Defeating Childhood Diseases

Watch to see how Ugandan CHW Scovia is working to ensure children receive uninterrupted care despite COVID-19

Millions of children die every year because they lack access to medicines that cost less than a few dollars. Living Goods trains and supports community health workers to educate families to prevent the leading causes of child mortality: malaria, diarrheal disease, and pneumonia, including education about water, sanitation, proper nutrition, and ensuring families seek care promptly when children are sick. When a child falls ill, CHWs provide prompt diagnosis and treatment using our smartphone app, and several simple questions reliably guide CHWs to an accurate diagnosis. The app sends automatic daily text reminders to ensure patients complete the full course of treatment and also flags acute cases for immediate referral to a qualified facility. CHWs follow up on referrals within 48 hours to ensure the patients received proper care. We focus on children under five–particularly newborns and children under one–who are typically at greatest risk. Some CHWs also sell low-cost, high impact health products, such as treated bed nets to prevent malaria and water filters to stop the spread of diarrheal disease.

Watch our Smart Health app at work with our pneumonia diagnostic workflow.

The Latest

Update

Story of Impact: Community health saved lives during the crisis

February 15, 2021

COVID-19 has overwhelmed health systems worldwide, leading to worrisome drops in essential health services for preventable, yet deadly diseases. Many facilities in Kenya and Uganda…

MALARIA: CHW treatments or referrals increased 99% in Kenya’s malaria-endemic areas and soared 138% in Uganda. Malaria is also a pandemic and represented 16% of…

DIARRHEA: CHW treatments or referrals increased 46% in Uganda and 48% in Kenya in 2020. Diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of deaths of…

PNEUMONIA: CHW treatments or referrals increased 62% in Uganda and 42% in Kenya. Pneumonia is the single largest cause of infectious disease death for children…

IMMUNIZATION: A greater number of children received life-saving vaccinations. Within Living Goods-supported CHWs’ catchment areas, the number of children completing necessary immunizations increased 11% in…

FAMILY PLANNING: Couple-years protection (CYP) per CHW increased 39% in Uganda, averting 15,070 unwanted pregnancies in 2020. Since family planning counseling is sensitive and often…

MATERNAL AND NEWBORN HEALTH: 94% of Kenyan women and 90% of Ugandan women supported by a CHW gave birth at a health facility. Given the…

Reports

Living Goods 2020 Year-End Report

February 15, 2021

Living Goods and BRAC respond to surging need for critical frontline care for families in Uganda

January 21, 2021

KAMPALA, UGANDA —BRAC and Living Goods – the two organizations supporting the largest networks of frontline community health workers in Uganda – have announced an…

Update

Commemorating the Anniversary of the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 and Reaffirming Living Goods Support for Commitments Made

January 19, 2021

In 2019, the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 convened over 8,000 individuals in diverse sectors from 170 countries to affirm support for reproductive health and rights.…

Our commitment is to support the Kenyan and Ugandan governments in attaining their commitments to the three zeros by expanding access to high-quality primary healthcare…

 In Uganda, we are supporting the government’s commitments to 1. Promote Universal Access to all methods of family planning and reduce the unmet need for…

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