What is Healthy Village?
Children are healthier when the entire community is committed to safer hygiene, nutrition, and health practices. Positive change is better sustained when communities work in tandem with local government, private sector, and civil society voices.
That’s why, with Healthy Village, we engage all stakeholders in a village to tackle undernutrition and stunting in children under five.
The first 1000 days from conception until a child’s second birthday are the most crucial to determining a child’s wellbeing. That’s why, besides children, we also focus on boosting the health of women and adolescents – their potential mothers and (future) caregivers.
By having access to safer water sources, better hygiene facilities and health services, as well as increased nutrition and food security, the intergenerational cycle of undernutrition and stunting can be prevented.
How does it work?
Healthy Village empowers community leaders to advocate for the essential services from government and to demand for products they need from entrepreneurs;
Healhty Village builds the capacity of entrepreneurs to create demand for and supply health products;
Healthy Village provides local governments with the dataThis data comes from regular community learning sessions where parents bring their children for assessment. Necessary measurements are taken and progress charted against milestones. It is here that parents get guidance and share tips on how to continue improving child care. The positive progress of other children encourages parents that it is possible to change and to want the same for their own child. to help them identify and prioritise intervention areas with tools such as the Healthy Village tracker.
Healthy Village enables peer learning and accountability amongst community members, which encourages parents to want to see their child do better.
Our results
Together, villages improve their water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as their nutritional intake and healthcare. As each household embraces this change, the market for healthy products starts to grow, and local government adopt policies that positively affect these communities. The health of children – as well as adults – across the village starts to improve.
When at least 90% of community members adhere to hygiene and sanitary practices, consistently monitor child growth, and commit to providing adequate nutrition for mothers, adolescents and children, the village attains the “Healthy Village” marker.
We have been successful with this approach in rural Bangladesh, where stunting rates halved during the time of the programme.
We are continuously learning and adapting the Healthy Village approach for different contexts and in collaboration with partners that are specialised in different areas of knowledge and share our vision to give all children a healthy start in life.
Partners
