Blog: Health

Monday, September 10, 2018 - 21:51 by Seung Eun Lim

An unforgettable return to Timor-Leste

When Australian doctor Jerry Schwarz was last in Timor-Leste, the country was just emerging from 24 years of conflict and a violent independence referendum.

“I came as a voluntary doctor,” Jerry explained. “There was absolute chaos. There was no medical system or anything.”

In 1999, Timor-Leste voted for independence from Indonesia, a result that sparked mass violence and widespread destruction....

Helping the children suffering this terrible, preventable disease tightening its grip on Ethiopia

By Kebede Gizachew

I can't help but think about my own children as I enter the treatment centre.

The last time my seven-year-old son Eyasu was ill with diarrhea we rushed him to the hospital, clung to his side and searched for a medic to take action. He needed help. We needed him to be free of pain. We needed him to survive.

As the doctors and nurses took over, I carefully watched my son's movements. As he started to recover, I...

Mosul’s children suffer in sweltering camps

By Anna Zuegner, World Vision International’s Program Officer, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Thirst

After spending hours in Hassansham – one of the camps set up for people fleeing the violence in Mosul – all I want to do is drink cool water. Thirst consumes my every thought.

My skin turned red within minutes of my arrival in the camp, despite...

Pneumonia and Diarrhoea: the Biggest Killers for Children

According to the World Health Organization, almost 6 million children under the age of 5 died in 2015: about 11 children every minute. Devastatingly, over half of those deaths are common childhood illnesses that are completely preventable. While these numbers are lower than they once were, they are still unacceptably high. So what is preventing the global community from accelerating progress towards reducing childhood mortality?

Interconnected...

What Is The Big Deal About the Global Fund Replenishment Process - Question Answered

Q&A with Ann Claxton, World Vision's Director of Global Health and Nutrition Resources

What's important to know about the Global Fund replenishment?

World Vision supports a robust replenishment of the Global Fund because since its founding in 2002, The...

Community Health Committees: A Catalyst for Global Health

Contributing Expert: Michele Gaudrault - World Vision Sustainable Health Learning and Development Advisor; World Vision International COMM Project Model Champion

What if the greatest and even smallest of health...

A thousand voices gagged by red tape

By Dr Kené Mark Guindo, World Vision Mali Child Health Now Campaign Coordinator

I stood in the reception of the embassy in Bamako, Mali, anxiously awaiting the judgment of the French authorities. Suddenly, a voice shouted my name, calling me forward to collect my passport. At last! After months of meticulously collecting documents; travelling hundreds of miles to arrange a new passport; attending a...

Hunger is a terror we should fight with faith

My father will be 95 this year and thus was a child during the great depression in the United States. The hunger that he experienced at that time haunts him to this day. You will never see a more grateful person sitting down to every meal. And if there is a single issue he is passionate about it is hunger; most of his charitable contributions are to help the hungry.

What I have learned from my father is that hunger is a terror. While not all of us have...

Making A Difference - a CHW story from Sierra Leone

Author: Magnus Mordu Conteh, Director, Global Health Programmes, Strategic Partnerships & Innovation, World Vision Ireland

Can you imagine how it must feel to save a life? Not as a doctor in a fully...

Cherishing Fatherhood Globally

It’s father’s day this weekend, and I was happy to see my three year old daughter come home from nursery with a father’s day card. We put in an envelope together with some photographs and posted it this afternoon, one of many efforts to engage her father as she grows up. I’m a single mother, and have been from an early stage in her life. On top of that I work full time as a technical advisor for World Vision, and am frequently deployed to countries around the globe...