Provision of Community Primary Health Care services for vulnerable population though a mobile unit network in Hama Governorate Humanitarian needs in underserved areas remain critical across different Governorates of Syria in the second semester of 2020.The Introduction of SARS-CoV-2, causing novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), into Syria has resulted in the need for scaling up detection and tracing capacity for COVID-19 to assist in understanding the transmission and epidemiology of the disease at Governorate, districts, and subdistrict jurisdictionslevel. At the same time, equally important, the imperative of health sector partners led by WHO is to ensure continuity of quality essential PHC services, a paramount priority in the INTERSOS approach to resilience in Syria.

The present proposal is inspired by the HNO and Health Sector priorities 2020, and abides by the criteria of SHF standard allocation 2020. Over 12 months proposed project duration, the INTERSOS Community Health Care (CHC) approach, - translated from the Arabic Da’am Al- Mujtama’a Sehiyyan - aims to offer humanitarian assistance to underserved areas and vulnerable groups in selected districts and sub-districts of Hama and Rural Damascus governorates based on 4 overarching objectives. The project focus is to cover areas of high severity score gt3 with (i) Support to outreach PHC services delivered by Mobile Health Units (MHUs) and support long-term, sustainable access to essential health care services in rural locations of northern Hama and Rural Damascus. The success of an integrated mobile clinic approach in several areas of Syria shows that maintaining or expanding outreach in areas where IDP and returnee groups without access to primary health care live would allow more effective coverage of most vulnerable segments, including persons living with disability. Furthermore, (ii) A robust set of capacity development programme will ensure IPC training of health providers, triage capacity, and communication for behavioural change within the RCCS framework. Rural areas (iii) will be provided by reliable and quality medical supplies and commodities, PPE, and basic equipment, and, finally, the project will ensure (iv) awareness raising in the population though risk communication and community engagement by spreading positive messages of positive family practices, protective behaviour and COVID-19 prevention messages through a dedicated, dynamic, well-trained and area-specific social mobilization network. While measures such as social distancing, movement restrictions  and the closure of  selected institutions like schools or workplaces may be still necessary to contain the disease transmission, the pandemic in Syria can only be controlled through early case detection, contact tracing, rapid testing, isolation, and treatment. The social mobilization in Hama areas will contribute to active case search of presumtpive COVID-19 cases.

A project monitoring and learning framework will enable INTERSOS and partners to appreciate outputs, limitations and needs for mid-course correction at district and sub-district level. In Hama, project implementation and coordinated project reviews will be supervised by SARC and helped supported by INTERSOS specialists. INTERSOS will ensure regular follow up, reporting and information sharing with partners by using Health Sector existing channels, formal procedures and established mechanisms