Send page to a Friend Women's & Children's Health Clinics   A major humanitarian accomplishment of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston’s (JCRC) Dnepropetrovsk Kehillah Project (DKP) has been the establishment of ambulatory public health facilities for women and children. Funded by Combined Jewish Philanthropy’s (CJP) Overseas Committee and private philanthropists, the clinics are chaired by Dr. Benjamin Sachs, Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Dr. David Link, Chief of Pediatrics at Cambridge Health Alliance and Mt. Auburn Hospital. The Corky Ribakoff Women’s Clinic and the pediatric clinic serve the Jewish and non-Jewish populations of Dnepropetrovsk.   A city of 1.5 million in Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk ached for improved medical conditions a decade ago.  Its equipment dated to the 1940’s, antibiotics were limited, and referral sources were scant.  The city’s population, including 70,000 Jewish men, women and children, needed serious help.   In 1996, the JCRC’s Committee for Post Soviet Jewry initiated an organized response to the medical and social crises of the Ukrainian city.  One year later, a modern outpatient women’s and pediatric primary care clinic opened its doors in Dnepropetrovsk.  The clinic is a cooperative effort between JCRC, the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community and medical, academic and municipal personnel in Dnepropetrovsk.  Funding comes from Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and other private donors.  Medical leadership for the women’s clinic is provided by Dr. Benjamin Sachs and for the pediatric clinic by Dr. David Link.  Both physicians spend considerable time in Dnepropetrovsk helping to train Ukrainian medical staff and physicians.  The Vice Mayor of the city, Dr. Vasily Pavlov, visited Boston to gather information and meet members of the Boston Jewish and medical communities.   As a supplementary activity of the pediatric clinic, the Boston-Dnepropetrovsk Health Care Foundation, launched a new initiative thanks to the hard work of Patty Ribakoff to provide vaccines from four pharmaceutical companies to immunize 10,000 children over the next several years.   The women’s and pediatric primary care clinic address specific health concerns prevalent in Dnepropetrovsk.  These include high rates of infertility, cervical cancer, infections, repeat abortions, vaccine-preventable diseases in children, ENT infections and limited amounts of antibiotics.  Not only has the clinic provide affordable gynecological and primary child-care services, it has introduced a new concept of preventive health care, while at the same time encouraging annual examinations and offering access to family-planning and counseling services.   In 2005 Ben Sachs facilitated the donation of a mammogram machine from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute to Hospital #9 in Dnepropetrovsk – the hospital which is associated with the Corky Ribakoff Women’s Clinic and is in the same building.  This will be the first mammogram machine the city has ever known.   A critical missing component of women's health care in Dnepropetrovsk and in Ukraine as a whole has been the absence of breast cancer screening of any kind.  Ukraine has one of the highest rates of breast cancer in Europe and it is rising.  This is attributed, in part, to the disaster of Chernobyl.  Breast cancer screening is virtually non-existent due to the high cost machinery, technical training and X-ray film.  The primary treatment for breast cancer disease, when diagnosed, is radical mastectomy due to late diagnosis, no follow up, and poor education.  A mammography screening program accompanied by an educational public awareness campaign would save countless lives.   A Boston philanthropist will be contributing funds to support a mammogram program in Dnepropetrovsk which will include both medical care and education.  This program will launch in 2006.  Radiologists from Dnepropetrovsk will be brought to Boston to train with radiologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  Physicians from Boston will in turn travel to Dnepropetrovsk for follow-up training there.  This screening center will be the only one in Dnepropetrovskand will be available to women, Jewish and non-Jewish, throughout the city.