IOM in partnership with Caritas held on 25 June the fourth Health
in Motion event, which aims to raise awareness of health issues
among the migrant community in the Greater Cairo metropolitan area.

Friday's event, held at College de la Salle in downtown Cairo,
saw IOM-trained Iraqi community health volunteers conduct sessions
related to maternal child health. 

In addition, IOM-trained Sudanese community mobilizers organized
small workshops related to influenza prevention and response,
promoting good hygiene as a pre-emptive measure against various
forms of influenza, as well as prevention tactics for many
communicable diseases.

Doctors from the NGO Caritas also conducted information sessions
to promote good nutrition, along with glucose and blood pressure
tests in response to the high rates of chronic disease within
Cairo's migrant population.

Members of local migrant communities attended the event and
benefited from information sessions on a wide range of health
topics, including HIV/AIDS, nutrition, influenza and maternal and
child health.

Over the past year, a number of similar events have been
organized with Caritas and the NGO Refuge Egypt in various suburbs
of Cairo, which are home to large numbers of refugees and migrants
from Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia. 

While migrants have access to a range of governmental and
non-governmental primary healthcare providers, barriers such as the
fear of seeking medical assistance for undocumented migrants, can
result in negative impacts on the health of people. 

The Health in Motion initiative is part of a wider IOM migration
health programme that promotes peer-to-peer exchange, building the
capacity of migrant leaders to raise awareness on relevant health
issues, as well as identifying available healthcare service
providers within their own communities.

The US Department of State Bureau for Population, Refugees and
Migration (PRM) and USAID through the Central Fund for Influenza
Action funds this initiative.

For more information, please contact:

Ginette Kidd

IOM Cairo

Tel: +20 223580011

E-mail: "mailto:gkidd@iom.int">gkidd@iom.int