Archive for category: Health

Information and stories on health topics.

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Cashpor Micro Credit Fights Poverty in India

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Cashpor Micro Credit is a non-profit assisting those who live in impoverished communities in India. The organization uses microfinance techniques and loans to help women build a life for themselves and their families in addition to earning enough money to repay the loans provided to them by Cashpor Micro Credit.

Cashpor Micro Credit

Founded in Varanasi, India in 1996, the organization works in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, India. In addition to microloan assistance, Cashpor Micro Credit also provides scholarships for college education, financial training, health education and insurance programs.

Their mission is to reach all impoverished women throughout the BIMARU states in India, which include the cities of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and guide them in lifting themselves and their families, out of poverty.

Astronomic Growth

As of 2014, Cashpor Micro Credit had 864,551 women actively borrowing loans from them, according to Mix Market statistics. Their gross loan portfolio, which comprises all outstanding client loans, reached 147.4 million, with the average loan per borrower averaging 170 dollars. This has allowed them to maintain a 40 percent business growth over the past few years.

In total, Cashpor Micro Credit has 341 branches in and around the BIMARU states. Cashpor Micro Credit is known for its efficient business model, the way in which it manages its finances and assets and the fact that Cashpor Micro Credit shares this knowledge with its clients to ensure a proactive use of their loans.

Three Main Programs

Its credit plus activities are divided into three major programs. This program assists members through scholarships, health education and a community health facilitator program.

The scholarships allow members to send their children to college, thus distancing them from the poverty line.

Cashpor’s health education teaches overall health to their clients. During their regular business meetings, community leaders are required to engage in 15 minute discussions about health, including how to best fight illnesses in children.

The community health facilitator program is designed to provide clients with a health mentor, who will give health intermediary services. The program designates 80 women, who are trained in health and assigned to 300 Cashpor clients. The program is run in each district Cashpor operates in.

Improving Quality of Life

Cashpor Micro Credit continues to assist those in India struggling to get out of poverty and will continue until the quality of life in India becomes sustainable, abundant and efficient.

– Julia N. Hettiger

Photo: Flickr

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USAID Combats Maternal, Neonatal & Child Mortality in Ethiopia

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USAID is working with the Ethiopian government to reduce maternal, neonatal and child mortality rates, according to their website. Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of maternal deaths in the world.

“Women have a one-in-52 chance of dying from childbirth-related causes each year,” according to USAID. “Every year, more than 257,000 children under the age of five die and 120,000 die in the neonatal period. More than 60 percent of infant and 40 percent of under-five deaths in Ethiopia are neonatal deaths.”

Increasing Health Care Services

This dire situation calls for extensive health care services. Ninety percent of Ethiopian women give birth in their homes in order to observe cultural traditions and be surrounded by company they trust. Health facilities can spread awareness about the value of institutional delivery in decreasing mother and child mortality rates; many mothers have never heard the benefits of skilled birth attendance and postnatal care.

Preventable complications like hemorrhage, infection, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders and obstructed labor are to blame for 80 percent of maternal deaths.

USAID has intervened in family, community and facility care by increasing accessibility of health services. A health extension program includes basic obstetric and newborn care, essential newborn care, management of neonatal and childhood illnesses, coverage of immunizations and the early identification and treatment of sick children, all of which go a long way to decreasing the child mortality rate.

Additionally, they funded the Integrated Family Health Project, an activity that seeks to promote and strengthen family planning and maternal, newborn and child health practices and services. With the cooperation of health programs throughout Ethiopia, the IFHP impacts about 40 percent of the country’s entire population.

The Health Ministry and various organizations provide health facilities with ambulances, equipment and skilled staff. The majority of communities in Ethiopia lay in rural regions that place women in a vulnerable position when a complication arises during childbirth, and many fatalities occur in the transfer to a health facility.

Global Involvement

The Government of Germany recently contributed 10 million euro to UNICEF, bolstering its emergency response to drought affected regions in Ethiopia. This support will provide life-saving assistance to severely malnourished children and pregnant and lactating women. Lack of nutrition threatens close to half of a million children under the age of five and nearly 140,000 lactating women in the Somali area.

