipt of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) from the Republic of Armenia’s Ministry of Health. The letter, from Deputy Minister Lena Nanushyan, formally acknowledged WiRED’s educational programs for continuous professional development of healthcare providers and expressed the Armenian government’s support of WiRED activities. This MoU further strengthens partnerships, which WiRED has established in that country, and has reported on in recent stories on its collaborations with Caritas Armenia and WiRED International – Armenia.