The WFH Twinning Program creates short-term collaborative partnerships between medical professionals and patient and youth leaders in emerging and established countries for a period of two to four years with the main goal of improving standards of care. The World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) Twinning Program facilitates “self-sustaining” knowledge by helping organizations increase their learning so that they can, in turn, share best practices with others in their countries, and, eventually, with other organizations around the world.
The 2021 Twins of the Year Awards were announced at the WFH 2022 World Congress in Montreal, Canada. Three partnerships demonstrated their resilience and ability to adapt during another pandemic year, showing their ongoing commitment to improving care and treatment for people with bleeding disorders in their countries.
The Palestine-Venezuela twins had a memorable year with continued close collaboration at the strategic and operational levels. They also worked together on capacity development to improve organizational structure and governance, and on data collection. The twins also held psychosocial and awareness-raising activities, reaching over 200 people with bleeding disorders and family members. Ahmed R. Al Kashif from Palestine Avenir for Childhood Foundation shared that, “Through various jointly implemented projects, a very positive impact was reflected on lives of hemophilia patients in Palestine.”
The Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)-Minneapolis (U.S.A) twins also demonstrated their ability to adapt to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their dedication in Ethiopia resulted in a wonderful partnership despite many unforeseen obstacles in both countries. The team kept its focus on educating healthcare practitioners (HCPs) and ensuring that labs were well equipped to perform diagnostics tests.
The Tehran (Iran)-Milan (Italy) partnership has focused on adapting training materials to the Iran’s cultural, epidemiological and local needs. In their final year, capacity building and the sharing of experiences on the management of patients with hemophilia, inhibitors, and von Willebrand disease (VWD) were priority areas. The twins were able to make significant advances in the accurate diagnosis of people with VWD using different tests, all of which are now available in Tehran. The teams in Tehran and Milan are looking forward to a continued relationship post-twinning.
On behalf of the WFH, congratulations to the 2021 Twins of the year!
For more information on the WFH Twinning Program, please click here.
The Twinning program is supported by exclusive funding from Pfizer.