Health & Nutrition
The Needs
Every year, insufficient access to healthcare causes 6.6 million children to die from treatable illnesses like diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia before the age of five*. Although this is an improvement from over 10 million fatalities in 2006, more needs to be done.
Mothers and infants are particularly vulnerable to the detrimental health effects of complications that can arise during pregnancy or childbirth, as well as malnutrition. These challenges are aggravated by limited access to hospitals and health professionals. Many mothers choose to give birth at home rather than walk hours to the nearest health post.
Key Challenges
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Insufficient Healthcare Facilities Rural health posts are shared among a number of villages, which means that those who are ill have to walk hours across difficult terrain to access healthcare. These health centres are poorly maintained and lack proper medical equipment to treat illnesses. |
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Unskilled Attendants Health workers in the community lack proper training and, as a consequence, have limited knowledge on how to treat even basic illnesses. Some families may also resort to traditional healers, a choice which can cause more harm than good. |
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Limited Knowledge among Caregivers Parents and primary caregivers are uneducated and unaware of the preventive measures, symptoms and cures for common childhood illnesses. Left untreated, these can become life-threatening. Mothers and mothers-to-be also lack knowledge on proper pre- and post-natal care. |
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Gender Discrimination Maternal health gets minimal attention simply because it concerns powerless and voiceless women. A staggering 99% of maternal deaths during childbirth occur in developing nations.* There are also many cases of early marriage, and young girls, whose bodies have not fully matured, are at high risk of health complications. |
*World Health Organization, 2014
How We Help
Integrated healthcare approaches for improved nutrition
The two major milestones are a child's first 1,000 days and the first five years. Once children reach the age of five, their chances of survival increases dramatically. World Vision's health strategy focuses on helping children and mothers through programmes that address both the symptoms and root causes of the problem:
- Appropriate nutritional practices and ante- and post-natal care for mothers
- Clean water to prevent diseases like diarrhoea
- Year-long food security through agricultural training
- Sustain interventions through improving livelihoods and provide microfinance so mothers can eke out a living through vegetable home gardening and household poultry rearing. Through these interventions, parents are able to purchase more nutritious food and children receive the right nutrition for healthy development
Prevent the spread of infectious and communicable diseases
Malaria remains a major killer of children around the world. Every two minutes, one child’s life is needlessly lost to malaria. By raising awareness of appropriate prevention and treatment measures, many preventable deaths can be averted.
- Provide bed nets
- Provide bicycles so health workers can reach pregnant moms and children under 5 with prevention information
- Provide rapid diagnosis kits so severe forms of malaria that are life threatening can be treated as soon as possible
Provide access to clean water
By constructing water treatment systems, wells and boreholes, children will have clean water to drink without worms in their tumms, and will not have to suffer from water-borne diseases like diarrhoea.
No one government or organisation can solve the problem of child mortality alone. In addition to the above, World Vision partners with the relevant stakeholders on the ground to achieve lasting and sustainable results.
Our Impact
In FY18, with the support of our donors, we were able to help in these ways:
