Over 280,000 Children Left Unimmunized, But Kano's CoP on Immunization is Turning the Tide

Community health workers are stepping in to deliver essential healthcare services where conflict has destroyed local health facilities. These locally-trusted health workers conduct door-to-door visits to provide immunizations, screen children for malnutrition, refer emergency care and offer mental health support to those who need it, bridging gaps where traditional services can’t operate.

Over the past several years, Lithuania has implemented a comprehensive national strategy to combat high suicide rates by shifting from a medicalized approach to community-based support. One such strategy is Sidabrinė Linija, or Silver Line, a nonprofit offering free support to isolated seniors by matching them with a “befriender” who shares some of their interests. Since its inception, Silver Line has befriended 6,000 seniors. As a result of combined efforts from multiple initiatives, Lithuania’s suicide rate has dropped from 44 per 100,000 residents in 2004 to 19.5 per 100,000 today.

The Saving Lives and Livelihoods Project tackles vaccine access barriers in hard-to-reach communities by bringing immunization services directly to families on farms and in remote camps with trained mobile health teams. Since the work began, immunizations have increased in several areas, and children who were previously overdue have since been vaccinated.

Traditional birth attendants provide maternal care to women in hard to reach areas. With government help through the Mama2Mama program, several TBAs are undergoing training to provide safer, more effective maternal care.

Doctors Without Borders treats malnutrition in areas of Nigeria facing food shortages due to violence and insurgency. When safe, it runs a mobile clinic to provide basic health care, including nutritional support, particularly to children. When communities are not safe enough to enter, the organization trains community members in basic patient care and provides them the tools to run basic tests and treat malnutrition. Community health workers are also trained to treat patients, dispense medications, and educate caregivers about child nutrition.

In Bauchi, Nigeria, Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services (CHIPS) conduct home visits, screen for hypertension, and detect tropical diseases in communities where healthcare is hard to access. In Bauchi alone, the program has screened over 1.2 million people, identified approximately 54,000 hypertensive patients, and treated 67 cases of neglected tropical diseases within a single year.

Local organizations are working with the Department of Health and UNICEF to eradicate polio in Taraba state. By collaborating with community leaders, they’ve been able to spread positive information about polio vaccines, encouraging more families to vaccinate their children.

Street medicine is breaking down barriers to healthcare access that unhoused individuals face. It brings healthcare directly to them, rather than expecting them to navigate the system on their own. This type of care emerged in Pittsburgh in 1992 and has since created a national network of 85 U.S. cities, 15 countries and five continents. Chicago Street Medicine, specifically, serves about 4,000 patients a year, with the help of its 600 volunteers.

DEAN Initiative's Youth Health Access Initiative addresses healthcare misconceptions among young people through targeted community outreach, educational workshops in local languages, and training programs for healthcare workers. The initiative specifically addresses myths that Primary Healthcare Centers are only for pregnant women and children, and that health insurance is only for the sick, helping to increase healthcare accessibility.

After sudden U.S. government funding cuts jeopardized South Africa's HIV programs, Limpopo's Hlokomela Clinic quickly reorganized around existing resources, training community health workers to identify and encourage farm workers to visit still-operational clinic sites for HIV testing. By leveraging volunteers, they partially offset the impact of losing their dedicated HIV testing outreach team and program funding.