This project will empower the 15,000 members of Crochu to achieve their goals of reducing Cholera and other diarrheal diseases in children. We will do this by engaging the community, training community health workers to manage illness and provide basic life saving skills at the household level, and by providing health education in the community through community leaders, churches, and schools.
Crochu is a remote rural area of Haiti without access to primary healthcare, few governmental services, and until MTI began working there, had no assistance from humanitarian organizations. Cholera rates in the community are higher than the national average at 16%, 44% of children under 5 suffer from diarrhea on any given day. Only 18% of infants are breastfed. Low breastfeeding rates can contribute to a high number of cases of diarrhea in children under age 2.
MTI aims to reduce the incidence of cholera to less than 2%, decrease diarrheal disease from 44% to 20% in children under 5 by 2016. To do this, MTI will support the community in achieving its goals by offering training and health education to community leaders, health workers and traditional birth attendants in the use of latrines, hand washing practices, water treatment, early identification of illnesses, proper management, oral rehydration, and breastfeeding.
Through our community health approaches, the community of Crochu will be empowered to achieve their goal in reducing diarrhea in its children. Because we use a community approach, benefits will extend beyond just children and on to the entire community- creating health for all.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
