In June 2016, our Austrian member Diakonie Österreich (Diaconia Austria) concluded the first year of the “Better Start” project, addressing migrant women not covered by health insurance.
Young mothers and pregnant women who are not insured, have to overcome numerous obstacles in order to obtain at least basic care, from language barriers to lack of information. Moreover, they often lack of a stable residence permit and a health insurance. To provide them with care and medical assistance, AmberMed, a medical clinic fruit of the cooperation between Diakonia and the Red Cross has issued the “Better Start” project.
“Better Start” systematically supports pregnant women and young mothers who live below poverty line and do not have a regular income. Those women, often come from a refugee background or from other disadvantaged situations. Moreover, they often have lived situations of domestic violence, as says Carina Spak, Facility Manager of AmberMed.
Besides health assistance, Better Start provides also tools for the education and the empowerment of women groups, with lactation consultants, psychologists and health coaches, as well as interpreters into Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, Romanian, Chinese and English.
In its first year of operation, “Better Start” has helped about 150 women and their newborns from 30 countries aged between 16 and 46 years. It has now completed the project phases and is going to be integrated into the fully operative services of AmberMed.
Please, to find more information click here (DE)
For the website of the AmberMed clinic, click here (DE – EN)