Responding to school closures and COVID-19 lockdown measures, FHI 360’s Local Partner Development Project in Jamaica collaborated with the Peace Management Initiative Ltd. to deliver psychosocial support services to youth ages 13 to 18. Our project staff offered tailored, one-on-one assistance to young people on such topics as anger management, dealing with family conflict and handling the stress of losing a school support system. The project now focuses on building local partner capacity to deliver social welfare support, including access to food and sanitization products to female-headed households, domestic violence survivors, at-risk youth and youth in juvenile correctional facilities.

FHI 360 addresses many facets of the U.S. education system, from college and career readiness to educating court-involved youth, all with a consistent focus on equity. In 2020, we worked to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, families and educators.

FHI 360’s Collaborative Action for Handicraft Exports (ACEA) project supports Tunisian artisans in the medicinal and aromatic plants sector to upgrade and export their products. The artisans — mostly rural women who serve as guardians of traditional medicinal knowledge within their communities — help sustain the local economy. They are often relegated to a marginal position in the value chain and lack equitable access to public lands and natural resources.

In early 2020, ACEA helped artisans prepare for Tunisia’s largest national handicraft fair. When it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team pivoted to help the artisans enter the e-commerce market. Partnering with some of Tunisia’s leading e-commerce platforms, the artisans increased sales in the domestic market and attracted international buyers. ACEA has also supported artisans to achieve international organic certification, which should lead to additional markets.

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases selected the Leadership and Operations Center for the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) at FHI 360 to manage a portion of the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) agenda as a part of the U.S. Government’s initiative to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The CoVPN Operations Center oversees the clinical trial evaluation of monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19 prevention and also collaborates on vaccine studies.

The CoVPN Operations Center partnered with Eli Lilly and the U.S. National Institutes of Health on a study of a monoclonal antibody to prevent COVID-19 infection in senior nursing facilities. We also worked with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and the U.S. National Institutes of Health on a study of a two-monoclonal antibody cocktail for prevention in households with a positive index case. These studies provide the scientific evidence needed to support an application for an Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for these products to be used for prophylaxis.

When the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wanted to better understand public perceptions, beliefs and attitudes toward prospective COVID-19 vaccines, FHI 360 conducted a remote focus group study. With participants who were low- and middle-income older adults (ages 60+), parents with children younger than age 18, young adults (ages 20 to 30) without children, practice- and hospital-based registered nurses and nonmedical essential workers, the study helped the CDC identify concerns and understand potential reactions to public discussions on initial vaccination scenarios. The CDC used the findings to inform COVID-19 vaccine communication planning.

In 2020, FHI 360 worked to mitigate COVID-19-related disruptions to students, educators and education systems around the world, including school closures, lack of technology infrastructure for remote learning and the need for increased sanitation measures.

FHI 360 harnesses technology to increase access to information, improve practices and facilitate interaction among many stakeholders. Technology became even more essential in 2020.

The Infectious Diseases Detection and Surveillance project — for which FHI 360 leads diagnostic strengthening in a consortium led by ICF — designed and implemented a COVID-19 specimen referral and transport system in Mindanao, the Philippines, an area that was a hot spot of local transmission but had limited collection and testing capacity.

Between April and November 2020, project staff trained nearly 600 health care workers to collect specimens — increasing the number of facilities capable of collecting specimens from 29 to 133 — and arranged for transportation to the testing laboratory. As a result, the number of specimens collected and sent for testing increased from 15 to 179 specimens per day. The arrival time from health care facility to laboratory was drastically reduced, ensuring that specimens were tested quickly and results were returned for patient care and pandemic control. The program and model were transitioned to the government and scaled up elsewhere in the Philippines.

When the COVID-19 pandemic prevented many international aid organizations from working to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, FHI 360 found ways to continue on the ground. Project staff refurbished two health clinics that had been closed for a decade. The Al-Gharaffi and the Al-Ghadeed clinics received much-needed repairs to the water supply, power and sanitation systems. FHI 360 also supplied laboratory and medical equipment and medications, as well as training in community case management and infection prevention for Ministry of Health staff and community health volunteers. Residents near these two clinics, which includes nearly 60,000 internally displaced people, are now able to seek primary health care without traveling long and dangerous distances.

FHI 360 works to meet the needs of women and families by supporting access to maternal and child nutrition and family planning services, which remain essential during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) project — an FHI 360-led project that implements HIV programs in 35 countries — was the catalyst and platform for several COVID-19-related programmatic modifications, which were then adopted by FHI 360’s other HIV programs, providing quick pandemic response. Staff developed a toolkit that helped programs continue to meet their targets safely and expanded differentiated service delivery models to bring HIV treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis and testing out of health facilities and into communities. An expansion of Going Online activities allowed the team to shift to online interventions, supporting program participants through virtual case management. The team’s multicountry Online Reservation and Case Management app enabled 10 new countries to transition HIV services online as lockdowns began.