AID grant to World Relief Corp. for a program in child survival

In Haiti, WRC aims to improve the health status of 5,000 women of child-bearing age and of about 4,000 children under age 1. To this end, WRC will establish eight rally posts and related dispensaries in each of the four regions in the Hopital Lumiere area. The dispensary will be staffed by a Ministry of Health auxiliary who will conduct immunizations for children under 5 on a bi-monthly basis at all rally posts. The rally posts will be governed by a local health committee and supervised by an animator in cooperation with volunteer health promoters who will be trained in ORT, nutrition, FP, and growth monitoring and who will in turn teach these strategies to mothers. The promoters will also promote breastfeeding, maintain basic family health records, and provide Vitamin A supplements to children at nutritional risk. In Bangladesh, WRC, operating through its Bangladeshi counterpart, the Christian Service Society, will develop a child survival program in five service centers in the Khulna area; the program will serve some 15,000 women of reproductive age and 14,000 young children. The project will form health teams composed of 3 village health workers (one male and two females) and train them (using WRC-developed curricula) in ORT, nutrition, pre-and post-natal care (including the use of traditional birth attendant birth kits), growth monitoring, basic hygiene, FP, and functional adult education. The teams will instruct local mothers in these areas and also provide simple curative measures. All children under 2 will be fully immunized, and all children will receive Vitamin A supplementation. Women of reproductive age will receive tetanus toxoid immunizations.