On January 24, Dr. Mariam Jashi - Chair of the TMA Advisory Board met with Dr. Nedret Emiroglu - Director of Country Readiness Strengthening for Health Emergencies at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva.

Dr. Jashi presented to Dr. Emiroglu the Erasmus + LIFESTRAND project developed and coordinated by the Tbilisi Medical Academy in partnership with 9 Consortium partner universities from Georgia, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine.

The ultimate goal of the project is to Safeguard Health and Survival Rights of vulnerable communities affected by the Russian Occupation and military aggression through building their capacities in the First Aid and Pre-hospital Trauma care.

The project entails experience sharing and technical guidance from University of Santiago de Compostela, SEMERGEN Society and University of Porto to Georgian and Ukrainian Universities for the development of the First Aid Guides for University Staff, Students and Community Representatives.

Overall, the project will benefit 242 Staff and Students of 7 Universities in Georgia and Ukraine and 7,200 community representatives living in military risk areas of Ukraine and Georgia.

Dr. Emiroglu commended the Erasmus Lifestrand initiative and expressed interest in possible future collaboration with TMA and Consortium partners for applying similar capacity building approaches for displaced populations and other vulnerable community representatives affected by health emergencies.

As the next step, Dr. Jashi will share the project with WHO Regional Office for Europe and request a joint meeting to discuss possible collaboration, how Erasmus Lifestrand partners could cooperate with WHO more closely throughout the elaboration of the new guidelines and possible future expansion of the initiative to other countries and regions.