Health & Nutrition

The Health & Nutrition” sector program targets enhanced community health, well-being, and improved nutritional status. Central to themes like WASH, health challenges, Traditional Complementary Integrative Healthcare (TCIH), antimicrobial resistance, lifestyle modification, and nutrition, it focuses on strengthening resilience against health threats, boosting nutrition, ensuring access to clean water and sanitation, and promoting well-being. Below are the programs specific-objectives:

1. To strengthen community resilience against current and emerging public health challenges, encompassing both non-communicable and communicable diseases, including water-borne, zoonotic, and vector-borne illnesses, by expanding promotive and preventive healthcare, and system strengthening efforts.

2. To improve nutritional status among the children, as well as pregnant and lactating women, through nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions.

3. To enhance public access to safe water and sanitation by establishing and maintaining suitable infrastructure, while also elevating awareness and fostering behavioral change at the community level.

4. To enhance the physical health and mental well-being of rural and urban adolescents and youth by promoting self-healthcare methods and strategically adjusting lifestyles.

5. To mitigate the prevalence of zoonotic diseases by implementing comprehensive management strategies, encompassing surveillance, early detection, and targeted control measures, complemented by interdisciplinary collaborations in veterinary and environmental sciences.

WASH and health are crosscutting in many projects of CNRS. One of the prime focus of Suchana project is WASH (e.g. behavior change communication on personal hygiene) and Health (formation of community support group for safe transfer of pregnant women to hospitals, awareness on 5 dangers).

Key Highlights of WASH and Sanitation

• Distributed 2,350 hygiene kits (standard hygiene package) to BHHs
• Provided support for maintenance of WASH facilities of 35 schools   
• Conducted 901 cooking and feeding demonstrations
• Provided support to 76 SAM cases management
• Conducted 5,341 Adolescent Life Skill sessions by Peer Leader at community/group level
• Conducted 14,759 courtyard nutrition education sessions with the attendance of lactating mothers, pregnant women and mothers-in-law
• Conducted 2,711 Growth Monitoring & Promotion (GMP) sessions at community clinics and EP
• Provided food plate as an incentive to 1,025 PWs
• Provided support for installation of 8,136 Hand Washing Stations
• A total of 177,715 counselling visits to the PLWs have been paid by trained project staff
• Provided required support to conduct the “Little Doctor Program” in all public primary schools of Bangladesh by using NCD flipchart
• A total of 3 episodes were telecasted on “Bangladesh Television (BTV) Shasthya Kotha” (Health program) on “Safe Vegetables & Fruits Production, Consumption and Marketing campaign”

In the reporting year, CNRS has implemented some projects focused on WASH and Health. WASH and health are crosscutting in many projects of CNRS. 

From April 2021, CNRS has started the implementation work of Resilience for Boat resident communities in the Bangladesh project in the Chadpur district with support from the Korea International Cooperation Agency’s (KOICA). The ‘Resilience for Boat resident communities in Bangladesh’ project has been designed to support the boat-dwelling communities with improved water and sanitation facilities, recognizing their legacies and rights.

The CNRS-Suchana project conducted 901 cooking and feeding demonstrations for mothers and caregivers, provided support to 28 SAM cases management, conducted 5,341 Adolescent Life Skill sessions by Peer Leader at community/group level, conducted 2,711 Growth Monitoring and Promotion (GMP) sessions at community clinics and EP. A total of 14,759 courtyard nutrition education sessions with the attendance of lactating mothers, pregnant women and mothers-in-law were held and a total of 177,715 counselling visits to the PLWs were done by trained SCMs. It ensured at least one counselling visit per month per BHH. As a result of the CNRS-Suchana project initiative, the percentage of pregnant women receiving four antenatal care visits from trained service providers increased sharply. In the reporting year, it increased to 38% from the baseline (14.6%). On the other hand, 92.9% of mothers/caregivers reported hand-washing with soap (or detergent) at, at least, three critical times in the past 24 hours preceding the interview, which was 51.3% during the baseline.    

The Reducing Dietary Related Risks associated with Non-Communicable Diseases in Bangladesh (RDRNCD) project of CNRS provides required support to conduct the “Little Doctor Program” in all public primary schools of Bangladesh by using NCD flipchart. A three-episode documentary on “Safe Vegetables & Fruits Production, Consumption and Marketing campaign” was telecasted on “Bangladesh Television (BTV) Shasthya Kotha” (Health program).