By providing preventive, promotional and basic curative health and nutrition services to mothers, infants and young children, USAID and other organizations like UNICEF are saving lives and combating illness and disability.

– Emily Ednoff

Photo: Flickr

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Access to Private Toilets Improves Sanitation

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For those living in developed countries, having access to private toilets is taken for granted. Having access to something as simple as private toilets changes lives drastically but about 2.3 billion people or a third of the world does not have access to them. This puts their health, education and safety at risk, as reported by The Huffington Post.

According to The Indian Express, approximately 60 percent of people in India do not have access to safe toilets. The people most affected by this are women and girls. They have no other choice but to relieve themselves outdoors. This puts them at a higher risk of getting assaulted or contracting diseases due to a lack of sanitation.

If private toilets exist in a community or neighborhood, they tend to be far and few between. More often than not, many schools in developing regions do not have sanitary facilities. When girls attending school don’t have access to sanitation, they have no privacy to deal with their needs and end up having to miss class when menstruating. This will often discourage girls from going to school at all, to avoid embarrassment and falling behind in school.

However, even if there is access to clean water and a private bathroom, many will continue to use the outdoors. According to The Guardian, particularly in India, many men still prefer to go outside to defecate, even if they have already installed a toilet at home. It gives them a moment of quiet as they survey their farmlands.

The results of using the outdoors as a toilet are negative. The practice continues to pollute already scarce water sources and to spread diseases such as cholera, tuberculosis, and diarrhea. Other health risks include malnutrition and childhood stunting, which impairs 161 million children every year, according to a report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

A study released by WaterAid states that nearly 40 percent of India’s children are stunted. Stunting can affect not only their lives but the country’s prosperity in the future. Also, diarrheal diseases kill 700,000 every year.

Despite various governments’ pledges to install toilets in every home, little has been done to improve education about the damages that unsanitary practices cause.

Prime Minister Modi of India has made the issue of sanitation a top priority. In 2014 Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission, which translates to Clean India. This project aims to ensure a toilet in every home by 2019 and to teach people about the long-term consequences of using proper sanitation. In order to provide everyone with access to toilets, India would have to build 100 million.

March 22 was United Nations World Toilet Day. There is the hope that the day will increase awareness and educate about the importance of access to toilets.

– Michelle Simon

Photo:  Flickr

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Higher Number of Women Landowners Relieves Poverty

Women Landowners Relieve Poverty
As the number of women landowners grows, the overall condition of their communities improves drastically. This topic was recently covered at the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference 2016, the 17th annual conference, earlier this month.

The conference, “Scaling up Responsible Land Governance,” brought together many experts from many fields from around the globe to talk about land strategy.

A large portion of this year’s conference highlighted the work of researchers focusing on the empowerment of women in developing countries through land ownership. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of increasing women landowners is the link to fewer cases of domestic violence.

With greater access to land ownership for women, the need for young daughters to marry diminishes and households have more access to resources. According to Klaus Deininger, an economist for the World Bank and conference organizer, women with greater land rights typically have more personal wealth, leading to lower levels of domestic violence.

“If women have stronger bargaining power, they actually can resist,” Deininger says in an article by Reuters. “Their husbands will think twice before beating them.”

The conference tackled questions on how to enhance women’s awareness of their legal rights and how to ensure women’s rights in land interventions. The Landesa Rural Development Institute is an organization that seeks to provide solutions to these questions by securing greater access for potential women landowners in developing countries.

Laws and policies often dilute or deny women’s rights to land. Even when laws enshrine such rights, loopholes, low implementation and enforcement and sex-discriminatory practices often undercut these formal guarantees.

Landesa’s Center for Women’s Land Rights has programing in both India and Rwanda to combat those challenges. In partnership with West Bengal’s Department of Women and Child Development, the Security for Girls Through Land Project provides vocational training and skills to adolescent girls in order to improve their health and nutrition. The curriculum is based on land rights, asset creation and land-based livelihoods.

The project creates “girls groups” which are peer-facilitated meetings in which girls are given lessons to educate them about land rights and the positive benefits associated with control over land. Girls are taught to start “kitchen gardens” to grow produce for the family or to sell. As the girls begin to earn money, often for the first time, families begin to think of girls as an asset rather than a burden.

