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.
Since 2008, Health & Hope have 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.
Click the tabs below to find out more about our current projects.
You can read an update on the work and what has been achieved so far in the Latest News section of our website.
Our initial response to the COVID-19 outbreak has seen our local medical team:
- Launch a COVID-19 joint task force with local churches and organisations to reduce travel in the region, practice social distancing and reduce the number of public meetings
- Invite health officials to present information about COVID-19 to villagers
- Release videos in local languages providing health education to multiple tribal groups across the region
- Teach proper hand-washing techniques to the local community
- Set up the Health & Hope training centre as an emergency response unit to support patient referrals to hospitals outside of Chin State
Our COVID-19 Response project now focuses on a three-stage strategy:
- PREVENT
- DETECT
- RESPOND
The work is being delivered through our network of Community Health Workers (CHWs) and local medical team. It focuses on supporting 143 villages in southern Chin State, covering a population of over 53,000 in 9,750 households.
Stage 1: PREVENT
The primary focus of the PREVENT stage between April - May 2020, covered health education in local languages, setting up of hand hygiene stations, supporting self-isolation of patients in the village and supporting CHWs with infection control measures when reviewing patients.
Stage 2: DETECT
The DETECT stage provides support to CHWs to report signs and symptoms of community members with remote and in-situ support from the local medical team.
Stage 3: RESPOND
The final stage, RESPOND, provides for continuing education, monitoring of self-isolated patients and compassionate transport and referrals for patients that require hospitalisation.
