Health

Our goal is to improve access to public health and primary medical care in Chin State

Health indicators in Chin State continue to be among the worst in Myanmar. The primary cause of death is from infectious diseases including pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria – most of which are preventable and treatable. Medicines are scarce and expensive and despite there being numerous health facilities, many are empty and all are understaffed.  Due to the distance between villages and towns, patients only travel to a hospital when their deteriorating health conditions are at their worst, with some arriving too late.

The health crisis in Myanmar has been exacerbated by the ongoing effects of the military coup.

Maternal health project 

Our maternal health project supports pregnant women in remote locations with low resources. The long-term goal of this project is to help communities from Western Myanmar develop health monitoring tools, and to improve access to adequate healthcare for members of their community with a special focus on pregnant women and babies. 

Currently, we are working with local partners to introduce the use of a mobile phone app to monitor health data about community members to identify high-risk groups such as pregnant women. The goal is to implement activities such as: 

  • Ultrasound and dietary supplements
  • Regular prenatal check-ups to improve maternal and neonatal health
  • Identify high-risk pregnancies requiring assistance. 

This knowledge gives women more choice and control over their pregnancy and ensures that a trained medical professional is available to deliver a baby and/or transfer high-risk pregnancies to a hospital.

This project being delivered in partnership with Columbia University until 2026.

Community Health & Emergency Response Project

Launched in January 2024, this exciting 2-year project in collaboration with our partners in Myanmar will include:

  • Establishing Village Health Committees to review and prioritise community health activities.
  • Training of over 300 Community Health Workers with a particular focus on maternal, newborn and child health, malaria and sexual/reproductive health.
  • Establishing referral pathways to local secondary health care providers.
  • Supporting & and strengthening community clinics with supplies and essential medicines.
  • Conducting mobile clinics in hard-to-reach areas.
  • Health education.
  • Collaboration with other health providers in the area to ensure good population coverage.

Our Health projects prior to the military coup

Prior to the military coup, from 2008 to 2021, Health & Hope trained 791 Community Health Workers (CHWs), 32 Area Coordinators (ACs) and 126 Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs). In addition, 14 local Trainer of Trainers have been trained who have in turn delivered Maternal & Neonatal health training to 101 TBAs in remote villages. This network of locally trained health workers forms part of the community-led response to health challenges across the region, providing support to a population of 150,000 people across 445 partner villages.

Please click the links below to our projects:

Summary

Since 2008, Health & Hope have trained 791 Community Health Workers, 32 Area Coordinators and 126 Traditional Birth Attendants. This network of locally trained health workers forms part of the community-led response to health challenges across the region, providing support to a population of 150,000 people across 448 partner villages.

Following on from a pilot project in 2016 in Rakhine and southern Chin States to provide in-situ support to these health workers, this project built upon experience in order to:

  • Increase access to health care services through ensuring the network of trained health workers are regularly supported, and receive follow-up training to respond to the changing needs of their local community
  • Build capacity of the network of health workers through health education of local communities enabling them to respond better to their own health needs

Challenge

Southern Chin State and northern Rakhine State are two of the most neglected and impoverished regions in Myanmar. The project area is remote and poorly connected to the rest of the country. Villagers from the project area consist of over fifteen different tribal groups, all facing chronic food insecurity, a lack of educational opportunities and poor health outcomes.

This project aimed to address:

  • The lack of access and availability to health care services for the rural poor
  • The lack of education about health management, sanitation, nutrition, disease prevalence and disease prevention
  • The lack of a sustainable solution for providing health care services for the rural poor
  • Weaknesses in local drivers for change through engaging communities in self-determined improvements, and influencing government provision of healthcare to rural areas

Solution

At the launch of the 2015 UN Primary Health Care Performance Initiative, WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan stated that, “when primary health care works, it can meet the vast majority of people’s health needs”. It has been the long-term belief and experience of Health & Hope that community-owned and led services are the most effective way of improving the health of the rural population in western Myanmar. These services are primarily preventative rather than curative, adopting scientifically sound and culturally appropriate methods of health education.

Health & Hope's community-based model provides regular training for Area Coordinators, who in turn support Community Health Workers in partner villages by giving:

  • mentoring support
  • peer learning opportunities
  • one-to-one health training
  • access to medicines
  • health education campaign material
  • monitoring of health statistics

Funding for this project also meant trained medical staff can receive in-situ training alongside running rural health clinics, in addition to supporting the development of Health & Hope Myanmar's operational capabilities.