The project, beginning in 2010, has already reached 40,000 girls in over 1,000 villages in West Bengal. In addition to engaging with girls in local communities, the project reaches out to boys in local schools in an effort to change the mindset that young women are an economic burden.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reports that women make up half of the world’s agriculture workforce. As these women have greater access to land, the ripple effect, according to Landesa, includes better nutrition for families, improved family health, educational gains and reduced domestic violence.

– Michael A. Clark

Sources: Landesa, Reuters, World Bank
Photo: Flickr

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Necklace in India to Track Children’s Immunization History

Khushi Baby
In rural Rajasthan, North India, an innovative necklace has been introduced into the health system to track a child’s vaccination history. It is helping to increase the number of children protected against diseases that can kill them in the first few years of their lives.

Approximately 1.5 million children die every year from diseases that can be prevented by vaccination and India has one of the worst immunization records in the world. Less than 60 percent of children in India are vaccinated, a number far below the World Health Organization’s target of 90 percent.

The necklace is called Khushi Baby (which means ‘happy baby’) and is a small plastic pendant on a black string. A computer chip in the pendant stores vaccination data as well as the mother’s health records.

The chip interfaces with a mobile app for community health workers. The health workers just need to tap the pendant to the back of a tablet, syncing the devices and storing the information in the chip. The Ministry of Health and other health agencies can then easily access the data.

Particularly for families that live far from cities, getting access to vaccinations can be difficult. Rural areas have fewer clinics and parents are not always aware of when or why their child might need a vaccination. “Many mothers don’t understand the importance of vaccines and choose not to take their children to immunization clinics,” says a statement on the Khushi Baby website.

With the help of the necklace, health workers no longer need to carry cumbersome records for every patient. Furthermore, the necklace allows health workers to see which vaccine the child needs and when. “Khushi Baby wants to ensure that all infants have access to informed and timely health care by owning a copy of their medical history,” said Ruchit Nagar, co-founder of Khushi Baby.

According to the BBC, Khushi Baby costs less than US$1 to make. Currently, there are around 1,500 children in the Khushi Baby system. Health workers plan to expand the program to include the 1 million people within Rajasthan’s health system.

– Michelle Simon

Sources: BBC, Antara Foundation, CNN, Daily Mail
Photo: Antara

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Roll Back Malaria Raises Global Health Awareness

Roll Back MalariaThe Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) is comprised of more than 500 partners, including malaria endemic countries, bilateral and multilateral development partners, the private sector, nongovernmental community-based organizations and research and academic institutions.

Arguably, the most admirable feature of RBM is its ability to form effective partnerships both globally and nationally.

Partners work together to increase malaria control efforts at a nationwide level, coordinating their activities to avoid duplication and to ensure optimal use of resources.

According to the RBM website: “malaria is a preventable and treatable infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes that kills more than one million people each year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria is the leading cause of death for children under five.”

In 2015, there were about 214 million malaria cases worldwide and 3.2 billion people (about half the world’s population) were at risk of contracting the disease. Close to 100 countries and territories across the globe still had ongoing malaria transmission.

Though there is still much to be done, significant progress has been made in the fight to eliminate malaria. RBM reports that between 2000 and 2015, the global malaria mortality rate was reduced by 60 percent overall. Among children under five, the numbers are even higher, with a 65 percent reduction in the last 15 years.

“On the basis of reported cases for 2013, 55 countries are on track to reduce their malaria case incidence rates by 75 percent, in line with World Health Assembly and Roll Back Malaria targets for 2015,” states the RBM website.

In 2014, an increasing number of countries were on the verge of eliminating malaria. 13 countries reported zero cases of the disease and six countries reported fewer than 10 cases. “The fastest decreases were seen in the Caucasus and Central Asia (which reported zero cases of malaria in 2014) and in Eastern Asia,” RBM reports.

RBM has contributed immensely to these victories by helping to forge consensus between partners, mobilizing resources and catalyzing action.

In 2015, RMB went through a transformation in order to adapt its architecture to better meet the needs of countries in this new era of development. The restructuring of RMB has led to the “Action and Investment to defeat Malaria 2016-2030 (AIM).” This initiative seeks to build on the success of the first Global Malaria Action Plan, bringing us one step closer to a malaria-free world.

