What is Action for Family Health?
Every year in Latin America, more than half a million children die, one-third of their deaths attributable to five easily treated or prevented illnesses: respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, malnutrition, measles, and malaria.
Action for Family Health is a community-based program that works to improve family health in the Caribbean and Latin America by addressing these diseases among children. The program was first implemented by CMMB in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Catholic healthcare networks and health ministries in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Today, Action for Family Health continues in Honduras, Haiti, and Peru (see: Unidos Contra la Mortalidad Infantil for our program in Peru).
The IMNCI Strategy
The Action for Family Health program works through the tireless efforts of community health promoters, trained to identify these five diseases as part of a strategy developed by WHO and UNICEF, the Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses (IMNCI). Through IMNCI, children brought to participating clinics receive comprehensive care, with an emphasis on disease prevention through proper nutrition and immunization.
In Action: Haiti
CMMB has been implementing the IMNCI strategy through Action for Family Health since 2003.
In addition to directly implementing a UNICEF-funded IMCI program in the Sud-Est Department in Haiti, CMMB provides technical support to programs in Cite Soliel, a Port Au Prince slum. Through our mobile clinic, we are able to reach thousands of individuals in the rural Artibonite region who would otherwise be without any medical services. CMMB works closely with on-the-ground partners, including the Daughters of Charity and Salesian Sisters. We assist in the procurement of medicine and medical products, conduct IMCI and pharmaceutical training for health workers, and lead monthly health rallies and mothers' clubs which focus on immunization, vitamin A supplements, and education for pregnant women and new mothers.
By collaborating with the World Health Organization and the Haitian Ministry of Health, CMMB adapted the Community IMNCI manual for use in Haiti.
By the Numbers: 2010
Children receiving care: 4,806
Healthcare providers trained: 71
Community healthcare worker home visits: 7,137
Number of active mothers' clubs: 72
