Improving access to preventive healthcare in Haiti: A community based approach

In the mountains of Léogâne, Haiti, preventive health care is rarely thought about. Only 28 percent of women had at least three prenatal visits during their last pregnancy. Modern contraceptive rates are low. Children with completed vaccination schedules are almost non-existent due to unavailability of vaccines. The Children's Nutrition Program of Haiti (CNPH) has been working in this environment for thirteen years in the area of childhood malnutrition. In 1998 when the organization was born, the global acute malnutrition rate was 24 percent. In late 2010 it had dropped to less than three percent prompting a re-evaluation of the organization's mission. The scope of CNPH's programs was broadened in 2011 to include both maternal and child health and nutrition.

Monthly rally posts are now run in every village in the mountains of Léogâne. Through a collaborative partnership between CNPH, the Haitian Ministry of Health and UNICEF, access to preventive care has been brought to the rural communities. CNPH's nutrition and women's health workers labor side by side providing vaccines, prenatal care, family planning services, growth monitoring of children under five years of age, prevention messages delivered through skits, micronutrient supplementation, mosquito nets to pregnant women to help prevent Malaria in Pregnancy, and blood pressure checks for all. Preliminary data have shown increased uptake of services and better maternal and child outcomes.