– Vanessa Awanyo

Sources: WHO
Photo: Roll Back Malaria

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Progress Made in Containing the Ebola Outbreak

Containing the Ebola OutbreakIn addressing the progress made in containing the Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) argues that, since July 2014, “unparalleled progress has been made in establishing systems and tools that allowed rapid response.”

From the first report of this outbreak on Mar. 23, 2014, this disease became a devastating epidemic, which led to nearly 25,000 cases and more than 10,000 deaths. Most of the deaths occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

According to the U.N. Foundation blog, “the past year of battling Ebola has exposed troubling weakness, both in the health systems of the affected countries and in the international community’s ability to respond to the health crises of this nature.”

However, this period has also shown the world both the power and potential of a coordinated, global response. WHO and its partners are now in phase three of the Ebola response, from August 2015 to mid-year 2016.

At the climax of the Ebola outbreak, it is reported that more than 800 new cases of Ebola were being reported on a weekly basis. However, in the past year, the number of reported cases has fallen in countries like Liberia — the country that has seen more Ebola deaths than any other nation.

On the ground level, WHO continues to deploy technical experts in the three most affected countries and engage not only in response but in early recovery and survivor support efforts.

A collaboration between WHO and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) has led to about 4,000 technical experts as well as Ebola vaccination teams being deployed on the ground in more than 70 field sites in the three most affected countries.

Furthermore, WHO highlights that 45 laboratories have been installed since the start of the Ebola outbreak with WHO and the Emerging and Dangerous Pathogens Laboratory Network (EDPLN) supporting 29 of them. All of these laboratories have tested more than 200,000 patient samples.

The Ebola outbreak has shaken the world and caused many deaths. However, thanks to the diligence, dedication and support from volunteers, medical teams, scientists, researchers and many others who have made fighting this epidemic a mission, much progress has been made in containing the Ebola outbreak.

– Vanessa Awanyo

Sources: WHO, UN Foundation Blog
Photo: Flickr

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Tackling Meningitis in Africa with MenAfriVac

MenAfriVacOn Feb. 22, 2016, vaccine experts from all over the world convened in Ethiopia with leaders from the 26 African “meningitis belt” countries to celebrate the success achieved by MenAfriVac, a vaccine created for use in Africa.

The vaccine was developed specifically for Africa and targets meningococcal A meningitis, a bacterial infection of the thin lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis is a highly-feared disease due to its capacity to kill its host within hours. Survivors often experience permanent hearing loss, paralysis or even mental retardation.

“We have achieved something truly historic with MenAfriVac®—creating an affordable, effective, tailor-made vaccine for Africa,” said Steve Davis, president and CEO of PATH, a nonprofit global health organization.

According to PATH, more than 90 percent of meningitis epidemics in Africa attacked mostly infants, children and young adults. To zero in on this specific cause of meningitis, PATH partnered with the Meningitis Vaccine Project and the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the five years that MenAfriVac has been in effect, 235 million children and adults have been vaccinated. From 250,000 cases during an epidemic from 1996 to 1997, to only 80 confirmed cases in 2015, the vaccine has effectively protected millions of people.

However, a resurgence is possible within 15 years if an immunization program is not implemented permanently. Several countries applied for funding to begin implementing MenAfriVac into their national childhood immunization programs. Gavi, a global health partnership that focuses on vaccines, has spent $367 million campaigning and stockpiling the vaccine since 2008 to support these countries.

“Meningitis A was a scourge across Africa’s meningitis belt for generations but today we can be proud that a safe, effective meningitis vaccine is protecting hundreds of millions of people from death and disability,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, Gavi CEO. “But we must not be complacent. It is critical that at-risk countries begin introducing this vaccine into their routine schedules and ensuring every child is reached and protected.”

This achievement could not have been possible without the vital partnerships that contributed to the development of the vaccine. U.S. agencies financially supported MenAfriVac, provided technical expertise and participated in clinical studies of the vaccine.

Continued partnerships could lead to solutions for other diseases around the world and have a positive impact on global health.

