We’ve been working on a Community Health Education program for a few months, and are excited to share some of our progress and impacts.  In partnership with Grace Children’s Hospital, our twelve month program strives to improve health knowledge, attitudes, and practices among community members, as well as training Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA’s) to enable safer labors and deliveries.

To date, 19 Community Health Workers (CHW’s) have been trained on health communication techniques and health data collection, and have visited over 150 pregnant women in their homes.  UNICEF and the World Health Organization identify home visits as a vital step in improving newborn survival, and C2C’s home visit program helps to identify high-risk pregnancies- leading to safer births and healthier infants.  The CHW’s have also distributed dozens of antenatal care kits to pregnant women in the community.  The kits include essential items like diapers, blankets, soap, and warm clothing which can drastically reduce infant mortality.

Finally, C2C and Grace Children’s Hospital have continued our “Responsible Motherhood Program”, which awards certificates to women who attend 4 antenatal care visits and are committed to healthy pregnancies.  Future initiatives as part of our Health Education Program include Mothers’ Club meetings at our clinic and targeted outreach to HIV-positive mothers.

This Health Education Program is vital in the community surrounding our clinic, which is characterized by extreme poverty and informal housing.  Our passionate, skilled CHW’s serve the heart of this community to identify at-risk pregnancies and encourage healthy pregnancies.  This direct impact can be seen in our patients who receive care at our clinic and go on to have safe births and thriving babies.  Below, see some photos of the CHW’s at work in Port-au-Prince.