Health and Nutrition

What we want to do:

We want to see all children, under the age of 5, and all women of childbearing age to enjoy better access to health care and appropriate nutrition. We are working towards this by:

• Increasing the number of children who are protected from disease
• Increasing the number of children who are well-nourished
• Ensuring children and their caregivers have access to essential health services

What is the problem?

Insufficient food intake and the lack of knowledge regarding proper nutrition for pregnant women as well as ignorance of proper infant and young child feeding practices put children and their mothers at risk of not receiving the nutrients they or their children need to grow. This is exasperated by a shortage of qualified health personnel and cultural behaviors that often prohibit women from receiving quality prenatal care.

How is World Vision addressing the issues?

We are working with communities and the Ministry of Health in Senegal to strengthen the community-based 
health system and increase access to qualified health care for isolated and vulnerable populations. In fact, all children between birth and 5 years old are can now access healthcare free of charge thanks to a new policy put in place by the government.

World Vision is signed up to this vision and will play a role in the major projects of the Ministry of Health and Social Action in Senegal by means of its health programs. Thus three flagship interventions that appropriately address the main tenets of the National Plan for Sanitary and Social Development (PNDSS) 2019 – 2028 (PNDSS) have been readied for roll-out across seven medical regions covering 19 health districts: 

1. Improving the nutritional status of children under five;
2. Developing mutual health insurance for universal access to health services;
3. Setting up and strengthening health development committees (CDS) to improve governance and accountability. 

Is what World Vision doing working?

Yes, the implementation of model projects at program level, incorporating health projects such as the Strengthening of the Health System Plus (RSS +), the Nutrition Strengthening Program (PRN), the Integrated Nutrition Project in the Kolda and Kedougou Regions (PINKK), TB-Tuberculosis, Neglected Tropical Diseases (MTN), and SENWASH have all enabled us to achieve the deliverables listed below, partly thanks to the formation of a big national coalition but also through coordination with our operational partners, namely the medical regions, the administrative and local authorities and the communities. 

The aim was to make these projects operationally fit-for-purpose using participative and tailor-made community initiatives (SPC: Growth Monitoring & Promotion; MAM: Moderate Acute Malnutrition; CVACI: Integrated Community Alert & Watch Committee, CRC: Community Restitution Framework, VADI: Integrated Home Visit). 

What’s the impact?

The interventions cited above gave rise to the following results: 

• 158,866 children received nutritional care, including 81,202 boys and 77,664 girls; 
• 64,882 people gained access to basic services, WASH (water, hygiene and sanitation) including 44,635 children in vulnerable areas; 
• 313,738 sick children under the age of five benefited from the free health care initiative under the Universal Health Cover Act (CMU), ie 87% in our program areas; 
• 122/122 health mutuals supported and assisted to function, ie 100%; 
• 56/56 health development committees supported and established, ie 100%.

*Numbers from 2019