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. 

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

The project provided training in life-saving midwifery skills to Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in 24 remote villages in western Myanmar through a team of local trainers . This provided support to a further 180 women each year in pregnancy and childbirth and will facilitate a sustainable change in knowledge, attitude and practice surrounding maternal and neonatal care in rural Chin State.

Challenge

Most villagers in rural Myanmar live a three-four days' walk from a health facility, making pregnancy and childbirth dangerous. In Western Myanmar, only one in two pregnant women will be seen by a trained healthcare working and only 6% of babies are born in a health facility.

Superstitions surrounding childbirth, combined with poor practices and lack of education, have resulted in an under-5 mortality rate which is double that of the rest of the country.

Solution

We provide training to:

  • Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs)
  • Older women who hold status within their communities
  • Community Health Workers (CHWs), who have been selected by village leaders and have previously attended our 6-month training programme

TBAs and CHWs are available 24/7 in each village. Working hand in hand, they are able to address the vast majority of health needs through education and implementing preventative practices. TBAs also provide care for women throughout pregnancy and labour.

The project started in 2013 and has given 126 women from 58 villages the opportunity to attend a bespoke, evidence-based training course, enabling them to support mothers and babies throughout pregnancy, birth and early infancy. To ensure the expansion and sustainability of this project, a ‘Train the Trainer’ initiative was piloted in 2018, assisted by a team of UK-based midwives.

Between 2018 to 2021, 15 local Trainer of Trainers (ToTs) led their own community-based workshops in remote rural villages.  As a result, a further 101 TBA’s and 123 women accessed the training programme. The ToTs are well respected in the villages that they serve and also act as a network for the distribution of Clean Delivery Kits (CDKs) and key medicines, such as pregnancy vitamins, iron tablets and paracetamol, to TBAs.

Firstly I want to say I am very grateful for the help of Health and Hope. Without them and this opportunity my village and others close by would have no access to health care. One situation that stands out for me was whilst walking in the forest looking for elephant yam. I heard a lot of crying in a nearby village. I went to see what was happening. As I arrived I found a mother delivering her baby. There had been a lot of blood loss and the mother was very sick. The father, children and the villagers were all crying. They were just waiting for the mother and child to die as they couldn’t do anything to help. I quickly assessed the situation and was able to help assist and safely deliver the baby and save the mother even though I had no equipment.