CRWRC Awarded $1.4 Million Grant

CRWRC Newsroom | October 12, 2009

Through a previous grant, CRWRC helped groups of community members improve the health of children and mothers in Bangladesh.  An estimated 299 children's lives were saved as a result.

The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee was awarded a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID*) on September 30, 2009. The grant will be used to expand and deepen a child survival and maternal health project in one of the poorest areas of Bangladesh for the next five years.
 
“By working through our faith-based partners in northwestern Netrakona District, CRWRC is creating a network of trained community volunteers who collaborate with government health providers and provide person-to-person support for new and expecting mothers and their newborns,” says Alan Talens, a public health advisor for CRWRC.

The result, Talens says, is a successful, sustainable program that makes better health a priority for all family members—and saves lives.

Nearly 250,000 Bangladeshi children under the age of five die each year—just under half of these children are newborns. CRWRC’s innovative model for public health builds on proven methods that increase good health and reduce mortality among the poorest of high-risk mothers and infants.
 
In a previous 5-year child survival grant in the same target area, the number of children who died from preventable disease was reduced by 34 percent—to below the national average. Plus, trained birth attendants or skilled health personnel assisted with all but five percent of deliveries by the end of the first project.  Five years ago, nearly 80 percent of births were unattended.
 
In fact, CRWRC far exceeded the project targets for several initiatives under the previous grant.  This was due, in part, to CRWRC’s use of a well-established community organizing model. The model puts the ownership of health promotion activities into the hands of community members. CRWRC adapted the model for use by its partners in Bangladesh in the 1980s, and the new grant includes funding to test its effectiveness in reaching the poorest community members.
 
Through the new $1.4 million grant from USAID, CRWRC will facilitate training for 1,350 additional traditional birth attendants, community health volunteers, and village doctors. These trained volunteers will then mobilize community members to access health resources and improve health and hygiene practices at home. The program is unique in that creates an “outreach link” between community-based and facility-based health care, and complements government health services. 
 
 “This new grant allows us to continue a remarkable program in Bangladesh,” Talens says. “Together, we are building sustainable public-private partnerships that mobilize poor families to access quality maternal and newborn health services.”

*This program is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). The contents of this news story are the responsibility of CRWRC and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.