World Health Day

World Health Day (7 April) marks the start of a campaign titled Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures focusing on helping every woman and baby survive and thrive.

So how can pregnant women and mothers with babies in conflict settings, often forcibly displaced, and exposed to deadly diseases and other threats be best supported?

The protracted humanitarian crisis in Central African Republic, ongoing insecurity and reduced access to healthcare services puts pregnant women and mothers at extreme risk.

Since 2008, MENTOR has been supporting activities in the worst affected regions to improve access to healthcare and prevent diseases, mainly through a network of trained community health workers.

But there were limitations to effectively supporting women have safe births and better maternal health because the community health workers are mostly male, which was a deterrent for many women in accessing health services.

So, we trained women in the communities as Female Focal Points to increase access to treatment and promote health and hygiene through information and education.

Imbeti Claudine, a female focal worker in Beboy village near Paoua, explains more:

“I was recruited by MENTOR to encourage positive behaviour changes in my community and help improve people’s health. Our training focused on malnutrition screening, maternal and child health and the promotion of infant and young child feeding.

I can testify to behavioural changes because we have a much lower maternal and infant death rate after we highlighted the importance of going to the health centre quickly for treatment when people became ill.

When we screened for malnutrition, most of the children who were ill turned out to be malnourished and were sent to the health centre for treatment. We made pregnant women aware of the importance of pregnancy monitoring by going to antenatal clinics at every appointment.”

With the nearest health centre over two-hours walk away, Female Focal Points like Imbeti are one solution to ensure women get timely support and information to have safer pregnancies and births.

💡 Increasing maternal support in conflict-settings has never been more urgent, as global aid cuts significantly threaten progress and risk ‘backsliding’ according to the WHO and other agencies who today published the UN report Trends in maternal mortality. It says:

“Without urgent action, the agencies warn that pregnant women in multiple countries will face severe repercussions – particularly those in humanitarian settings where maternal deaths are already alarmingly high.”

Read the report here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gHC-vTRX