FARMASOL Project

In 2015, the Barceló Foundation launches the FARMASOL project (Solidarity Pharmacies and Health Education) to facilitate access to medicines for the most disadvantaged populations in Africa and improve their health conditions.

In addition to providing the necessary medication, the Foundation also aims to influence the health and hygiene habits and awareness of the local population. Therefore, each pharmacy appoints a local manager who goes to the nearest villages to educate on issues of disease prevention or does it in health centers or hospitals.

There are currently 21 Farmasol projects in 5 African countries: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Chad. All of them operate at full capacity, which means that today, around 500,000 people, have already benefited from the Foundation’s actions.

Goals 

The FARMASOL program is intended to, among other things:

• Ensure that patients receive medicines and adequate information on how to take them
• Educate in health and hygiene habits
• Improve health centers or local hospitals
• Improve the health and living conditions of the most disadvantaged populations in Africa

Method

The Foundation selects a location in Health Centers or Hospitals, managed by local entities that ensure future viability.

Then, it is in charge of the construction and / or rehabilitation of the pharmacies, if needed, supplies them with the agreed medicines, trains the personnel responsible for the pharmacies as well as those responsible of the educational talks in the villages and directly controls the management of the projects, thus guaranteeing the success of the initiative.

Some specific collaborations

Sometimes the Foundation has the collaboration of volunteers, depending on the need of each project. For example, in 2017, the pharmacist Judit Tobar went to the pharmacies in Uganda to work with their managers and in 2018 the gynecologist Gregoria Alonso trained 13 nurses and midwives of different projects in Ethiopia in the use of the ecograph.