Give 2000 Egyptian Families Affordable Health Care

In light of the recent Corona crisis, many citizens are exposed to the risk of contracting the virus, whether through contact with an infected person or by the appearance of symptoms on the patient directly. In the absence of the necessary medical advice and/or the lack of financial ability to bear the costs of tests and treatment, people are forced to deal with the situation in the most random manners.  It increases the risk to the patient and every individual they come in contact with. 

For this reason, we are providing medical advice services for Covid-19, through which we give the necessary advice and support for all inquiries related to how to deal with symptoms, in addition to directing patients to the places which provide the service they deserve based on the social and educational status of the case.

Within that framework, we came to know Delilah, a student in the fourth year in the Faculty of Nursing, at one of Cairo’s oldest universities.  Delilah felt symptoms similar to those of Corona virus after contact with one of the positive cases of COVID and contacted us to seek medical advice on how to deal with the symptoms, and immediately after recording the case data and providing medical advice to her, she was also guided through the process of gathering the needed paperwork in order to get enrolled in the university's health insurance and provided her with the necessary procedures to get her insurance ID. After getting her coverage, she was able to get the necessary tests, including x-rays and a medical swab (PCR), and she was indeed diagnosed with Coronavirus. The story didn’t stop here, the necessary medicines were dispensed for her, completely free of charge.

Through your support to our project, we enabled this young nurse to save more than 2,000 pounds that could have been spent in private clinics,  laboratories and pharmacies. This story is one of many, who were spared the horrors of confusion and debts and got access to proper, accessible and affordable healthcare services. 

In April alone, we have managed to help 26 cases with inquiries about the COVID-19 vaccinations and registered more than half of them to receive the vaccine because they were not able to do it on their own. That is aside from our regular intake of cases that need help navigating healthcare coverage schemes. You can always depend on us to make the most out of your valuable donations and offer varied services to Egyptian healthcare seekers who need them most!

You still have a chance to double the impact of your donation, the European Development Bank decided to support us by creating a fundraiser and matching all the money we raise with the same amount. Donate now to double the impact through this fundraiser: https://www.globalgiving.org/fundraisers/38012/

On the World Health Day, we wanted to celebrate the efforts of our project team that has made healthcare accessible to hundreds of Egyptian famillies. Our project team is the cornerstone of this project, their work literally saves lives every single day and today we wanted to tell you the story of just one day's work. A story of how they saved two famillies in just a couple of days, a story that shows their efforts which want to give them credit for!

The story began when the project team received a call from someone seeking help because two of his family members were in a terrible car accident and required immediate surgeries which they could not afford by any means. Karim (our project leader) went direclty to the hospital where they were checked in and knew the exact details of their profiles and medical needs. He found that Mr. Ashraf is a teacher and his wife Ms Gehan is a housewife, from there they took matters into their hands. They called the healthcare coverage scheme that Mr Ashraf is enrolled in and managed to get him an approval to continue his treatment and get the necessary services for free at the same hospital that he was in. As for Ms Gehan who wasn't eligible for healthcare coverage, the team managed to direct her to the state-funded health service and got her the approval needed to get the medical procedure that she needed for free. Through this intervention, this couple was rescued from a burden of over 60,000 EGP that they would have had to borrow in order to get the needed medical services and would have gotten themselves into debts. 

The more interesting part is that the story did not end here, because while monitoring the case of this couple, the hero of our story found a woman sitting on the floor of the same hospital and crying her eyes out. Karim could have focused on the problem that he was already fixing, but he does not leave someone hurting without at least offering to help. He went to her and asked what's wrong, it turned out that she is a woman from Upper Egypt whose 10 years old son Youssef was hit by a car while they were visiting Cairo and the hospital refused to treat him unless they paid 15,000 EGP. The problem here was that the Youssef's healthcare coverage papers belonged to the city where he was born and they did not know how to get approvals or do the papers in Cairo. The team then stayed with the mother and called the father who was back at their hometown, they took the case up with the healthcare insurance office, made sure they facilitated the transfer of his case between the cities and did not rest until the boy accessed his right to free healthcare.

This is the kind of passion that keeps us going, the stories of how this team changes and saves lives every single day is our source of pride.

Happy World Health Day, follow our project and our Facebook page to know how we work on making health services accessible to everyone!

Links:

• Shamseya's Facebook Page, Check it for regular updates!