Wyman Worldwide Health Partners

WWHPS in Action: CCHIPs in Rwanda

Selected Readings

This is a call to the living,

To those who refuse to make peace with evil,

With the suffering and the waste of the world.

This is a call to the human, not the perfect,

To those who know their own prejudices

Who have no intention of becoming prisoners of their own limitations.

This is a call to those who remember the dreams of their youth,

who know what it means to share foot and shelter

The care of children and those who are troubled,

To reach beyond barriers of the past bringing people to communion.

This is a call to the never ending spirit of the common man,

His essential decency and integrity,

His unending capacity to suffer and endure,

To face death and destruction and to rise again

And build from the ruins of life.

This is the greatest call of all

The call to a faith in people.

From: Algernon D. Black, former senior leader, New York Society for Ethical Culture

Congratulations to Ro Wyman and CCHIPs for receiving

Promotional Programs

To improve existing programs and develop additional programs to deliver essential promotional services

A group of mothers learns how to prepare a healthy meal at a weekly Cooking Demonstration, sponsored by CCHIPs.

The lack of proper nutrition, hygiene, and sanitation in local communities is a driving factor behind community-wide illnesses. CCHIPs helps the health center staff more effectively implement Ministry of Health policies and protocols to operate preventive care outreach programs in their communities. Many of these programs are based on the Rwandan government’s well-conceived policies covering programs in vaccination, family planning, health and hygiene/sanitation, nutrition, and mental health. Some examples of programs we have helped implement include:

- Environmental Health: Improve hygiene and sanitation at the health center and in the community by educating the proper stakeholders and helping to conduct outreach programs. Use health center staff to improve hygiene, sanitation and waste management at the health center. Use Community Health Workers and local businesses to educate community members on proper practices and the benefits of proper hygiene and sanitation.

- Nutrition: Decrease under-5 malnutrition in a cost-effective and sustainable manner by supporting regular weighings of children in the community, weekly demonstration cooking and educational classes for caregivers of Red and Yellow children, and promoting Kitchen Gardens for the poorest families. Currently transitioning educations to be the responsibility of Community Health Workers. (Color based on a Ministry of Health weight-for-age scale.)

- Psychosocial: Increase the availability and effectiveness of treatment for psychosocial issues by developing a system of integrated psychosocial interventions at the community-level.

Jean Bosco instructs Community Health Workers on how to identify psychosocial cases in the community.