– Emily Ednoff

Sources: Gavi, PATH
Photo: Flickr

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Pregnant Women’s Journeys Made Easier

Pregnant Woman's Journey Made EasierIn some developing countries, giving birth does not mean simply rushing to the hospital in pursuit of a doctor. In fact, most women with low-risk pregnancies deliver their baby at home with a trained midwife or trained birth attendant. But for women experiencing high-risk pregnancies, rushing to the hospital could mean traveling 15 miles or more in stressful and unpredictable conditions, which is quite a distance for a woman in labor to travel.

The journey toward emergency care includes many obstacles such as rough, unpaved terrain and unreliable transportation. The harsh conditions of the road serve as a catalyst for the 2.8 million deaths of newborns every year. Similarly, on average, one woman per minute dies due to pregnancy and childbirth.

Fortunately, pregnant women’s journeys are being made easier through the use of maternity waiting homes. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternity waiting homes as residential facilities located near a qualified medical facility, where women defined as “high risk” can await their child’s birth and be transferred to a nearby facility shortly before delivery or earlier should complications arise.

These waiting homes serve as a crucial component in closing the geographical gap between rural areas with poor access to equipped facilities and urban areas with available obstetric care. Their main function is to link communities with the health system in a continuum of care.

However, recent studies show that an increasing number of women do not want to stay in maternal waiting homes because of poor, unsafe and unclean conditions. In response, Merck for Mothers, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Africare in partnership with Michigan and Boston University intervened and encouraged local communities to build and upgrade their waiting home facilities.

In an attempt to improve the waiting home conditions, many facilities have started selling produce and handmade goods to generate income, turning the facility into a community managed enterprise. Once the waiting homes acquire the proper funds, they can begin adequately supporting pregnant women.

Without the acceptance and participation of the entire community, waiting homes are unlikely to succeed. The satisfaction of women staying in the home is an essential part of the facility’s success or failure. The credibility of a waiting home determines whether or not it is worth the trip.

Health services generally benefit from favorable reports and the best way to spread these is by word of mouth, according to WHO. Also, the more a community talks about the provided services, the easier it becomes to identify the services that need to be improved and additional ones that need to be created. If implemented and promoted correctly, these maternity waiting homes have the potential to save lives.

– Megan Hadley

Sources: Impatient Optimists, WHO, Africare
Photo: Flickr

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USAID to Provide Millions in Aid Abroad Through ASHA

ASHAThe U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has established the goal of ending poverty by the year 2030. Contributing to this effort is $23 million in awards that will be released by USAID to 25 countries this year through the agency’s Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA).

The funding will go to “U.S. organizations and their overseas partners to support construction projects and to purchase equipment for 15 hospitals and clinics, six secondary schools, 16 universities, and one library,” as stated on the USAID website. The awards were announced on Feb. 1, 2016, and will be allocated toward global innovation and development.

USAID/ASHA provides assistance to international schools and hospitals. The organization has also served a public diplomatic role in fostering positive relationships between countries. It provides health services and education to over 80 countries and 300 international institutions.

“It is a remarkable honor to play a role in overseas institutions which advance education and health in their countries and around the world,” says Katherine Crawford, director of USAID. The education awards will reach universities in regions of the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.

Among the winners is Ashesi University College in Ghana, which received $700,000 to go toward classroom innovation. This funding will provide students with a rich engineering education that compares to top U.S. universities. Further contributions include the development of educational facilities in Somalia and Zambia.

In Somalia, USAID funding will help create a new science building, an auditorium and more areas for student dining. In Zambia, the award will help build a library that provides educational outreach and innovative programs to more than 35,000 children.

In the area of health, USAID will provide $570,000 in funding to the CURE Ethiopia Children’s Hospital. The funds will be utilized for operating room equipment, training and the delivery of medical care.

Other countries receiving a portion of this funding include India, where labor rooms for six women and a neonatal intensive care unit for 25 children and 45 mothers will become available.

In India, nursing training will also be accommodated by the grant. Medical equipment for maternal and pediatric programs will be made available in Afghanistan along with a diabetes-fighting program.

This grant will continue USAID’s overseas programs in the areas of health and education. USAID seeks to educate and provide care to the globally disadvantaged while promoting innovation in sciences and technology.

Through these awards, ASHA can impact communities and continue to stimulate progress.

– Mayra Vega

Sources: Foreign Affairs, USAID,
Photo: IBT